Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. But Professor Utonium accidentally added the Chemical X. This is how the Powerpuff Girls were born. And if the superhero girls were to play a guitar, they would definitely play an unbreakable one. If ever there was one…

But wait! Sandvik Coromant—together with international agency Forsman & Bodenfors—did a little magic in their creative lab. Besides sugar, spice, and everything nice, they not-so-accidentally added some recycled stainless steel to the formula, and they brought to the rock world the first 3D-printed guitar that is literally invincible. Now, this is something that not even the little powerful girls can’t smash!

Maybe Swedish-born guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen would break it!? Well, you’ll find that out after you watch a video that accompanies Sandvik’s latest campaign, made by the Göteborg-based agency. The global engineering company has made the world’s first smash-proof guitar so that it could test its cutting-edge techniques. That’s why the brand invited the Swedish rock star to try to break the guitar by unleashing his notorious smashing skills.

In the short film, viewers can see Malmsteen playing the guitar in front of an excited audience in a rock club outside Miami. When he finishes his concert, he usually does his very best to destroy the guitar. But will he succeed this time? Find out by yourself: “This guitar is a beast! Sandvik is obviously on top of their game. They put the work in, they did their hours, I can relate to that,” Malmsteen unveiled. “The result is amazing,” he continues.

Being a world leader in material innovation and manufacturing, Sandvik engineered the smash-proof guitar to demonstrate how advanced, precise, and sustainable its techniques really are. “We don’t make products for consumers, so people don’t realize how far in the forefront our methods are,” says Klas Forsström, President of Sandvik Machining Solutions. “Creating a smash-proof guitar for a demanding musician like Malmsteen highlights the capabilities we bring to all complex manufacturing challenges.”

To bring the durable-guitar concept to life, Sandvik engineers put their heads together with renowned guitar designer Andy Holt, of Drewman Guitars, while they also focused on matching Malmsteen’s expectations, musical standards, and his fast playing style. “We’ve had to innovate from the top down. There’s not a single part of this guitar that has been made before. It’s a piece of art, really,” Holt said.

Any guitar’s weak point is where the neck joins the body. But for the world’s first unbreakable guitar, the company solved the problem by milling the neck and the main hub of the instrument’s body in just one piece. “You could use the guitar as a hammer and it wouldn’t break,” Holt said.

“Collaborating like this, working together to solve even more complex problems is key for the future,” said Tomas Forsman, product development specialist at Sandvik. “Our customers’ challenges continue to grow more and more complex. We need to bring our expertise to work hand-in-hand with our partners and customers to invent new ways of meeting those challenges.”

Do you think you could smash the world’s first all-metal guitar? Are you the King Arthur of the unbreakable 3D-printed ‘Excalibur?’ Let us know your opinion by sharing it in the comment section below!

Credits:

Client: Sandvik Coromant

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors