ODD guitars are a range of personalisable, customisable guitars that explore the limits of 3D printing technologies and applications.
3D printing allows designs to be manufactured that could not be manufactured through traditional means. The 3D Printing technology used in ODD guitars is called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and builds the components by spreading a thin layer of nylon powder, that is then fused in the correct locations for that particular slice of the component. The layer is then dropped down a fraction of a millimeter, and another layer of powder is spread on top of the first, and the process is repeated until the component is built. The typical layer thickness is 0.1mm.
The hardware (pickups, bridges, necks, tuning heads, etc.) used on all ODD guitars are all top quality off-the-shelf hardware and most of them can be specified by the customer when ordering. In fact, one of the things that is great about 3D printing is that it allows quite a range of customisation by the user without adding much to the cost of the components.
ODD was started by Olaf Diegel, a long-standing design engineer, with a passion for 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing technologies. As his real job, Olaf is professor of additive manufacturing and product development, in the faculty of engineering at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand.
copyright 2011, olaf diegel