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Prince Friends Guitars Build yours

The Prince Friends guitar

Printed.
Strung. Played.

An electric guitar with a body we 3D printed in six pieces, on a real maple neck with real pickups. Yours comes in your shape and your colors.

Build your dream guitar See how it's made

Every shape you can dream is one we can print.

A guitar factory makes a handful of shapes. A printer makes whatever we draw.
A rendering of the bridge: the chrome plate, three barrel saddles and the bridge pickup on the white center stripe
A rendering of the guitar from straight above: plum horns, turquoise waist, white center stripe and the black band, each its own printed color
A rendering of the headstock with six tuners and the teal crown
A rendering of the whole guitar under studio lights

01 · Six pieces

One body.

The center piece carries the neck, both pickups and the bridge, so no seam sits anywhere a string pulls. Four wings and the band glue on around it, with a printed key in every joint.

02 · Real parts

Where it counts.

A bolt-on maple neck with 22 frets, two single coils, a three-way switch and a string-through bridge. The body is ours. The parts that make it a guitar are proven ones.

03 · Color in the plastic

Not on it.

Every piece prints in its own color, top surfaces ironed smooth. There's no paint to chip. The color runs all the way through.

04 · The crown

On every headstock.

Printed and set upright so it reads from the audience. Teal is standard. Plum, black and white are yours to choose.

05 · Strung, set up

Played.

Nines, intonated before it ships. Plugged in the day it came off the clamps. Our first one is on a 30-day tension test, and every build gets what we learn from it.

01 · Six pieces

One body.

The center piece carries the neck, both pickups and the bridge. Four wings and the band glue on around it, with a printed key in every joint.

02 · Real parts

Where it counts.

A bolt-on maple neck with 22 frets, two single coils, a three-way switch and a string-through bridge.

03 · Color in the plastic

Not on it.

Every piece prints in its own color, top surfaces ironed smooth. No paint to chip: the color runs all the way through.

04 · The crown

On every headstock.

Printed and set upright so it reads from the audience. Teal, plum, black or white.

05 · Strung, set up

Played.

Nines, intonated before it ships. Our first one is on a 30-day tension test.

The guitar leaning on an amp in a white paneled room, a cable plugged into the jack on its black band

Then we plugged it in

It sounds like a guitar. Because it is one.

An electric guitar's voice comes from its pickups, its strings and the amp far more than from the body. Ours has the real ones: two single coils and a three-way switch, bright to warm.

The first one

Real photos. Real guitar.

Printed on our own printers, glued, strung and played at home. Nothing on this part of the page is a render.

The whole guitar from the front: plum horns, turquoise waist, white center stripe with both pickups and the bridge, black band with the Prince Friends logo, maple neck and the teal crown on the headstock
The whole thing. 340 by 480 mm of body, 45 thick.
Close-up from above: the chrome bridge plate with three barrel saddles and the bridge pickup on the white center stripe, the raised Prince Friends logo on the black band below
String-through bridge, three barrel saddles.
The output jack: a chrome plate with four screws set into the black edge of the band, fine print layers on the curve above it
The jack, on the edge of the band. The fine lines are print layers.
The guitar leaning on an amplifier, in black and white
Its first night on the amp.
The maple headstock with six chrome tuners and the small teal printed crown
The crown, printed and set upright so it reads from the audience.
Close-up where the turquoise and purple pieces meet, the print layers showing on both side walls
Where two pieces meet. The color runs all the way through.

Behind the scenes

How the sausage gets made.

Living-room printers, kitchen counters, a lot of blue tape. This is the build, as it happened.

  • The center piece, one print, about a day on the big printer.

  • The first drawing of the guitar: plum horns, teal waist, a white stripe and a black band

    Where it started: the first drawing. The pickups changed, the colors didn't.

  • The waist, first layers, on the kitchen counter.

  • A maple neck, a bridge pickup and a chrome bridge test-fitted on a black printed plate

    Every part test-fit on a printed plate before the first wing printed.

  • The printed body pieces laid out on a white table

    The pieces, the night before glue-up.

  • The glued body held square by six bar clamps, the seams taped off

    Keyed, clamped, taped. The glue cured overnight.

  • Close-up of a joint between the turquoise and black pieces

    A seam up close. Layer lines on the sides, ironed smooth on top.

Make it yours

Start from one of ours. End up with yours.

Pick a body, push it around, paint every piece. Tap a card to open that design in the builder, then change whatever you like. Everything the builder lets you keep is something we can print.

The Standard: plum horns, turquoise waist, white center stripe, black band The StandardThe one we built. It plays today. Sunset Swoop: a longer horn and deeper waist in tangerine and cherry Sunset SwoopLonger horn, deeper waist. Tangerine and cherry. Lemonade: the compact body in lemon and bubblegum with a star inlay pattern LemonadeCompact body, lemon and bubblegum, stars. The Crown: a body shaped like the Prince Friends crown in gold and plum The CrownOur crown, made into a guitar. Gold and plum. Skyline: a body cut like city towers, plum and teal, with glowing windows SkylineCity towers. The windows glow in the dark. Desk Monster: a body with eyes and teeth in sky blue and mint Desk MonsterEyes, teeth and attitude. Sky and mint.

Or start from scratch.

Five sliders reshape the body while nine build checks keep it printable. Paint every piece, add stars or pinstripes, upload your logo and watch it fit the band. Tap a string to hear it.

Open the builder

Original designs only. We print our shapes and yours, never another maker's body, a character or a logo that isn't yours to use.

How it works

Four steps. You approve a picture before anything prints.

  1. 01

    Design it

    Use the builder and send us the design, or tell us what you're picturing in the form below. Sketches, photos of your logo and a song you want to play on it all help.

  2. 02

    We check it

    Your shape runs through the same checks our own body did. We confirm the parts, send you a mockup and a quote, and answer every question. Nothing to pay yet.

  3. 03

    A deposit starts the print

    Half up front starts your build, the rest when it ships, shipping at cost. The body alone is days of printing, and we send photos along the way.

  4. 04

    We build it and play it

    Glued, strung, set up and played before it goes in the box. Charlotte builds can be picked up and plugged in on the spot.

6printed pieces, one body
25.5inscale length
22frets on a maple neck
9build checks on every shape
45mmbody, ironed on top
30daysof tension testing on ours

Specs

What's in a Prince Friends guitar

The Standard setup is the one we play. The custom setup swaps in different pickups, a different fretboard or hardware finish, quoted per build.

Plastic and heat. The body is PLA, and PLA softens above about 130 F (55 C). Treat it like a vinyl record: never in a hot car, never in the sun on a summer porch. Indoors it lives a normal guitar life.

Body
Our outline, PLA, six printed pieces, 45 mm thick. Ironed top surfaces, color in the plastic, no paint.
Scale and neck
25.5 inch scale. Bolt-on maple neck, 22 frets, dark fretboard, 42 mm nut, two-way truss rod.
Pickups and controls
Two single coils, three-way switch, volume and tone on a chrome plate.
Bridge
String-through with three barrel saddles, strings anchored in the body.
Hardware
Chrome as standard. Black or gold on a custom build.
Strings
Nines, set up and intonated before it ships.
The crown
Printed, on every headstock. Teal, plum, black or white.
Made in
Charlotte, North Carolina, by the Prince family.

Questions

Things people ask.

Does it really play?
Yes. The neck, pickups, bridge and strings are regular electric guitar parts. The body's job is to hold them still, and a printed body with the right walls does that. Ours is strung, set up and played most days.
What does it sound like?
Like its pickups. An electric guitar's voice comes from the pickups, the strings and the amp far more than from the body. Two single coils and a three-way switch give it the classic bright-to-warm range.
Can I have any shape?
Any shape that passes our nine build checks: the neck sits right, the bridge and controls have solid plastic around them, the strap buttons balance it, and every piece fits our printers. The builder stops you at the limits and tells you why.
Can you copy a famous guitar, or put a band's logo on it?
No. We print our own designs and yours. Another maker's body shape, a character, or a logo that isn't yours to use stays off the guitar. Your own logo, your initials, your own artwork: all yes.
What does it cost?
Every build is quoted, because every build is different. You get the quote with your mockup, and nothing is due until you approve both. A deposit of half starts the build, the rest is due when it ships, and shipping is billed at cost.
Left-handed?
Yes. The body mirrors, the neck and hardware come in left-handed versions, and the quote covers the difference. Say so in the notes when you join the list.
How long does a build take?
The timeline comes with your quote. The body alone is days of print time, then glue-up, setup and play-testing. Builds start after our first guitar finishes its 30-day tension test.
What if it gets damaged?
The six pieces are epoxied into one body for good, so a single piece can't be swapped out. The color runs all the way through the plastic, so there's no paint to chip. If a body ever breaks, we still have your file: we can print a new one and move your neck and hardware over, quoted like any build.

Join the build list.

Tell us what you're dreaming of. We reply by email with questions, a mockup and a quote. Nothing to pay now.

  • Used the builder? Its Send button does this for you, design attached. Or paste your design code below.
  • Every build is quoted. You approve a mockup and the quote before anything prints.
  • We use your email for this build and nothing else.

Have a logo file? Send it when we reply, or attach it in the builder.