The Zoybar 3D Printed Guitar

It seems there is growing interest in 3D printed musical instruments. After the amazing 3D printed flute  we now see another 3D printed guitar: The Zoybar TOR. This funky item is composed of a small number of parts (three) printed by Shapeways.

 

Designed by Bård S D, this item is not available for sale at Shapeways, although you can still read the description and there are many more pictures available at Zoybar.

 

Via Shapeways, The Creators Project and Zoybar

Decades-Old Custom Guitar Scanned

Imagine designing amazingly intricate, one-of-a-kind electric guitar bodies years ago - and now wishing you could document your work while you still can. 

 

Then Imagine trying to produce a detailed 3D model of the guitar shown in the image here - with conventional measuring tools. Yep, you'd be there a very long time, and it definitely wouldn't turn out well. In fact, low-end optical scanners couldn't even do the job properly. 

 

Enter GKS, who provided high-precision laser scanning equipment. Their equipment can scan as many as 75,000 points per second at a resolution of as low as 0.005mm. after three hours of scanning. they had a monstrous amount of data describing all the nooks and crannies of this groovy item. But that wasn't the end of it: they had to do another three hours of model cleanup to produce a tidy 3D model suitable for printing on a CNC machine. 

 

After half an hour on the CNC machine, a duplicate was ready - made of a "rare mahogany wood". Evidently 36 copies are planned. 

 

Via LaserDesign

Printing Musical Instruments

Tipster Jb pointed us at a video of a rather startling project: Printing a complete musical instrument. In this case, MIT Media Lab researcher Amit Zoran attempted to print an entire and working flute in one operation.

We're not sure if printing an object of this complexity has ever been attempted before; we've seen some items with moving parts, such as nuts and bolts, hinges, joints, etc. This feat involves not only producing the moving parts, but also ensuring that the integrity of the entire "system" is sufficient to produce beautiful music. According to Zoran:

Our goal is to produce a flute using 3D printer technologies, a flute that is compatible with a traditional concert flute both acoustically and ergonomically.

And they seem to have mostly achieved their goal. In the video, you'll see a puzzled flute player actually producing music from the object. While not a perfect result (some of the keys weren't quite right), the project has overcome a number of challenges:

• Printing a complex design involving multiple moving parts
• Achieving air-tight surface joins suitable for musical note production, using soft material
• Producing the right physical "feel" for the musician using different materials (a key feature of the Objet Connex500 3D printer used in this project)
• Ensuring "perfect" sounds, at least according to flutist Seth Hunter

The 15 hour print involved producing 4 parts, which with some non-3D printed springs were assembled into the final flute. Examining the video of the actual print on the Connex500, we see huge amounts of support material used, which is inevitable given the amazing number of movable parts and overhangs in the complex design.

Nevertheless, there were a few snags that we suspect will be fixed in this ongoing project, such as key spacing for improved ergonomics and beefier design for the areas subject to wear. The project also envisions designs for musical instruments that are entirely new, possibly leading to new forms of music in the future.

All said, this is a huge feat that we greatly admire. Think about it: you can now print a very complex instrument - on demand! If this can be done, what will be next?

Via YouTube (Hat tip to Jb Labrune)

Print Your Guitar

Every one of us is a specialist in something, and our belief is that great things happen when different specialists intersect to combine the expertise from different disciplines. One such collision recently took place at RedEyeOnDemand, a popular 3D print service.

It turns out that Tim Thellin and several co-workers at RedEye are hobby musicians, and they decided to put the two skills together. They experimented with different guitar styles and build materials, and eventually came up with a variety of interesting instruments:

It started out as a gimmick to build something really different that would stand out for use at tradeshows. So, we made our first two telecaster style guitars out of PC-ISO and ABSi red materials. The sleek, translucent look of the PC-ISO only added to its rigidness and durability. Then, we chose ABSi red to build something in a different color that we could send to Stratasys' European sales office for use as samples and at their tradeshows. We quickly learned how easy it was to create custom designs with intricate geometries using the FDM technology.

We couldn't stop with single color projects, so we worked on a truly custom design and build a double S-shaped guitar for Stratasys using ABS black and blue. We further enhanced the complexity using PolyJet Clear and Vero White for the knobs.

To accomplish this, Tim first purchased an actual guitar so that he could reuse the non-printable bits as well as get some hints about dimensions and layouts. The video shows some of the process undertaken and the resulting rather unconventional guitar. Future designs are limited only by their imagination.

Amazing stuff, but we're wondering whether this opens up a legal question: what happens if someone buys an object and then precisely copies it? Could that be considered "personal use" by means of making a "backup copy" of the object? Whose Stratocaster is that?

Via YouTube and RedEye On Demand

Radiohead Data Becomes a Head!

About a year ago, Radiohead released a great video of "House of Cards", much of which was singer Thom Yorke's face and head illuminated by teeny points of laser light. Very inventive, for certain, but they went a step further: Radiohead released CSV files the point cloud on Google Code for public access under a creative commons license.

It took a while, but recently Thingiverse user Serratiago used the data to print Thom Yorke's head! We're not quite sure what this means philosophically, when a music video becomes a physical object, but it's something to ponder.

And it's a great song, too.

Via Thingverse, Google Code and Creative Commons

More Acoustical Objects

Architectradure reports on yet another experiment with sound making devices produced by 3D printing technology, following up on our recent acoustical post. In this experiment, designer and engineer Amit Zoran has produced a unique guitar by assembling parts designed with software and produced by a 3D printer. Using specialized software, Zoran designed chambers suitable for optimal production of sounds, as can be seen in the picture above.

With the discovery of at least two experimenters in 3D print acoustics recently, it appears that sound may indeed be another area of interest for 3D printing. While some may say that current 3D print technology produces only fragile objects, it is clear that there are still many uses for these objects.

Via Architectradure