What to build with old instruments?

I'm looking for some ideas for what to do with a 2 guitars and bass that have a ton of sentimental value, but no actual value. They are things I bought and used in bands as a teenager, but are unplayable today. I have moved them all over the place as an adult due to their sentimental value but have never done anything other than either hang them on the wall or stick them in the closet.

The first guitar is a Cort, plywood bodied, weird-o angled guitar. It was my very first guitar and in 1992 I thought it was the coolest thing at the pawnshop in Parkersburg, WV. The neck was a log and it never stayed in tune. It was a really crappy guitar but I didn't know it at the time. However it was cheap, and I was able to buy it on payments earned from bailing hay during the summer. After buying a strat knock off I took this guitar apart and lost all the hardware sometime around 1997. It had dual humbuckers and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to fill the bridge with Bondo and spray paint it orange. It is nothing but a body and a neck.

For reference, this is not the guitar but it is the same awful shape.

The second guitar is a Cort, plywood bodied, strat copy I bought to replace the guitar above. This would be the second guitar I ever had but the one I used in the most bands and at the most teenage gigs. I quit playing guitar in bands by the time I was 19 (Focusing on drums and bass because I was much better at those) but I kept this around to noodle on my own. This was the guitar I took to Ohio State to annoy my roommates. It didn't play too bad but the pickups were horrible. At some point the head stock was split in two and glued back together. The tuners have been long lost but the rest of the guitar is in one piece with all the hardware.

The final one is a Montoya P-Bass knockoff I bought for 50 bucks in 1994. This was the only bass I had from ages 16-24 and I used it for many gigs. It also played for crap and by the time I quit using it the neck was so twisted intonation and tuning were mere suggestions that were often ignored. If you try and tune it now, the tension of the strings visibly bends the neck and you end up with enough gap you could pass a slice of Texas Toast between the fretboard and strings.

So these "instruments" have been reduced to art, just hanging from the wall. As I move stuff into a new house, I feel I should do something different with them. Make a table, lamp or carburetor adapter from them. Something other than just hanging them up. None of them are worth spending any money on to try and make them usable. Plus I don't really have a desire to play them (pick any 99 dollar guitar up at a Big Box store and its light years ahead of these things).

I figured there might be some good ideas from the board. What would you build out of 3 junk instruments?

I grew up in Parkersburg and my in-laws still live there. I was just there right before Christmas. The lady who used to live next to us growing up had a son who owned a Pawn shop in town.

No ideas on what to do with them, but I'm thinking on it.

Find some old photos of yourself playing at a gig as a teenager. Scan them and convert to black and white. Have a sign shop blow them up to life size stickers you can put on the wall, then wall mount the guitars in the proper location.

My first bass was an Ibanez TR70 that I sanded the gel coat on and painted it auto primer gray with handpainted flames and hot rod stickers down the back. It was stolen from my BIL's house years ago. Or more likely pawned by his wife.

EDIT: like this with ol Bruce cut out of the background and a real guitar hung on top of the photo. And like, you, not Bruce.

DOUBLE EDIT: or use this image and paste in your head from the yearbook. That would be HILARIOUS!

You should build something like this:

Put them in wall cases like this: http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Display-Cabinet-Lockable-Mahogany/dp/B002V174ZU

You could make them for pretty cheap. A good friend has his guitars displayed like this in his living room and it looks great and give the room a good vibe.

In reply to EvanB:

That would be perfect for my Winger cover band.

Too bad I quit playing tuba when I moved up from Texas or I would be all over it.

Another option: Somehow fix at least one of them and press it back into service?

http://www.guitarfetish.com/ is your friend here.

If they are truly FUBAR'ed, then the guitar display case with some shots of you playing in some nice frames might be cool. I can't really frame my drum kit since I still play the thing, but I do have an artsy black and white pic taken during a show by my friend's art school girlfriend (now wife) that I have framed.

ultraclyde wrote: Find some old photos of yourself playing at a gig as a teenager.

This is the only shot I know of the Montoya in action.

I like the idea of photoshopping my face on a poster of Robert Trujillo

Basil Exposition wrote:

When I was in music class in high school, there was a loaner guitar you had to play if you forgot your instrument. It was called the El Kabong. Nobody forgot their instrument twice.

As a youngster when anyone would ask me what to do with a useless piece of dross cluttering up the floor , my standard reply was "Make a bong out of it."

I've seen a knife store where they put a magnetic strip along the neck, hung the guitar on the wall and used it for knife storage.

Put them back into service. Spend $100 each on new pickups, then learn how to be a guitar tech.

Otherwise, when I get a kegerator I want two handles--one a Martin headstock, the other a tele.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

That's not a knife, it's a axe

logdog wrote:

That is awesome!

That lamp would be more stable made out of three instruments.

Any hobby store has the round plywood table kits that you could use for a base, and another circle at the top would give you something to mount the fixture to.

Coffee table.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Ohhhhh. I really like that idea. Using just the bass neck would be perfect!

Basil Exposition wrote:

That may in fact be why they are not worth fixing as instruments anymore....

TRoglodyte wrote: As a youngster when anyone would ask me what to do with a useless piece of dross cluttering up the floor , my standard reply was "Make a bong out of it."

How did we survive before the inter web was made...

Practical ideas:

Less practical ideas:

An RC version of this

Keith Tanner wrote: I've seen a knife store where they put a magnetic strip along the neck, hung the guitar on the wall and used it for knife storage.

That's at least $2500 worth of professional grade knives there. I wouldn't display my cooking knives on a Strat neck unless I was also an Iron Chef grade rock star in the kitchen!

In reply to WildScotsRacing:

Maybe do a similar thing with the magnetic strip, but use it to hold wrenches in the garage.