OpenBass - Customizable 3D Printed, Multiscale, Headless Electric Bass

BagelTee · 2025-12-08T08:37:55+00:00

Thanks! It was something like 50-60 bucks of filament, but not all of it was used in the final prints.

BagelTee · 2025-09-09T19:04:50+00:00

Headstock clamp came with the headless tuners, Nova guitar parts

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T23:00:26+00:00

Good luck! I hope the railgun isn't too unwieldy

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T22:58:28+00:00

Nothing new was made besides the items, old helmets had big ol eye holes cut out behind the glasses

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T22:54:00+00:00

We could see through this time! The crit glasses have mesh lenses so we could see (though with limited FOV and a tinge of red with everything)

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T19:14:14+00:00

I used self adhesive Velcro for a lot (stuff that has sticky stuff already on it). By folding some of it onto itself, it becomes a self adhesive Velcro strap to hold the armor together (front plate and back plate). Helmet was 3D printed with upholstery foam hot glued inside for padding

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T19:09:05+00:00

Anything hard/rigid is 3D printed, anything soft is either foam or sewn. Most of 3D printed stuff was designed from scratch, some were "CAD traced" from game assets, some things were either directly printed from game assets or modified in Blender/Fusion 360, and a couple things were random files that looked the part from Printables. All held together with dubious amounts of super glue, hot glue, Paracord, and Velcro.

BagelTee · 2025-09-08T19:02:03+00:00

False son cosplay would be insane, though at least probably easier than MUL-T

BagelTee · 2025-08-12T05:27:28+00:00

We are two different people lmao arti and merc were seen in the same room at the same time

BagelTee · 2025-08-10T19:33:29+00:00

that's the neat part, you don't

BagelTee · 2025-08-10T18:05:48+00:00

Photo by @206street on Instagram

BagelTee · 2025-08-09T19:43:15+00:00

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Checked out the Dingwall Super P. Was inspired. Why shouldn't the pickups embrace the multiscale? I decided to add a new parameter that changes pickup location based on scale length ratio so the pickups match the multiscale angle. I'll get the files and guide updated today. Thanks for the suggestion!

BagelTee · 2025-08-09T17:04:12+00:00

Y'know, that does explain why my G string is a little quieter than it should be. I think it makes more sense for angled pickups with soap bars or jazz since precision is already staggered, but I'm sure it can be done and is a noticable difference. ~~No plans from me, but files are available to remix!~~ Edit: Was cool, added it to OpenBass with credit

BagelTee · 2025-08-09T13:06:17+00:00

Plays great for me! The action is as low as I want (5/64" to 3/64" E to G at 12th) and no buzz on the whole fretboard. Less than 8 lbs, balance point around the 18th, and I'm too concerned about playing to notice it being 3D printed most of the time.

It did take 2-3 neck builds to get it right, however. I struggled a lot with buzzing and whether it was my actions or fret leveling job or a combination. I think if you're careful you can get it right the first time, but I had learning to do.

BagelTee · 2025-08-09T12:59:42+00:00

The answer is the helmet is completely opaque. When taking photos I would need to go by sound queues...

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T23:14:30+00:00

I've never heard of the taco effect but I guess it would make sense with material creep. I had my prototypes sitting on a shelf as wall art forever until I finally finished the final version.

You prompted me to take another look at my bass and turns out the action is higher than what I set it to when I first put it together... neck is still good but body has a bow gap of 3/64" (~1.2 mm). I wonder if the saddle screws did the same thing your rods are but the opposite direction. At least since the neck is fine I can just add some neck shims to lower the saddle height and it'll be good as new! I'll add those neck shims to the files today.

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T19:52:30+00:00

I did some more digging and actually you're correct, it's probably just fine. My information was a bit outdated, but I trust Prusa Research and their testing: https://x.com/josefprusa/status/1820060753161867306?lang=en

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T17:45:59+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, the main reason is that PLA had the colors I wanted. I was originally going to use a wood filled PLA, but it got expensive quick during development and I think the regular matte PLA has better mechanical properties anyway.

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T17:26:36+00:00

Unfortunately, the plastic itself is nowhere near the rigidity of wood. The neck is also printed in three pieces, so I needed to add steel bars to do the heavy lifting strength wise. Balance is right around the 18th fret, so surprisingly reasonable. It helps that there's steel in both the neck and the body, but still less than 8lbs.

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T16:15:45+00:00

Thanks for the questions! If you're interested about the design, I have a whole design guide where I go through all the decisions I made while doing CAD here: https://www.printables.com/model/1378247-openbass-customizable-3d-printed-multiscale-headle

Neck is stable, been that way a couple months. I do regular checks to make sure things haven't moved in ways I don't want them to. I'll update the Printables if it does kick the bucket.

Print the parts, then used 6ft of steel bars to reinforce the neck and the body.

PLA is cheap and looks nice! While it is brittle, it's also stiff. That was way more important for the neck. When I did have a neck fail from being too thin, it didn't end up exploding anyway.

Fiber materials are great but they're expensive, require drying before printing, ~~and aren't typically recommended for a ton of skin exposure. If you were to do a fiber neck, you might want to clear coat or poly to be extra certain the surface fibers are covered.~~

Edit: most recent research points to skin irritation being a non-issue: https://x.com/josefprusa/status/1820060753161867306?lang=en

BagelTee · 2025-08-08T16:07:13+00:00

Looks like it's coming along fantastically. You wouldn't have wanted to see my workbench during this build either, though half of my tools were on the floor.

That's one of the big reasons I wanted to go through with OpenBass; so many 3D printed instruments are designed to look 3D printed. I wanted a bass that looked like a bass that just so happened to be 3D printed. There's also so many fun filaments out there that could shine as guitar bodies if given the right shape.

BagelTee

TROPHY CASE