World's First "Nanoguitar" Modeled After the Fender Stratocaster

by Tom Watson

In 1997, Cornell University professor of applied engineering and physics, Harold G. Craighead, and his doctoral student, Dustin W. Carr, created the world's smallest guitar, the "nanoguitar" -- approximately the size of a single cell -- 1/20th the width of a single human hair.

Most of the literature regarding the nanoengineering that led to the creation of this tiny instrument states that it was "roughly" modeled after the Fender Stratocaster. As seen in the image below, it appears they chose a dual humbucker lefty instrument and reshaped the headstock.

While this first nanoguitar was "theoretically" playable, its successor, the Flying V, is in fact "playable" and can be heard in soundbytes offered in a recent online press release (press release box: Sounds of the nanoguitar [Admittedly not great music]).

Although the Flying V nanoguitar has been recorded, the Stratocaster version still holds the record as the world's smallest musical instrument, the size of the V being 1/2 the width of a human hair.

Below: scanning electron microscope photo of the first nanoguitar. This image won the award for best scanning electron micrograph at the 41st Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication Conference in May of 1997.

Below: the playable Gibson Flying V nanoguitar created at Cornell University in 2003.

For further information:

New 'Nanoguitar' Strums in Future