A adherent of the building philosophy of luthiers Travis Bean, Marc McElwee and John Veleno, Kevin Burkett's custom guitars sometimes have similar quirks—split headstock and machined aluminum necks with wooden bodies. “I cut my teeth on building years ago by repairing and restoring Travis Bean guitars,” he says. “I really like bringing them back from the dead. They are just super cool guitars.” Unlike his predecessors, however, Burkett takes the metallic-element guitar to another level. He builds guitars with aluminum bodies (Hulett T6061) and necks (Alcoa T6061) with stainless steel frets that come loaded with EGC custom pickups. His aluminum and Lucite models have found fans in bands like Mastodon and The Melvins.