For those of you who love guitars and are a bit tired of the old Strat or Les Paul designs, we’ve prepared something utterly special. Olaf Diegel has taken up the job of creating unique guitars, with totally unusual shapes, like the tri-dimensional printed Spider and Scarab electric guitars.
Olaf Diegel is a professor of mechtronics in Auckland, New Zealand, at Massey University’s School of Engineering & Advanced Technology. In fact, these are still unfinished prototypes, being presented as a preview to their official release, due to happen sometime around June, the current year.
Regarding the manufacture, Olaf states they “have their core made out of solid nylon, or aluminum-filled nylon, but the latest (and I think final) design iteration has a core made out of wood, which allows us to better control the resonance and tone of the guitar, which will allow us to do more customization, not just on how the guitar looks, but also on how it sounds.”
In addition, we bring you more detail about the materials used in the production – the bodies, made of Polyamide 2200 or Alumide, have been created in one piece thanks to a selective laser sintering system, called EOS Formiga P100.
The looks of the Spider version are quite intriguing. A pack of scary spider-like ODD sculptures are placed within its webby lattice, plus many flowers and insects hanging from the respective network. The size of the guitar is actually limited by the capacities of the printer, with a body resembling the shape of a Steinberger P-Series headless guitar.
Following Diegel’s statement, there are more models to be produced, like the superb Les Paul Atom guitar alike, with electrons that spin around a core, within an open body, but this has to wait until they acquire a larger printing machine. He further states that there is “no assembly needed”, adding the fact that they “can print all the insects, and intricate detail, inside the guitar bodies all in one piece together with the body.” This is actually a bonus of sturdiness indeed, considering that the models tend to look quite fragile.
There’s also some sort of disadvantage to the tri-dimensional plastic or aluminum materials, their color being a bit matte compared to the wood-based guitars. But Olaf reassures us that the production models will be thoroughly taken care of. Their composition will include a CNC-manufactured wood core body wrapped in 3D-printed plastic open body shape.
If wanted, the producer may leave a stripped away part from its body or strategically-placed gaps to reveal the elegant insides. Each model will also be uniquely crafted for every customer, regarding the non 3D-printed parts of the guitars, while the ODD branding being replaceable with names or logos, at request.
With prices reportedly ranging between $3,000 and $5,000, a special website will be launched on the occasion of their release. They will be available at international scale.
[Gizmag]
