
An open source 3D printable acoustic violin - jsnathan
http://www.hovalin.com/
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cperciva
From the FAQ: _You may use the hovalin for commercial purposes if you agree to
send 10% of your gross revenue from use of the design to HOVA LLC every six
months._

It may be open source, but it's not open source as I've ever encountered it
before.

(Also, I don't think I've ever heard someone claim that _copyright law_ allows
them to demand royalties on the use of a musical instrument. Is a musical
performance a derivative work of the instrument design?)

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naz
I think that's referring revenue from printing and selling your own copies of
the completed violin, rather than from musical performance.

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vollmond
Though you'd think it would be worded more like "you may use the Hovalin
design files for commercial purposes...."

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leni536
I can't help it: [https://www.xkcd.com/743/](https://www.xkcd.com/743/)

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ant6n
Golden, especially with the .stl discussion in this thread.

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yummybear
Is it just me or does it not sound very good? Kind of tinny and not clear and
bright? It might just be me.

Nice technical achievement though.

~~~
louhike
I suspect it is hard to achieve the acoustics of an instrument traditionnaly
made of wood with plastic.

Thinking of it, I don't remember hearing an instrument made out of plastic
which sounded nice even though I'm a musician. I'm not saying it cannot be
done, it is just not common for now.

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Symbiote
Could it be too expensive?

A good, precise injection mould is many tens of thousands of dollars, and
several are probably needed. That's a lot of upfront cost for a low volume
product.

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s_kilk
Nah, it's just physics really. If you're making an instrument that's
traditionally made of wood, and the sound of wood is your cultural reference
point, then the plastic/<$SYNTHETIC_MATERIAL> version is not going to sound as
good.

It may even sound fine in it's own right, out of context, but it'll almost
never be 'the same' as wood. I think that's really the heart of the issue.

EDIT: actually, on the expense issue, these days manufacturing of musical
instruments has gotten so good (especially in the east), that the cost of
making a 'good' instrument has fallen through the floor. Today we can get
perfectly usable (or even very nice) instruments at prices that would make
musicians of yesteryear weep.

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mentos
To me the idea of printing my own violin would be to get a cheap yet decently
functional Violin. The price point of $70 is 2x what it needs to be in my
opinion. Going on ebay there are entry level violins for $40.

Would be cool to see an open source piano

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apendleton
The fingerboard looks much shorter than on a standard violin. Maybe the
materials can't support being cantilevered out over the body like a regular
wooden fingerboard? If so, bummer... seems like it would have a pretty adverse
effect on range, fingering options, etc.

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mattsouth
Is it just that the head is smaller than a typical wooden violin (no scroll
etc)?

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apendleton
No, it looks shorter in the other direction (doesn't extend as far over the
body). So the string lengths are the same, I think. You just can't finger as
high.

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eric-hu
Pretty cool achievement. The prices ($300, $450, $600) for the different kinds
of kits make this seem like a poor investment if one is just looking for a
violin.

