I absolutely love DiY guitar projects. Seeing what other people do in this medium is fun! From Guitarz.Blogspot.com, we now have the world’s first self strumming guitar:

So this is a Squier Stratocaster I ruined in the name of science! I fitted it with a self strumming mechanism I designed and built from scrap parts of a printer. To accommodate this mechanism I have had to cut away some fairly large sections of the body to the point where I was concerned that there wasn't enough body left to counter the tension when it is strung up. For this reason I bolted some pieces of metal box section to the back to give it back its strength.

I think it’d be difficult to have it strum in rhythm, but the idea of just simply playing chords and letting the machine do the work is actually quite appealing:

Also because of the space the self strum mechanism takes up I have converted this from a 3 pickup guitar into a single pickup guitar with a volume control.

The self strum mechanism is powered from a 9v battery via a pulse width modulation driver circuit.

I think he’s right on the money with making this about art rather than function:

Think of this a piece of mechanical art rather than an instrument you would use every day, putting all silliness aside this thing with a bit more development could actually be useful one day to a person who has either lost or lost the use of an arm. I'd like to sell this to fund further development into the concept. Check out the following video to see me building this contraption and to see it working.

Mad props go out to this guy for making this! You can buy it here.