"and their spears into pruning hooks... drumsticks?

May 3, 2006 12:14 AM

Six String Shooter. "What we want to create is an invitation to an attitude of change," [Cesar López] says. "It says a lot of different things — but the main idea is that weapons can be changed from an object of destructiveness to an object of constructiveness." Swords into plowshares axes, Music from Menace, Music Out of Madness.
posted by weston (5 comments total)

I can't imagine these sound too fantastic, despite the claims made for them. And I'd be a bit lost playing one without the body of the guitar on which to rest my strumming arm ... But I do like them as a visual statement.

I saw about at year ago, at the British Museum, an exhibit of African sculpture created from decommissioned gun parts, and that was pretty impressive ...
posted by bcveen at 1:09 AM on May 3, 2006

Life imitates art?
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:20 AM on May 3, 2006

Why wouldn't these sound good? They'd probably be heavy and solid enough to have good sustain and the tone would depend largely on what kind of pickups were used.

It's gotta sound better than this violin, no matter how cool it looks.
posted by lekvar at 11:58 AM on May 3, 2006

"Don't stop after beating the swords
into ploughshares, don't stop! Go on beating
and make musical instruments out of them.
Whoever wants to make war again
will have to turn them into ploughshares first."
-Yehuda Amichai (trans. from the Hebrew by Glenda Abramson and Tudor Parfitt), "An Appendix to the Vision of Peace."
posted by ericbop at 2:00 PM on May 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

Why wouldn't these sound good? They'd probably be heavy and solid enough to have good sustain and the tone would depend largely on what kind of pickups were used.

Yes, but even on an electric, the body still plays a major part in the sound quality. Compare, for example, the composite body of an Epiphone Les Paul to the Standard or Studio versions. They just don't resonate the same, even if the former is upgraded with better pickups, and I can't imagine what's essentially a rod of metal with some wood bits attached would do any better. Still, as visual art pieces, I can appreciate them. Hell, I'd love if I could get my hands on one ...
posted by bcveen at 4:15 AM on May 6, 2006