Top-quality violins are expensive – a Stradivarius can cost millions of dollars. At the other end of the spectrum are cheap beginner “violin-shaped objects”, so-called because while they look like the instrument, they don’t sound quite right. Yet those are the instruments that many students are handed, making learning an already challenging skill that much more difficult – if they can even afford those.
Back in 2017, concert violinist and educator Mary-Elizabeth Brown was considering how to get better instruments into the hands of her students and wondered if violins could be 3D printed. The short answer: they absolutely can. But it took some time getting there, and more work is required.
“It’s a game changer,” Brown told PC Pro. “I’ve heard from many orchestra teachers in under-served communities saying their kids have to provide their own instruments, but they can’t afford to. My aim is to help them out as soon as we can.”
Brown isn’t the only one 3D-printing violins. Makers can download the designs for the Hovalin, an open-source printable violin, and an electric violin was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2015.
