Going to build a ukulele bass first. I think it will be all 3d printed plastic.
Next, I’ll build a jazz bass. The neck will be made of wood with a 3d printed body comprised of multiple parts.
I can hear yall now… ewwww plastic bass? No tone, blech!
I currently play through my computer and don’t need to worry about what it sounds like through an amp, although I’d be willing to bet it will still sound decent.
IF the first build goes even remotely ok, I’ll make a semi-hollow body jazz bass next.
I have a 3D printed p bass body for 2 years now and I’ve done nothing to it. It’s just the nature of 3D printing. Lots of work to clean up. My issue is also the sticky plastic also needs reinforcing in order to make it work properly.
This has nothing to do with sounds, I’m sure it would sound just as good as the wood or aluminum counterparts.
A colleague of mine said something about printable wood. It is basically the normal PLA printer filament with wood particles in it, and the printed product can be worked on just like wood. Sounded pretty interesting to me.
That stuff tends to clog up the printer nozzle, though.
He stated the neck will be made from wood. @Malyngo I’m not sure that just having particles of wood in it would give the necessary tensile strength.
However the body will have to be sufficiently strong and rigid to anchor the strings. I’d say go for it but I might also consider some kind of metal brace either inside or on the back of the body.
It should. I think I’ll use ABS which is very strong. The neck insert will be one solid piece along with the bridge section. the rest will be a mix of honeycomb and spars for rigidity.
@Billn not sure what you meant by “creep”, but I can always reprint a section if needed. I’m going to design it in modules, so I’ll be able to replace things as needed (I hope).
As long as @biohazz65 makes sure that everything between tuner/nut and bridge is stiff (ie by using a neck-through design or having a rigid piece within the body between neck and bridge), everything should be ok!?
@biohazz65 are you printing the body in one piece or in section and glue them together. I’m not sure what material mine was made off, it’s probably ABS and not PLA, PLA is pretty brittled.
This was my thoughts exactly. the neck have neck plate which would help keeping things in place on the back end but the neck pocket is remain to be determined. The bridge is another critical contact point.
I know four sure that the 3D printed body is not well suited for drop tuner, sudden slacken of the high tension E string usually throws off the rest of the strings a bit with this potential shift of this “less” stiff body may introduce more tuning issue.
My plan is to string it up with light gauge 90/30ish.
