- Title: FRANCE-VIOLIN French engineer makes "first 3D electric violin"
- Date: 11th September 2015
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 11, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH VIOLINIST, LAURENT BERNADAC, SAYING: "It really has some characteristics, I mean, I always come back to the mass, but it is extremely important, seen from the violinist's perspective, the lighter your violin is, the fewer problems you will have, so this electric violin is the only one, to my knowledge, that has the same mass as an acoustic violin, the other electric violins are much heavier. And the second advantage is also that the trajectory of sound's waves are not affected by any sort of gluing and screwing."
- Embargoed: 26th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9J2KJV2ZMZ2CLQZT3OI856EHL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A French engineer and professional musician said on Friday (September 11) he has made the first electric violin with a 3D printer fit for use on stage.
Laurent Bernadac, a graduate of Toulouse conservatoire, said his prototype - which he calls the '3DVarious' - is based on the model of a real Stradivarius violin but has a futuristic design.
"The idea came from far away. I am both violinist and engineer and after my studies of mechanic engineer I was looking for a project that could merge my two passions. I didn't arrive directly at the 3D printed product, I went first through different prototypes, different processes, but finally this was the one I chose and the one that works," he said.
Bernadac said initial attempts using aluminium and plexiglass had failed as the sound produced was unsatisfactory and the instrument was too heavy.
The breakthrough came when he switched to translucent resin using a technique called stereolithography, or optical fabrication, a process in which objects can be manufactured by "printing" thin layers of material one on top of the other.
The violin is printed on a single piece of transparent resin and is ultra light, weighing 440 grams as compared to a regular electric violin.
"The fact that it is light it allows to take away all tensions and have movements which are much more fluid, it allows movement on the stage without problems and to almost forget that you are holding a violin, which is not the case when you are holding a violin that is heavier than 800 grams," Bernadac said.
Bernadac said the 3D-printing process took 24 hours, but the building of the instrument took a week, because after the printing, all the excess resin had to be manually removed. The surface of the instrument was then cleaned, the violin's structure was treated with a UV polymerizing lamp and finally the strings were attached to the instrument.
"It really has some characteristics, I mean, I always come back to the mass, but it is extremely important, seen from the violinist's perspective, the lighter your violin is, the fewer problems you will have, so this electric violin is the only one, to my knowledge, that has the same mass as an acoustic violin, the other electric violins are much heavier. And the second advantage is also that the trajectory of sound's waves are not affected by any sort of gluing and screwing," he said.
The '3DVarious' prototype costs 10,000 euros ($11,286), although Bernadac hopes to sell it for between 4000 and 6000 euros in the future. He added that he already had a few orders. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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