The "Fish-Caster": The Guitar With a Real Piranha Inside

Some guitars have flame maple tops. Some have mother-of-pearl inlays. This one has a... piranha?

Meet the "Fish-Caster," a guitar truly like no other. This incredible instrument looks more like something you'd reel in on a bad day at the lake, and it plays like something you'd plug into a half-stack!

It Started With a Sketch

The idea began as a simple drawing. Bobby Stirling and Greg Self of Stirling & Self teamed up with Luis Orozco of Gepattos Guild on the fin -tastic project, pulling together equal parts luthier skill and taxidermy nerve.

Their goal was easy to describe and very hard to do: put a fish inside a guitar and make it rock.

The Problem? The Piranha Was Too Thick

A Telecaster body is famously thin. A piranha is not; it's a deep-bodied little predator built like a dinner plate with teeth.

So the team did the only thing they could. They sanded the fish down! A power sander, a preserved piranha, and a smell nobody involved is likely to forget.

Sealed in Blue

Slimmed to size, the piranha was set into blue-tinged resin alongside an old lure and a chunk of oak, giving the finished panel the murky look of river water.

The hardened block was then secured to the thin body of the Telecaster.

Start to finish, the build took four months. What the team ended up with pulls double duty: a guitar that rocks and a tribute to their love of fishing. Not bad for something that started as a doodle!

See It in Wired Into Weird

The "Fish-Caster" is one of the many oddities featured in Ripley's brand-new annual book, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Wired Into Weird , packed cover to cover with unbelievable stories, jaw-dropping photos, and artifacts you have to see to believe.

It's available for pre-order now . Get your copy before it hits shelves this fall, and find out what else made the cut.