Mark Wood (in front) and Sam Orr (behind) credit – supplied by Mark Wood

Over the years, GNN has reported on multiple creative ways to infuse the ashes of cremated loved one into meaningful objects, whether a tattoo, a vinyl record, or an elegant stone.

Now, English media have reported on a man whose inlaid his father’s ashes into the fretboard of his guitar, saying “will still be with me at all the shows.”

37-year-old heavy metal guitarist Mark Wood learned to play the ax from his father, Keith, who passed away at the age of 68 from a heart attack on Christmas Day, 2022.

Keith was a retired school teacher, and used to travel hundreds of miles to attend his son’s gigs where they would often “have a beer and a catch up,” Mark said. His passing left a hole in the family of 4. Mark’s sister used some of her dad’s ashes to make jewelry, which gave him the idea of doing the same for the dotted inlays along the neck of his Fender Telecaster guitar.

Typically made with mother-of-pearl, or cheaper imitations for entry level guitars, the inlays are both decorative and functional, serving mostly to mark out the spaces of a whole step—i.e. the space between two notes, on the fretboard.

Mark had never heard of anything like that being done before, but he knew exactly who to call. His friend Sam Orr runs Sam’s Guitars in Cheshire, who mixed the ashes with a special glue to form the inlays.

“At first, I was just wondering how it would work, then the more I thought about it and did a few test runs on a spare guitar neck I had, I realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to complete it,” Mr. Orr said, according to the BBC.

Sam Orr working on the fretboard – credit Mark Wood, supplied

“We put some music on in the background and had a couple of beers and made a thing of it,” Mark said. “Sam did the work while the shop was shut and was so caring and careful and really respectful.”

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It took Mark a little while before he felt emotionally ready to play the guitar, but when he did, he admitted it felt amazing. He strummed out “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent, a song his father loved and taught him to play when he was younger.

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“I wish dad was still here but doing this makes me feel like he’s always going to be here with me and you have always got your memories,” Mark said.

“This way he will still be with me at all the shows and this has given me a sense of closure.”

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