Ergonomic Acoustic Guitar Design Using Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Industrial design provides a fundamental tool for customizing the product to the user's needs, and the use of new manufacturing technologies such as Additive Manufacturing can facilitate this task, as in the case of the design of new musical instruments. In the case of the acoustic guitar, customization according to the musician's tastes is an important aspect, as a bad design can lead to injuries due to misuse. The methodology proposed in this work shows the capacity to adapt the body of a traditional acoustic guitar with ergonomic aspects, solving these injuries as well as providing good sound quality. For this purpose, numerous sketches were made with implementation of ergonomic aspects, arriving at a final design that was manufactured in Fused filament fabrication (FFF) on a smaller scale and to be able to compare it with a wooden guitalele. Therefore, an acoustic test of an ergonomic body made of PLA by FFF in comparison with a wooden guitalele body is carried out, observing that a good sound can be provided despite the geometry modifications to facilitate its correct position and performance.