You RAWK! 3D Rapid Prototyped Acoustic Instruments of the Future

Exactly how rockin’ would you be with your own guitar? Not as rockin’ as you would be with a sweet, custom manufactured axe made to your exact style and specifications.

Amit Zoran, from the MIT Ambient Intelligence Group, has been fiddling with the concept of Rapid Prototyping acoustical instruments. But are the materials that rapid prototyping machines use suitable to get the sustain and amplification you need to impress the crowd or your cat?

The Perfect Sound
Amits concepts are incredible look and the video shows just how much sound you can get out of a very small chamber. Without a chamber the sound is tinny, but with a simple chamber, the sounds becomes as custom as the Rapid-prototyped body.
More on the reAcoustic eGuitar.

What RP Machine is used?
Really, a simple chamber could be created using a variety of methods, but for full-scale guitar body creation, 3D printers with larger beds would be required. Here’s a video of how RedEye RPM creates custom guitars with Stratysys fused deposition modeling (FDM) process using Thermoplastics.

Update: Editor’s Note – SolidWorks was used to create the main section of this guitar. Then Materialise was used to merge a mobius shape together to create one body. Here’s the guitar Case Study.

More about Redeye’s Fused deposition modeling (FDM) – (Flash video). You can also download Redeye 3D Print driver for SolidWorks, Inventor and Alibre.

Amit’s Concept Images
These are Amit’s concepts of the possibility of being able to print your own guitar. Really, the variations are constrained by material options and size, but traditional instruments could have incredible new looks and sounds. What would you create?

reAcoustic eGuitar. (via Architechradure via Jessica Hanson)