Swap Out Your Guitar Playing Style with This Modular Insert
3D-printed modular insert and wiring system lets guitarists “cook up” new guitar mods in record time.
At the beginning of 2024, I started learning to play the guitar. However, as a dedicated hacker and DIY enthusiast, within weeks my original kit was soon disassembled and modded with a custom killswitch. While this turned out well – great even, as seen on Cooked Audio – I ultimately needed a way to satisfy my hacking needs while still allowing me to actually practice the guitar.
Thus was born my 3D-printed guitar insert module, which allows you to install custom kill switches and other add-on devices without permanently (further) modifying your guitar. This semi-cylindrical device slides into a two-inch hole drilled into a guitar body (in this case a roughly $100 donor axe from Amazon) and is held there in compression, acting as a three-dimensional spring. Numerous iterations were considered and printed before settling on the final(?) design, available for download from Printables.
Electrical connections to the module are made via DuPont-style connectors, allowing it to cut off the output, or even add new signals, by plugging everything in correctly. This is demonstrated at around 8:50 in the video with a “kill-wheel” device that turns a signal off and on using a rotary encoder.
I also came up with an insert that lights up based on rotation, using a XIAO nRF52840 Sense’s IMU to figure out which way is down. Here there is no actual electrical connection involved between the guitar output and the module. It simply provides the mechanical structure. There’s also no electronics involved in the snack holder featured at the end… though you'll likely find that to be self-evident.
