Any new technology for manufacturing objects, will find two things among its first uses: Weapons. And musical instruments. Compare a rifle to a guitar: both make ample use of wood and strategic use of metal in their construction, both entail sensuously curved shapes that are held close to the body when in use. One provides a means of obtaining food and defense; the other provides a means of expressing creativity. From their respective positions serving the base and the near-apex of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, each reaches toward the center of the scale, playing a role in social cohesion: serving collective defense, and collective performance. The aesthetics of these objects, and the making of them, is entwined with deep and ancient elements of our individual and collective minds. Today both weapons and musical instruments have become objects of "rationalized" production on a mass scale, and in conjunction with new materials (notably plastics), have taken on forms and shapes that are unlike any previous Earthly creation. So when a new technology for manufacturing arises, and comes into the hands of Everyperson, it is not surprising that Everyperson will wonder how the technology can be applied to one or the other, or both. A small-format 3D printer can print a pistol but not a rifle, and can't print a complete musical instrument that most people would recognize. A large-format 3D printer can do all of these things. So I predict that when large-format 3D printers come into wider use, among the first things we will see people produce with them, are musical instruments with shapes and sounds that are today the stuff of dreams and speculative fiction. -G. On 13-05-03-Fri 9:23 PM, J Clark wrote: