The 3D Printed Fender Stratocaster Body

A second hand Squier neck, cheap pickups and other odds and ends, and a new set of strings. The new set of strings was where it all started to unravel. From where the neck joins the body through to the end of the body (the bottom in this photo) is 3 separate parts. The strain that the tensioned strings puts on that section of the guitar is huge. I’d noticed the guitar going out of tune very quickly. But I didn’t investigate why for about 36 hours. Think of a bow – archery. The tension of the string pulls the bow itself into a curve. With the Strat, the strings were doing the same and the body was tearing itself apart.

Cue version 2. This time, printed with a 0.8mm nozzle bringing the print time down by about 60% with some other changes to the way that it was printed as well

I was printing this on an Ender 5 so the build volume was bigger than the model had been designed for. That meant that I could combine 2 of the 3 parts into 1 and give the whole thing a great deal more strength. This time when I strung the guitar, it held. That was about 2 years ago now and it’s still holding up.

Does it play? Yes, definitely. Does it play as good as a Strat? Probably not. But I’ve plugged it into an amp and it doesn’t sound bad.

I think the saddest thing is that I was looking at electric guitars on Facebook Marketplace a few weeks later and I could have bought a Squier Strat with a practice amp for about half what it cost me to assemble that!