Can this machine actually build an electric guitar , say a strat ?
Can it build a les paul guitar?
Please can anyone help me with these questions?
JP
If you want a straight up answer it’s yes you can cnc an electric guitar. But if it will be less Paul quality all depends on several things such as extreme fine tuning of the neck and frets and electronics. You can cnc a les Paul style guitar but don’t expect it to feel like one… guitar making is a very fine skill and needs extreme fine tuning skills, unless your just buying the neck and buying nice electronics then your pretty much golden. Anyway good luck I’m excited to see what you come up with as I too want to make an electric guitar with my x-carve
Like this?
YouTube: CNC Machining a Fender body
YouTube: Making Guitar Neck on CNC Machine
Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: Yes, as you can see for the YouTube videos it is done all the time. Try searching YouTube for “cnc guitar” and tones come up.
However, crafting a musical instrument like a guitar is one of the more advanced projects you can attempt. It combines both several challenging CNC process as well adding the complexities of wood, grain and overall design to get a good sounding instrument.
Like SergioPagoada said. If you buy the neck and electronics and just focus on the body a lot of the issues go away.
First you will probably will want the fully loaded configuration. Larger work area, stronger motors.
You will then need software to generate the g-code. For a “Flat” guitar body 2.5D software like Easel should work, but if you want curved surfaces (like in the linked videos) you will need a full 3D program.
Finally you will need a 3D model. Making your own in Easel should be easy enough, but a full 3D model will have a much higher learning curve.
You will need to master 2 sided machining. That is carving the top part, flipping the work piece over and carving the back part. It is not that hard to do, but it does take a bit to get the hang of it and to get everything to line up. I recommend lots of practice on smaller test projects until you get the hang of it. And then doing a test carve with some cheep wood before the final attempt with the expensive stuff.
So I would not attempt to make a guitar as your /first/ project. It is something you will have to work up to. But once you have mastered the principles you can start making some incredible stuff.
Happy Carving!
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Ive been thinking about doing something similar, banjos and mandolins. Look forward to seeing what others come up with.
James
I make handcrafted guitars for a living.
Right now if I need to make a template, I draw the plans up in CAD and send the files out to be cut. It takes about a week to get my finished templates back. If I’m in a hurry, I will go old school and print the drawings up, glue them to some MDF and shape the templates by hand. Not fun, and certainly much less accurate than CNC.
The X-Carve opens up a new world for someone line me. I will now have the ability to create and cut everything In-house which I am very excited about to say the least.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,…
Suddenly very intricate custom inlays that I currently farm out are now a possibility. Also, jobs where accuracy is super important like slotting and radiusing fingerboards are possible.
My head spins thinking of the possibilities.
David Fletcher
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Will the X Carve hold up in daily use in my Guitar build shop cutting out bodies and necks? Worried about the belt strength over time, as opposed to ball screw designs. Also wanting to cut aluminum and run the machine many hours per day, will it hold up? Thank you
Eenor
www.MezmerGuitars.com
Im also wondering about using a “feeler” to do 3D copies of guitar necks to reproduce them, is there a 3rd party add on that I can use with the X Carve to trace parts?
The belts should be fine, if they have Kevlar reinforcement. That is what I usually use.
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Inventables: do your belts have Kevlar reinforcement?
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Looking at the detail listing in the shopping cart the kit comes with GT2 Belts which are reinforce with fiberglass. I have no idea how they compare to Kevlar reinforced belts.
At least they are reinforced.
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You can use this probehttp://wildhorse-innovations.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=80 and the controller from planetcnchttp://www.planet-cnc.com/index.php?page=features to do what you desire. But it takes a bit of setup and Costs a bit more as it still needs a stepper driver for each motor. But this does allow you to tailor your systems a bit more. For now this is one of the only ways tondo what you desire with an X Carve.
Check out Picciuto Guitar Body!
I made an electric guitar with the X-Carve. I did as much as I could using Easel. Still have lots to learn before building my next one, but I thought this was a pretty good start…for a drummer. lol
Video - https://youtu.be/p7K-UPcvlq8
Project - Electric Guitar | Inventables
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what about imported a ready svg file og a guitar
Hi Steve,
I’ve seen your youtube channel before, nice work. I’m looking for SVG files of different style guitars. Where did you get the SVG for your Firebird?
I drew it myself in Microsoft Visio. Some of the elements I drew in Easel though. If you look up the project here on the Inventables site, you can access my Easel files. Thanks for watching my channel!
Yeah, you can use just about any wood you want! Hardwoods tend to be more popular. I just made a solid walnut strat style for a customer. If I ever get my X-carve in shape enough to actually cut something I will be doing guitars as well.
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@PhilJohnson Here is my walnut “StraTele”.
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Walnut tele looks awesome! Did you have files available? Ive got a slab of mahogany I want to do this exact thing to.