Garry McBurney thought he wanted a hot tub when he walked into Aqua-Tech headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but was singing a very different tune when he walked out some time later.
"It was a bit of an accident. I went in looking for a hot tub, but things somehow went from that to me looking at a bunch of swimming pool designs," McBurney told the Winnipeg Free Press. "Most of the designs were a bit generic, so I gave some thought to what would work for me."
That’s when things got interesting, McBurney said.
"I took my idea to Joe Urmos, who heads up Aqua-Tech’s design team. When I first showed it to him, I could see him thinking, 'Is this guy serious?’ He was very respectful and kind of humored me. But he saw that I was serious, so he said he’d do his best to see what he could do."
McBurney, an ardent guitar collector, had decided he wanted a guitar-shaped pool. And not just any guitar-shaped pool, but an exact replica of one of his favorite instruments, a Les Paul Custom.
Urmos said that while it took some time to wrap his head around the concept, he eventually concluded it was possible to pull off. "Basically, we can do any shape or size of pool, but it’s the first time someone had come to me with a design that intricate and involved. What Garry wanted to do was definitely something very different, but we felt we were up to the challenge."
Aqua-Tech’s co-owner, Glen McGillivray, said McBurney’s guitar pool is likely the most labor-intensive project the company has undertaken. It took roughly six to eight weeks to plan and another six to eight weeks to build.
"For example, the pool liner was made with a special vinyl ink for the guitar strings," McGillivray told the Winnipeg Free Press. "And at the end of the pool, grey concrete was poured to mimic the tuning pegs. It took a ton of planning, something that was made so much easier by the amazing computer program, Pool Studio, Joe uses to design pools."
The stunning result is a pool that looks exactly like a 62-foot-long Les Paul Custom guitar, down to the last detail. And McBurney is ecstatic about his rock 'n roll oasis.
"There’s no way it could have turned out any better than it did," he said. "Every detail is perfect."
