Recycling Musical Instruments & Parts

[mutepointe]

Have you ever done anything interesting with a musical instrument after it was no longer usuable as a musical instrument? Have you ever used parts of an instrument for something else?

[HDSarah]

I have an instrument recycled as visual art.

A friend gave me an old mandolin of his. He said it is unplayable and not worth fixing, but that it would be lovely on a wall of my log house. It hangs there as a decoration, and occasionally frustrates a mandolin player who tries to take it down and play it.

[Lambchop]

No, but thanks for asking!

[MTGuru]

Firewood?

[Denny]

whistles....tent pegs

[s1m0n]

I have a six key Bb fife that's destined to be a lamp or something one of these days, even though lamps made from dead instruments aren't really my style.

[Innocent Bystander]

You mean like this?

Generally it's the other way with me. I make plumbing-pipe into whistles and flutes. Although I prefer plumbing pipe that has not been in use.

[brewerpaul]

We got a free Gulbransen organ via Freecycle.com . Turns out that free was too much to pay, as the thing wasn't really fixable. It ended up in the dump, but I saved the full pedal board and eventually intend to mount it as a wall decoration in our basement family room.

[dwest]

I hooked up a vacuum motor to an old pump organ we found abandoned, we gave it to a restorer once the boys were done with it. I'm sure all that crayon eventually came off.

[s1m0n]

You mean like this?

Generally it's the other way with me. I make plumbing-pipe into whistles and flutes. Although I prefer plumbing pipe that has not been in use.

This is a very strong contender for 'best in show'.

[dolphinjon]

I bought a violin for $25 one time because I wanted the case and bow for my electric violin. The violin that came with the kit was so useless that I was ready to throw it in the trash. Then I realized it'd be a great autograph item, so I've been getting it signed by my favorite artists. So far, I've got the signatures of everyone in Enter the Haggis, and Rachel Barton Pine!

[Nanohedron]

Have you ever done anything interesting with a musical instrument after it was no longer usuable as a musical instrument? Have you ever used parts of an instrument for something else?

When my uilleann pipes' bellows outlet stock (or blowpipe inlet stock, whichever) blew up I took the ebony blowpipe base from a bad set of mouthblown smallpipes, cut it to size and expanded the bore with a rattail file, cut a section from an old forgotten whistle tube (don't remember the key of it) and drove that on to the new beast as a ferrule just in case, wrapped it, and plugged it in. Dunno how interesting that is, but it worked, and by looking you can't tell that it never was set up that way from the start.

Other than that, not so much. Oh, wait: I have a guitar string stapled to the cat tower, bead end out and sproingy, as a plaything for herself.

[dwest]

Other than that, not so much. Oh, wait: I have a guitar string stapled to the cat tower, bead end out and sproingy, as a plaything for herself.

Guitar strings are great things! I braided a guitar string(silver plated) ring fer ma wife when we was courting, she only wears it for special occasions as the inside don't look much like silver now. The high E is good for bite leaders for toothy fish, Muskie.

[mutepointe]

I would like to see that braided guitar string ring. That sounds interesting.

I started a thread over in the traditional string instrument forum. this is what I posted there: I save the little bead thing from guitar strings. I've been saving those forever. I've used them in a few necklaces. I could have spit at first when D'Addario went to those colored beads. Now I have way more than enough of those to make a rosary with a different color for each decade. I use guitar strings and I would consider it a great favor if there was a bass player who would send me their beads the next time they change their strings. Those beads are a size bigger. I would like to use those beads for the Our Father beads. I'm going to use a guitar pick for that middle triangle place where everything comes together.