Thursday, January 22, 2009

Fender Stratocaster Pizza Peel....


The Fender Stratocaster Pizza Peel

I recently got an email from Ron, who told
me about an unusual peel he made...

Ron wrote: I too am somewhat of a pizza fanatic.
I use an 18" Weber kettle
grill with a 16" Old Stone Oven stone and fire it with a 185,000 BTU
Cajuncooker. I also made a pizza peel fashioned to look like a
Fender Stratocaster guitar.

{Albert's Side Bar: Musicians who have played a Fender Stratocaster include: Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Mark Knopfler, Dick Dale, Prince...}

Now I have seen some unusual pizza devices,
but a peel in the shape of a
Fender Stratocaster guitar was a new one on me.
(To see what an actual Stratocaster looks like, peek here.)

I immediately had to see it!

This pizza peel makes you want to Rock and Roll!


As soon as I saw The Stratocaster Pizza Peel,
I knew I had some questions for Ron.

Albert: Are you a wood worker?

Ron: I used to work construction and woodworking has always been one
my fields of expertise. I simply do woodworking as a hobby now as
my job isa civilian field representative in an electronics shop for the
Air Force.

Albert: How did you come up with this idea?

Ron: One day I was passing through my neighborhood and one of the
neighbors was having a yard sale so I stopped in to take a look. He had a
Fender amplifier for sale so I bought it and replaced the jacks to
make it serviceable. I then built a guitar and figured that would make
a really neat pizza peel. I made the patterns and then made a few
proto types before I came up with the finished product. It's very close to
the size of an actual Strat.

Albert: How much did it cost to make? How long did it take?

Ron: I would guess that it only cost about $25 to make but there was
a lot of sanding and I also inlayed the frets and scale markings.

The toughest part was sanding the main body down to less than 1/4". I just
used a belt sander for that job. The whole process could be automated
and be performed quite efficiently. It was fun making something that
no one else has.

I don't really know how long it took me to build. I would just work on it for an hour or two at a time when I felt like it. I don't have any plans to make them commercially as that would take all the fun out of it. It's like making pizza, if you start doing it as a
job instead of a hobby it somehow looses it's allure.


Albert: What do your guests say when you cook a pizza with the Strat?


Ron: Everyone loves the pizza Strat. I moved to Germany last October and when the movers unpacked my household goods they saw the Srat and asked me if I could make one for him as he worked as a pizza man at the local pizzeria.

I think everyone likes it because it's so unique and who doesn't want to secretly be a rock star?

Albert: Are you a musician?


Ron: I'm not a musician and can't play the guitar to save my life. I
did make another pizza guitar in the shape of a Gibson SG. It was the
original pizza guitar prototype. It's not as neat as the Strat. I made
the neck out of maple and glued that onto a pine body. ...

Albert: Thanks Ron on behalf of pizza makers everywhere. You certainly have taken the pizza peel to new levels.


Fender Straocastor Pizza Peel
Side view of the Fender Stratocaster Pizza Peel



For a more traditional pizza peel, go to:








Rock out and make pizza,

albert grande
Pizza Therapy: Pizza on Earth...
Legends of Pizza