Printed Instruments Index

The registry that tells you if it actually plays — 3D-printable instruments rated on whether they work, what they cost, and what they take to build. Where nothing playable exists yet, we say so.

Woodwind

Bass Clarinet in G

JDWoodwinds

Plays, with caveats

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Springs, cork, pads, 2mm rod, contact cement source needed

Bed: 250×200×200mm Suggested material: PLA Experts only, DIY kit, simplified Boehm, low E. Plays — but only after break-in and serious tuning work.

Source

Bb Clarinet (WIP)

Epiccraftful

Decoration

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Key rods (paper clips), springs — unfinished source needed

Bed: Community WIP Suggested material: PLA Honest work-in-progress: full-size, aims for playable, but hole positions and keys aren't verified. A remix/finish candidate for a build.

Source

Collapsible Flute

Tele Tunes

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Modular sections Suggested material: PLA — Bambu profile included None (fully printed) Dedicated flute shop; telescopic & drone designs, strong reviews, Bambu profiles. Commercial license makes it PluggedIn3D-collab friendly.

Source

Membrane Clarinet

DrJones

Plays, with caveats

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Thin plastic sheet membrane, rubber band source needed

Bed: Splits for Mini Suggested material: PLA, 0.2mm, paint-on supports A membrane-reed 'foonki', not a Boehm clarinet — but genuinely sounds, with screw-thread tuning. No reeds or drilling needed.

Source

Piccolo Clarinet in A

JDWoodwinds

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Brass register tube, springs (0.4mm), pads, mouthpiece refacing source needed

Bed: 250mm Z min Suggested material: PLA · 5+ walls · 30% infill Billed as the first print-at-home clarinet. Fully chromatic, 9 keys. Advanced — assumes clarinet-repair skill and lots of fitting.

Source

Printable Kazoo

PistonPin

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Thin membrane (wax paper or plastic film) source needed

Bed: Small Suggested material: PLA or PETG A mirliton — works shockingly well. Membrane material changes the buzz; fun A/B content.

Source

Printable Ocarina

Prusa / community

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Small Suggested material: PLA or PETG None Vessel flute, forgiving tuning, crowd-pleaser. One-piece prints exist.

Source

Printable Recorder

Prusa Research

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Small Suggested material: PLA or PETG — any None The reliable easy win. No hardware, fast print — the education backbone.

Source

Brass

17-Piece Printable Trumpet

Dan Olson

Decoration

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

3 valve springs; heavy sanding/reaming source needed

Bed: Up to 23cm parts Suggested material: ABS (acetone-weldable) The cautionary tale — the designer himself rates it as playing badly and asks for help improving it. (Its mouthpiece, oddly, works great in a real horn.)

Source Demo

Brass Mouthpieces (all)

Various

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Small Suggested material: PLA / PETG / resin None Playable trumpet/horn/trombone/tuba mouthpieces exist and work — even in a metal horn. The dependable printed part of any brass build.

Source

Full Size Working Trumpet

Cults designer

Plays, with caveats

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

3 valve springs, ~5mm rubber felts, mouthpiece source needed

Bed: Large — check Z Suggested material: ABS / PETG Selmer-based, realistic valve routing, play-attempt videos. Claims playable but unconfirmed by an outside build — the flagship verify target.

Source Demo

Original 3D Printed Trombone

Piercet

Plays, with caveats

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

PEX + CPVC + PVC tubing, heat-set insert, M3 hardware, mouthpiece source needed

Bed: Standard Suggested material: ABS The historical first (2014 Lulzbot contest). Plays, but fussier than PrintBone and leans on hardware-store tubing. Kept for lineage.

Source

Overly-Complicated Trumpet

GCV3D

Plays, with caveats

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Multi-part Suggested material: PLA / PETG None — valves are printed slides The novel one. Each valve is a slide, dodging the airtight-piston problem that kills simpler designs. Plays, unconventional.

Source

PrintBone

PieterB

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

PVC or carbon-fiber slide tubes, slide cream, mouthpiece (printed or Bach) source needed

Bed: Bell 15–30h print Suggested material: PLA (superglue joints) or ABS (acetone) The brass success story. Designer: plays easily, sounds well, partials in tune. Large tenor is ready to print; fully parametric. Carbon-fiber slide beats the PVC one.

Source

Percussion

Auxiliary percussion

Various

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Shaker fill (beads/rice); tambourine jingles source needed

Bed: Small Suggested material: PLA / PETG Claves, woodblock, guiro, shakers, tambourine frames — idiophones are the easiest wins in the whole band. Mostly single-piece, instantly playable.

Source

Mini Marimba (13 bars)

Equals Engineering

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fishing line, 2 floats, small spring, superglue; resonator pipes source needed

Bed: Desktop Suggested material: Prusament PLA — changing filament/color detunes it Actually tuned — C-major G4–E6, with a Python tuning script. Let bars cool 24h before playing. Sustain is short vs wood: the pitched-percussion success case.

Source

Snare Drum Shell

The-Manimal

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Batter + reso heads, hoops, lugs, tension rods, snare wires + strainer source needed

Bed: 5.5×14" shell Suggested material: PLA / PETG / ABS Shell prints; you add real drum hardware. Hybrid but genuinely plays. (Panic!'s drummer tours on an SLS-printed shell — proof pro-grade works.)

Source

Tapophone (Finger Mallet)

L10design

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Fully printed — no additional parts needed.

Bed: Desktop Suggested material: PLA — needs a flawless 1-layer membrane None Membrane-tap idiophone, in tune, kid-friendly. Great classroom piece — first-layer print quality is make-or-break.

Source

Strings

F-F-Fiddle

OpenFab PDX

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Steel rod, violin strings, tuning pegs, bridge source needed

Bed: ~15 cm parts Suggested material: PLA / PETG The open-source printed violin that started the whole lineage. Many successful makes.

Source

Hovalin

Kaitlyn & Matt Hova

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

Strings, pegs, bridge, tailpiece, sound-post hardware source needed

Bed: Confirm per part Suggested material: PLA+ recommended Well-known open-source printable violin. Confirm current part specs on their site before quoting bed sizes on camera.

Source

O'Cello

Conor O'Kane

Playable

Sound fidelity: pending verification Effort: pending verification Cost: pending verification

What it takes

12mm steel rod, alu tube, L-bar, 4 cello strings, bass tuners, M5 hardware source needed

Bed: 20 cm (fits Bambu) Suggested material: PLA or ABS (carbon-fill for the high-tension part) Mature, documented, demo video exists. Steel rod runs through all 6 parts. The proven base to scale a kid's cello from.

Source Demo

The Frontier

No confidently-playable version exists yet for these — here's why, and what's closest.

Bassoon

Open · hard mode

Double reed plus a long folded conical bore — build volume and bore accuracy at once.

Closest: Nothing playable. Contrabass recorders show folded-bore printing is at least feasible.

Sectioned print + real bocal + reed. A genuine 'first ever' if it plays.

Euphonium / baritone

Open · mouthpiece only

Valved conical low brass — same airtight-valve problem as trumpet, bigger.

Closest: Mouthpieces only. The PrintBone slide trick doesn't transfer — these are valved.

If the trumpet valves get solved on camera, this is the scale-up follow-on.

French horn

Open · mouthpiece only

~12 ft of tightly coiled conical tubing + rotary valves, all needing to stay airtight.

Closest: Playable printed French horn mouthpieces ($5). No full instrument.

Hardest brass. A single-Bb, valveless 'hunting horn' variant is the realistic first step.

Kid-size cello

Queued · fastest win

String tension doesn't scale linearly — shorten the length, re-check the rod gauge.

Closest: The O'Cello — a proven, playable full-size base to shrink.

The original request. Scale-and-reinforce, not from scratch. First 'Verified' entry candidate.

Oboe / English horn

Open · ancestor exists

Double reed + precise conical bore. Tiny bore errors kill intonation.

Closest: A printed musette / shawm (the Renaissance oboe ancestor) that plays on a real oboe reed.

Bridge the gap: print the shawm first, show why the modern oboe's conic bore + keys are the wall.

Saxophone (home FDM)

Open · proven on SLS only

Dozens of interacting keys and airtight pads over a conical bore.

Closest: Olaf Diegel's alto sax — printed, playable, but SLS nylon on an industrial machine, not a home-FDM download.

The prize: a home-printable alto. Even body-only + salvaged keys (JDWoodwinds' clarinet approach) would be a landmark.

Timpani

Open · hybrid at best

Large tunable kettle, real drumhead, and pedal tuning mechanism.

Closest: Printed rims/lugs and small hand-drum shells; no full pedal timpani.

Realistic target: a small hand-tuned kettle drum, not the pedal beast.

Tuba / sousaphone

Open · sectioned build

Enormous (build-volume problem) plus valves.

Closest: Decorative models and mouthpieces. No playable build.

Print in sections + real valve springs. Even a playable-ish one would be huge content.

Verified playable trumpet

Flagged · flagship verify

Candidates exist but none confirmed by an outside build.

Closest: The Full Size Working Trumpet (Selmer-based, in the registry).

Build it with real springs + felts, play it on camera. Instantly the most valuable entry in the index.

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