Thought experiment: What would a real steampunk guitar look like?

[Jarret]

I'm talking about one constructed from scratch without modern technologies and plastics. I keep thinking it'd be so big and power-hungry that it'd resemble a keyboard or a massive typewriter when you're done with it. Sling it over your shoulder and play so as to retain the cool factor, but I'm not sure if strings could work if the processor was on the other end of a wire. Your rudimentary signal wiring is attached to the real guts of the thing- a clockwork calculator and computer, and your signal sampler and amplifier. All possible with Victoriana and steampunk tech, but still... thoughts?

[Stirling_Cycle]

I'd start with one of thesehttp://www.catfishflats.com/images/National2.jpg Steel Resonator Guitars and go from there

[Vincent Théière]

Early pick ups weren't plastic at all and very steampunk-ish.  All you really need to do is look at the earliest ones and there you have it.

[Smaggers]

Big fat wound coils are plenty steampunk enough, early electromagnetic experiments were early 19th century.

[TristanRenn]

Like this:

but with better body lines and brass hardware.

[Paul 8v]

I imagine the frets would be connected to big valves like on a pipe organ which is powered by steam

[Atterton]

Probably something like what he is playing in the Young Enstein movie.

[akumabito]

Big sexy hand-wound coils! w00p w00p w00p!

[Klynt Mahryd]

For the main body, something like we have now. but clunkier with various vacuum tubes, coils and wires sticking out, as well as a larger "amplifier" that would hold most of the stuff needed to run the thing., with large brass tubes and speakers coming out of it

[Smaggers]

Or like the stroh Violin, only more guitary obviously.

http://www.digitalviolin.com/StrohViolin1.html

[Klynt Mahryd]

Or like the stroh Violin, only more guitary obviously.

http://www.digitalviolin.com/StrohViolin1.html

Yeah, I was thinking of something like that, maybe a little bit more sinister looking.

[Prometheus Culier]

What would the function of the new components be?   And how many new components does one add, or how much does the form factor change, before it isn't really a guitar anymore, but a new instrument entirely?  E.g., a "Culierophone."
 
A guitar is, at its essential heart, a particular arrangement of six strings, which vibrate; a fretboard of a particular length and width, to control the length of those strings, so as to control the frequency of vibration; and some form of resonator (whether acoustic, electric,  or some other means) to amplify the vibrations to the point of being useable sound.

So...define some change that is arguably steampunk in nature, while still retaining the fundamental characteristics of a guitar, and there is your change in form factor. 

I'm wondering what it would sound like if you attached the canonical guitar fretboard to a great big brass pipe instead of a wooden guitar body?  What if you then pumped air or steam through the pipe, perhaps as an acoustic coupling to another resonating chamber?  (If any of you play jaw harp, think about the difference between breathing while playing or not.  Breathing couples the air stream to your chest, so it gets much louder, but the air rushing past the steel tongue becomes "whooshier.") 

What other uses can you think of for steam (or air or whatever) to be applied to the instrument?  What other technologies could be applied without turning it into something other than "a six-stringed fretboard of a particular size, which is plucked or strummed."...?

[Vekk]

     Without delving too far into the definition of the guitar or trying to stay true to it's firmly established roots of the string instrument family. 

I would imagine a Steam punk guitar in a Neo Victorian aspect wouldn't follow the traditional look or sound of a guitar and could possibly just mirror it out of respect. I picture something like a Theremin scaled down to sit over the hips, and sling over the shoulders. A heavy distortion would be added to the effected sound.

Aside from that being too far out of the box I would have to agree with most everyone here on the aesthetic choices. Just a bit of food for thought.

[Jarret]

I mentioned a typewriter because I think a truly steampunk resonator would be too large to sling and play. So perhaps striking the right keys, i.e. finger positions, triggers an electrical signal to the apparatus that is nearby.

[Klynt Mahryd]

I mentioned a typewriter because I think a truly steampunk resonator would be too large to sling and play. So perhaps striking the right keys, i.e. finger positions, triggers an electrical signal to the apparatus that is nearby.

Wouldn't that create a steam-keytar? 

[groomporter]

Or like the stroh Violin, only more guitary obviously.
http://www.digitalviolin.com/StrohViolin1.html

Instruments like the Stroh horn violin can still be bought. Lark in the Morning Music carries a couple versions, they also carry a bunch of other odd traditional instruments that might be inspirational.
http://larkinthemorning.com