Composite Acoustic Guitar
Can modern computer simulation programs accurately predict the acoustic vibrations of carbon fiber? Well enough to design a carbon fiber guitar that sounds like a conventional wooden acoustic guitar? These are the questions that myself and Stephen Probert (a fellow Mech.E student) set out to answer our senior year at the University of Washington. In short, the answer is "yes". We spent nearly a year on this project, secured faculty support, funding, and corporate sponsorship (materials), and did extensive modeling and testing before actual guitar construction. Stephen's Master's thesis is a thorough, well written summary of the project with many enlightening pictures. My Winter 2006 write-up is a detailed summary of the experimentation and finite element modeling, and my Spring 2006 term paper is an easy summary of the results. We took the time to finish the two guitars nicely and ended up with excellent-playing instruments!
Before any chips flew, the entire guitar was designed (from scratch) and modeled in Solidworks. This was important in doing the computer simulation as well as determining how everything fit together. The tolerance on string height is less than a thousandth of an inch over 28 inches under 150 pounds of force!
Further reading:
Carbon Fiber vs. Wood as an Acoustic Guitar Soundboard (Originally written as a term paper, which was subsequently invited to be published in a CMM quarterly special issue)
Composite Acoustic Guitar Project (A write-up on some of the more technical details)
Design, Manufacture and Analysis of a Carbon Fiber Epoxy Composite Acoustic Guitar (Stephen's Thesis for a MS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington)