I kind of get the apparently-meshing gear trains, and the various gears applied not nilly-willy, but in definite design patterns. That makes it not so much a glue-gears-on-and-call-it-steampunk work, buuut ... it IS a bit excessive. I mean, wouldn't all that extra moving-part stuff kind of rattle and interfere with the electromagnetic field that drives an electric guitar?
I've thought of making a sort of electrified "steampunk" banjo, but I tend to shie away from the idea of largely-decorative components that run a high risk of getting caught on clothing or knocked off by whangs and the other flourishes that a live performer engages in to whip the crowd into a more excited state (Yes, even us Old-Time and Bluegrass types do stuff like that, lol). Things that are just there to look cool and act like a working gear train, to my mind, fall into the category of "gewgaws-that-come-loose-and-rattle-and-catch-on-your-clothes-at-the-worst-possible-moment.
Then again, I'm just an old, gray banjo frailer with delusions of grandeur, so what the blazes do I know? (lol)
