Michigan Man Builds Guitars out of Reclaimed Wood from Old Detroit Buildings
Imagine, for a second, if the city of Detroit could sing... if the buildings could create their own sounds, sing their own tunes... what would it sound like?
The cool thing is, you don't have to wonder. The old buildings of Detroit are singing, and doing it beautifully through the work of Wallace Guitars.
They literally bring out the "Sound of the City" with their creations, repurposing wood from old buildings in Detroit, and turning them into some of the most beautiful guitars you'll ever see.
In fact, we covered one of their guitars recently, a Custom "Pure Michigan" piece that raised thousands of dollars for a non-profit in the state.
Mark Wallace Started Wallace Guitars in 2014 to "literally build guitars from Detroit History." Every piece of wood his company uses comes from dilapidated, abandoned, or destroyed Detroit buildings, some of which date back more than 100 years.
Wallace has a whole story on their website about the wood they use, and how special wood was back when these buildings were built, and how it's much stronger, and more resilient than some woods used today to build guitars. And all of the wood is "harvested" responsibly. No piece of wood will be taken from a building or home that could be renovated or restored.
The majority of the wood they use is salvaged from heading to landfills.
As for the guitars, how do they sound? Well...
Pretty good I'd say.
All of them are hand made and crafted from the wood, with modern pickups and hardware. Wallace says the woods they use for their guitars is responsible for the unique tone and sound they develop - something you can only usually get from classic, older guitars.
But aside from the tone and sound, MAN are these things beautiful.
Seriously, Mark is doing some incredible work, building beautiful instruments that SOUND amazing, and he's preserving history of the city he loves. It doesn't get any more passionate than this.