[3D Printing Application] Entering the Music Industry! 3D Printed Playable Electric Guitars!

【3D Printing Application】Entering the Music World! 3D-Printed Playable Electric Guitars!

For this 3D print, we used the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D Printer! Here are the detailed steps for creation:

• Easy to assemble, with no complex assembly of dozens of parts
• No metal rods for reinforcement or other unnecessary hardware

Simple and Clear
What people are most concerned about is the force the strings exert on the guitar body and neck. Depending on the string gauge (thickness), there's approximately 50 kg of load. This 50 kg of weight can break the guitar in half, tear the bridge off the body, and severely bend the neck. Therefore, a real wooden neck is used to prevent this from happening.

While you might say this guitar is no longer "fully 3D printed," the neck is a critical and fragile part of the guitar, and printing it would compromise the entire project (though it's possible). A wooden neck is very smooth and straight, has durable metal frets, and an adjustable truss rod inside to adjust for relief (concave or convex bowing).
 
Solving the bridge problem requires more consideration. The electric guitar bridge is a small metal part that holds the lower ends of the strings. It is usually secured to the body with a few screws. If we look at the most common guitar designs, one type of bridge might seem particularly suitable for a 3D printed guitar. Can you guess which one it is?
 

Except for one common guitar design, all other guitar bridges are very small and sometimes secured with only two screws. However, the Telecaster bridge is different! This large metal plate not only holds the bottom strings but also integrates the bottom pickup and has up to 5 screw holes with wider spacing, which better distributes the leverage from the bridge across the entire metal plate and the underlying printed parts.

Hardware Selection
Since we chose to use a Telecaster bridge, we must source all the parts. Generally, there are three ways to approach this:

1. Buy an inexpensive Telecaster guitar and disassemble it for parts.
2. Purchase all parts individually.
3. Buy a Telecaster hardware kit.

Buying a fully functional guitar just to immediately disassemble it seems wrong and wasteful. This is only a good option if you find a severely damaged guitar where the hardware and neck are still intact.

Buying all parts individually is definitely a viable option. You would need:

1) Guitar neck with tuners
2) 1 single-coil pickup
3) Bridge with integrated single-coil pickup
4) Telecaster control plate with a 3-way switch and two knobs
5) Output jack

The problem is that buying these parts individually can be quite expensive. Even if you choose the cheapest options, it could cost several hundred dollars. So, we ultimately chose a Telecaster electric guitar kit.