We first used 3D-printing in 1998 to render the first model of the original Chrysalis/Ridgewing guitar body and grills. At that time, the state of the art was laser-cured epoxy. This was basically a fish tank of special photo-sensitive liquid epoxy and a laser beam scanning from above across the surface, hardening one thin epoxy layer at a time, with each cured surface pattern being stepped down into the epoxy a small fraction of a mm to make the next, and the next, and the next. The next morning the part was lifted out of the goo, washed and sanded, and Voila! – a dream guitar you had yesterday, in your hands today! But it wasn’t functional.

3D printing has come a long way since then, and it has really helped the Ridgewing guitar design. The picture shows a top view of the neck end of the Ridgewing headstock, where there is a distinctive “mount” to hold the strings up and over the neck-headstock cam mechanism, and a 3D-printed string guide cap with string slots on the underside and a nice upper surface for artistic expression.  This string guide part, including the text, was created using Solidworks CAD software, and was 3D rendered by Shapeways in gold-plated brass. Here is what the part looks like out-of-the-box. The detail in the 3D printed lettering is much better than I hoped for. But the gold is very thin and the brass is very soft, so you have to be careful with any polishing.

Another key 3D-printed part is in the Ridgewing neck system and are interchangeable hard points or “Noogies” as we call them, where the neck meets the body. Designed to fit in a 9.5mm (3/8” diameter dowel hole in the neck, the noogies are printed in stainless steel. They have a fairly complex surface geometry designed to firmly join the neck when the guitar is assembled for playing, while allowing near-instantaneous de-tensioning and dis-assembly of the instrument for storage and transport. 3D-printed stainless steel is not as hard as the real thing, and appears to be made up of closely packed layers of hard steel and not-so hard steel. However, as it turned out, this slightly softer steel works perfectly for the neck contact points. The actual contact surfaces are just a couple of mm^2 in total area, so they are able to focus and multiply the force of the strings tension to greater than 175,000 KPa (25,000 PSI) at the point of contact, which is in the  plastic deformation range of many metals. This extreme pressure and slight deformation result in a very robust vibrational connection between the guitar’s body and the neck.