Sounds like an odd title, doesn’t it.  That was my thinking when it came up on one of the remodeling shows on DIY.  What can you do with a musical instrument?  The two primary uses that were shown were to convert them to lamps or arrange them into a piece of wall art.

Before you consider using an old instrument you have stored away somewhere, please be sure that  the instrument is no longer playable nor easily repaired.  Instruments are so expensive today it would be a waste of resources to destroy a working instrument that could be donated to a local school program.

Instruments are easy to find at weekend flea markets if you don’t have an unusable instrument.  Two lamps were shown on the program, one from a clarinet and another from a saxophone.   The projects to convert these to lamps were uber simple.  You need to purchase a light kit and shade and identify your base material.

The light kit includes a cord, light switch, lamp socket and harp.  These are sold at most home improvement stores for less than $20.  Most of these same stores sell lamp shades as well.  The bases used on this show were scrap wood cut into an appropriate size with a routered edge.

The largest cost variable for these projects were the cost of shades which can be all over the cost spectrum.

The project begins by determining the method of attaching the base and lamp socket to the instrument.  The base looked to me the easiest buy screwing and gluing the instrument to the base.  A hole was drilled at the bottom of the instrument to accommodate the electrical cord.  Both the instruments left off the pieces containing the reeds to allow for the attachment of the lamp socket.  In the program they used glue to attach the lamp socket.  I would be concerned with the lamp generating enough heat to melt several types of glue .  To me a better attachment would be to mount the lamp socket to a round piece of scrap metal and attach the scrap metal piece to the instrument with set screws.  Once the lamp socket is attached it is a simple task to mount the harp and attach the shade.

Both the sax and the clarinet made stunning lamps.  A french horn would be another good alternative but the best repurposed  musical instrument I’ve seen was an old upright piano that had been converted into a bar.  The sheet music rest wood was removed to expose the harp of the piano.  A manufactured stone shelf was attached in the opening and lighting was added inside to show off the harp as well as the bottles and glasses located on the new shelf.

The piano may have still been playable since the key were not effected with the other work of the project.  Part of my memory for this piece was the finish of the piano.  The crafty people who did this conversion glued old sheet music on the piano such that non of the original piano finish was showing.  Once the sheet music was dry the used several coats of urethane to make a smooth shinny surface.

While these are some examples, all instrument represent craftsman workmanship of one kind or another which would be a shame not to celebrate by reusing.