Perhaps not THE coolest thing I've ever seen...

[major_clanger]

... but it has to be in the top ten.

The Imperial March, played on a giant Tesla coil:

(Starts at about 45 seconds in; alt link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJqoRaphiEk)

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

All the sound is actually due to the Tesla coil?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yup. Probably not much to do with the guy in the armour though, since I've seen stuff like this done by arcing between two coils. Lots more examples on Youtube.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Yes, see explanation on the Zeusaphone.

I see that beamjockey features in the explanation of how it got its name, which surprises me not one bit.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Frack, rather him than me!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

That made my day!

[hatusu.livejournal.com]

Very cool. I bet Lucas uses the idea.

[hatusu.livejournal.com]

or maybe John Williams. :-P

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Thank you for my daily dose of WTF.

The low-resistance suit he's wearing is pretty interesting. I think it's issued to power workers for use on live high-tension transmission lines.