[3D Printing Application] Entering the Music Industry! 3D Printing a Playable Electric Guitar!

[3D Printing Application] Entering the Music Industry! 3D Printing a Playable Electric Guitar!

For this 3D printing, we used the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D Printer! Let's go over the production steps in detail below:

• Easy to assemble, without complex assembly of dozens of parts. • No metal bars or other unnecessary hardware for reinforcement.

Simple and clear
The most important concern is the force exerted by the strings on the guitar body and neck, which, depending on the string size (thickness), can be approximately 50 kilograms. This 50 kilograms of weight could break the guitar in two, tear the bridge from the body, and severely bend the neck . Therefore, using a real wooden neck is essential to prevent this from happening .

While you might say this guitar is no longer a "fully 3D printed" piece, the neck is a critical and vulnerable part of the guitar, and if I wanted to print it, the entire project would be affected (although that's possible). The wooden neck is very smooth and straight, with a durable metal flute and an internal adjustment bar for adjusting the embossing (concave or convex bowing).

Solving the bridge problem requires more consideration . The bridge of an electric guitar is a small metal component used to secure the lower end of the strings. It is usually fixed to the body with a few screws. If we look at the most common guitar designs, one bridge might seem particularly suitable for a 3D- printed guitar. Can you guess which one it is?

Aside from a common guitar design, all other guitars have very small bridges, sometimes secured with just two screws. However, the Telecaster bridge is different! This large metal plate not only secures the bottom strings but also integrates the bottom pickups and features up to five screw holes spaced far apart, which better distributes the leverage effect of the bridge across the entire metal plate and the underlying printed components.

Hardware selection
Since we've chosen to use the Telecaster bridge , we must procure all the components. Generally, there are three ways to solve this problem:

1. Buy a cheap Telecaster guitar, then disassemble it to find parts.
2. Purchase all parts separately.
3. Purchase Telecaster hardware kit

Buying a fully functional guitar only to take it apart immediately seems like a mistake and a waste. It's only a good idea if you find a badly damaged guitar, but whose hardware and neck are still intact.

Buying all the parts individually is definitely a viable option. You will need

1) Guitar neck with tuner
2) One independent single-coil pickup
3) Bridge with integrated single-coil pickup
4) Telecaster control panel with 3-way switch and two knobs
5) Output jack

The problem is that buying these parts individually would be expensive . Even if you choose the cheapest option, it could still cost several hundred dollars , so the T-shaped electric guitar kit was ultimately chosen .