From battleship to guitar: Lincoln craftsman finds new purpose for historic wood

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - It combines music, history and a good cause together. A Lincoln man, Phil Whitmarsh, is helping to fund the repairs of the famous USS Texas by making electric guitars from its deck wood and allowing the Battleship Texas Foundation to auction them off.

It started as a passion project during the darker days of the pandemic, taking pieces of history and making them sing. Now, plenty of blood, sweat and splinters later, what started as deck wood from a ship that saw action in both world wars will make music wherever it goes.

“It’s so gratifying to see the final product and know that it is an instrument that can be played and enjoyed,” Whitmarsh said. “It takes the life-cycle of the material to the next level.”

They don’t look or sound like your typical, glossy music store guitars, and that’s the point.

“Part of the beauty of these instruments are the nail holes,” Whitmarsh said. “They are the cracks and holes that have been filled in.”

For Whitmarsh, this began with a hypothesis: that the rich history of a piece of wood can change its sound. He’s working on guitar with wood from Oak Island, an area scoured for treasure and believed by some to be cursed, for a similar reason.

“Whether it comes from factory wood or print shop wood or a homestead, the spirit and the memories of that place and those faces go right into the hard drive of the wood, if you will,” Whitmarsh said.

Phil has two guitars ready, and at least one will get auctioned off to help the USS Texas as it undergoes $35 million worth of repairs.

Whitmarsh will be sending one of those guitars down to Texas in a month. He hopes to get more wood from the Battleship Foundation so he can make a series of guitars.