Steampunk + Guitar = Fantastronomical Win

I've been doing some research on guitars lately since I hope to buy one before I leave to Alaska (in 19 days!!), and while stumbling around some corner of the internet I found what are in my opinion the coolest guitars in the world, made by a guy named Tom Cochran.

This guy takes one of my favorite niche art aesthetics, steampunk, and applies it to guitars.  The resulting combination is the best thing since Copernicus Reese mixed peanut butter with chocolate.

Steampunk is a genre of art and literature that combines modern technology with Victorian era style and technology.  The phrase "what the past would have looked like if the future had happened sooner"  describes it pretty well.  The movies Wild Wild West and Van Helsing are examples of steampunk style.  Think monocles and top hats and put that with gears and robots and that's steampunk.

I've always dug steampunk stuff hardcore and have seen people do a lot of cool modding to make modern things steampunk (like this or this or this or even this!), but these steampunk guitars blow everything else out of the water in terms of sheer coolness.  Most of them are for sale (some have been sold), but with the price tags averaging around a hefty $3200, for right now I guess I'll have to settle for staring at these awesome pictures with my mouth open while drool puddles on my keyboard.   Feast your eyes on the images below and then visit Tom's site for more.