This looks like an amazing project! If only my wife played this instead of

3D Printing
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1

This looks like an amazing project! If only my wife played this instead of the piano…

2

@Nathan_Walkner insanity :))))

3

This is actually really neat. I have made a few violins by hand and have been tinkering with the idea of 3D printing one, just because. Printing the tail piece right onto the top plate seems a little weird. What about a sound post? Is that printed right into it?

4

looks like the sound post is fixed in position. I’m assuming the maker measured a tuned violin and did the best he could to replicate it. by the sound in the video it looks like the warmth of the sound is reduced, but it’s more than a decent instrument.

5

Yah, was just looking at the STL’s. Not exactly like a real violin but I see what they are doing and I already know why. I may have to make one of these. I’m thinking to combine the middle and top sections into one print as my printer is big enough. I’d really love to see a scroll on it. I’m actually thinking to modify it so that it can mount a wooden neck/scroll onto the printed soundbox.

6

@Greg_Nutt their license is fair enough…It’s gonna make for a super nice project later on for me as well

7

I play the violin, and I am pretty sure that this will have horrible accustics.

8

@Nathan_Walkner I can tell you if a violin is a 60 dollar Amazon violin, or a nice 200-500 dollar violin. I am not talking about that type of comparison, but if a violin is plastic it will not work properly. This is a comparison between nicer violins, and age does not make a violin better. Different brands and bows can cause a warmer or tinner sound.

9

Sorry, Alexander, I also have to disagree. There are many things that affect the quality of the sound coming out of a violin. The quality of the material, the thickness of the material, the position of the bass bar, the position of the sound post, the quality of the strings, the type of strings (whether synthetic, gut or steel), the quality of the bow and MOST importantly the skill of the player itself.

It is very subjective and biased to simply say that a plastic violin will not sound good. Having 32 years playing experience and owning 11 instruments myself I can say so. Granted, I do prefer certain instruments over others, but they are also configured differently or have different characteristics over each other. It simply ends up coming down to personal preference.

10

C’mon Greg, it’s not subjective at all… it can be demonstrably measured.

The soundscapes of wood and plastic are entirely different, you WON’T get plastic to sound like a wooden violin… it ‘may’ be ‘acceptable’ at a push for ‘some’, but it’s always going to be screamingly obvious, it’s never going to have the warmth of wood.

11

Well, first of all, I didn’t say it would sound like a “wood violin”. That doesn’t mean it can’t sound good however. Secondly, the violin pictured above for all intents and purposes IS a wood violin. It was printed with a wood infused filament and as such I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a similar sound.

Violins have been made of many materials and obviously will inherit characteristics of the materials it was made of. This does not at all mean that it won’t sound good. How good it sounds is more according to the experience of the player.