An Italian guitar maker has crafted three electric guitars out of a redundant Lagavulin barrel.

The guitars were built by Andrea Ballarin, of Manne Guitars in Schio, 10 miles North of Vichenzo in north-eastern Italy.

Andrea Ballarin said: "We, just like they do at the distillery, started from very few and simple natural raw materials, and to get the desired result, we simply had to master the procedures and components, time and knowledge, controls and experiments.

Now time plays for both an important role, aging the whisky under the effect of its cask, while the instrument develops it's tone also ultimately controlled by its player

And what is the result? Wonderful sensations. A tool for creating music should inspire and let the musician go deep into the essence of it to receive and offer to others all of its pleasure. Tasting a superb whisky is a creative experience that incorporated the world of flavours and tastes, and these lead us to memories and sensations.

Both music and sensory experiences are something that transcends words and explanations... they are both universal languages. They can be very complex but at the same time essentially very simple: Just feel it!"

The weight and rigidity of the oak posed several technical challenges for Andrea and his team.

"After the wood was dried we started to work on the project to solve various problems due to the dimensions and condition of the wood. The heads, the two round, flat-sided ends  of the cask, were ideal for creating the back of a guitar body, retaining  the original surface with the distillery's stencil.

Then the curved  staves that make up the sides of the cask, were flattened and glued together to create the tops. The charred, inner side of the staves was planed flat leaving burned traces on the finished material.

The oak is very heavy, pretty similar in consistency to the European ash that is often used. We decided to multi-chamber the guitar, both on the inner sides of top and body, to make it more prone to vibrations and lighter in weight.

Once the body was shaped and sanded, we created the effect and the feel of old worn wood, with an oxidized patina and the effects of warehouse dust and rust from the hoops. All hardware was antiqued to match the body finish style.

Three instruments have been built from the one whisky cask: two Guitars and one Bass. The two Guitars incorporate the cask heads, while the Bass is made entirely from the oak staves.

Two of the guitars, the Taos and the Moab, will be put on sale, and the third will go back to Lagavulin in time for this year’s Islay Festival. Let's hope they play Smoke on the Water.