Affordable Lutherie
Solutions for low-income musicians
Extension project launched by the Laboratory of Free Software for Art and Design (SLAD) of the Faculty of Fine Arts (UNLP) in September 2019, winner of the Scholarship Creation 2019 in the category of Design of the National Fund for the Arts in Argentina.
All elements are developed with free software and are available to anyone interested.
Target group
school orchestras
And the lack of resources
The project was born to respond to certain needs of the School Orchestra of Berisso, Argentina, formed by children who began their musical studies there. The instruments are provided by the school, but being more than one hundred members, the possibilities of supply are reduced.
We tackle in the first place their main problems: lack of accessories and parts without which it is not possible to make use of the musical instruments.
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The solutions offered to the Berisso Orchestra School are then offered to other orchestras and to any person or institution that requires them.
Violin
bridge
Transmits the vibrations of the strings to the instrument's soundboard
It also serves to maintain the necessary distance between the strings, becoming a fundamental piece that must be renewed from time to time; this process is usually performed by a luthier who starts from a standard preform and carves the wood until it reaches the appropriate shape.
Replacement
Avoid having to resort to the luthier
Why replace the work of the luthier?
It is a very qualified craft and that is why sometimes it becomes exclusive to those who can afford the service.
The 3D printing of the bridge solves this problem with a very low investment, achieving a product that generates an optimal sound and is able to adapt satisfactorily to a studio situation.
Sound testing
Analysis of the acoustic performance of the tests
With the collaboration of a violinist, we made a record of the sound generated by the instrument with the traditional wooden bridge, and with two variants printed in 3D with different polymers and diverse printing configurations.
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We were able to visualize the possible improvements in the printing parameters and at the same time corroborate that the result was more than optimal.
Wind instruments
mouthpieces
They function as an interface between the instrument and the musician
Mouthpieces are an essential part of wind instruments. They vary according to the instrument they accompany, which can be a trumpet, trombone, horn, among others, and they also change their internal shape according to the type of sound you want to obtain.
Without these pieces some wind instruments of the School Orchestra cannot be used.
Design
Imitate standard mouthpiece sound
Thanks to the collaboration of a trumpet teacher from the School Orchestra, we knew what type of mouthpiece was suitable for the students' initiation into the instrument; we captured its internal shape so that it could be reproduced in the 3D model.
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On the other hand, we tested different surface finishes to analyze the performance, the quality of the sound generated and the comfort in contact with the lips.
