Engineering Student 3D Prints a Trumpet

University of Michigan engineering student Dan Olson designed and 3D printed a trumpet that can actually be played. The problem, admits Olson, is that it sounds pretty awful. He demonstrated the poor quality of the trumpet in comparison to a Bach Stradivarius 37 as a kind of cry for help in a YouTube video. His STL files are available on his Thingiverse page and Olson hopes that other maker musicians will come to his aid in refining this otherwise really cool, fully 3D printed instrument. Check out Olson's trumpet in the full article: http://3dprint.com/41360/3d-printed-trumpet-project/


Below is a photo of the 3D printed trumpet next to the Bach Stradivarius 37:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...s-1024x576.jpg

- Still make a great kids toy :-)

As with any instrument, material plays a HUGE role in sound quality. Metals and woods seem to work well, plastics.. sometimes but it depends on the application. In this case I'd be willing to bet that the issue is roughly half material and half surface finish. Trumpets, like any horn, rely on the shape and size of the tubes to modify and amplify the sound (the buzzing of the lips that one makes when playing is the source). If those tubes have a rough finish which they would certainly have in any 3d print but more so in a fdm print, the sound is going to get all kinds of screwed up. Added to the poor harmonics of the plastic you get some pretty cruddy sound out the bell end.

Agree with GOC though, my kids would love it.