What would the multi-talented Swedish design engineer Olaf Diegel create differently when he upholds his love of guitars and uses a full colour 3D printer?Professor Olaf Diegel has redesigned the iconic Fender Telecaster to create a fire-breathing LED-decorated masterpiece that looks like fireworks in the air! The famous American guitarist Jimi Hendrix would have loved it.

The body of the Telecaster "Fire" was 3D printed using the Mimaki 3DUJ-553 and then the neck, electrics and strings were added.

"Where there's smoke, there's a Fire guitar!" That's Olaf Diegel's tagline for this Fire 3D printed guitar, a tribute to one of the hottest guitars of all time, the Fender Telecaster. The body of this guitar is 3D printed in full colour translucent acrylic with a flame texture. Also, there are LED lights that flash like fire inside to enhance the effect!

Another of Diegel's 3D printed guitars

For guitar enthusiasts (like WFOL publisher Andy McCourt), Diegel's guitars come with Seymour Duncan hot-rolled humbucking pickups, a Schaller bridge and strap lock, D'Addario Planet Waves Auto-Trim Locking Tuning Machines, a PRS-style 5-position pickup Megaswitch (for humbucking and single-coil combinations), a Warmoth maple neck with a Graphtec nut, and a maple core in a Mimaki 3D-printed body. Call it the "Great Fireball"!

So you can see what a regular Telecaster like Andy's looks like? It looks like the picture below.

The guitar was printed on a Mimaki 3DUJ-553 full colour 3D printer and designed using a combination of Solidworks and nTopology. This work is part of the work of the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab at the University of Auckland to demonstrate in practice the possibilities of Breakthrough Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM).

Olaf Diegel is a former professor at Lund University in Sweden and now heads the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Laboratory at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he is also a professor of additive manufacturing and product development. He is also an expert in DfAM (Design for Additive Manufacturing) and enjoys completing creative 3D printing projects. He also runs an online business, ODD Guitars, which creates and sells custom 3D printed guitars. 

Professor Olaf Diegel has produced over 80 3D printed guitars at the University of Auckland using sintering technology and a Mimaki full colour 3D printer. He is now working on an acrylic 3d printed guitar body with a 'water' theme.

3D printing is a revolutionary technology that has transformed production from prototypes to custom production, from architecture to art and now to music, and the Mimaki full colour 3D printer gives you your own designer to help you create your own personalised musical instrument. We have a complete set of data analysis and personalised solutions for 3D printing of personalised full-colour models, so please feel free to ask us if you need them.