Some of those hand made instruments are really surprising. Up to now, I've built two guitars and an amp and was quite impressed by their sound, especially since I had no idea what I was doing when I built them (well, almost no idea).
I've started to come to the conclusion that just about anything with strings can be "playable" to some degree.
About 10 years ago, there was a band called "The Presidents of the United States of America" who almost won a grammy using only instruments that were highly modified. They had a 2 string bass and a 3 string guitar. And out of that came some pretty contagious riffs. And their videos were ever so funny (like Mach 5 and Volcano).
Anyways, glad to see you enjoyed.
I for one can't have Christmas without Bing Crosby... it just wouldn't be the same