Fractional/child violin shoulder rest

This is a shoulder rest for particularly small violinists (i.e. young children). I designed it to promote good posture and comfort, which is hard to find at this size:

• Commercial shoulder rests can help position the violin correctly, but the minimum height may still be large enough to cause neck discomfort in smaller players

• Pads and cloths do not cause discomfort but also do not enforce the right placement for correct bow technique or higher position playing

This model retains both the support from a structured shoulder rest while significantly reducing the minimum height for comfort in smaller players.

As shown, it is installed on a 1/8 size violin, but there should be enough hole options for it to scale from 1/16 to 1/4 and potentially even fractional violas.

Print settings and post-processing

As shown, I printed this on a Prusa MK3 with PETG at 0.2mm layer height:

• PETG's flexibility provides some comfort and allows the shoulder rest to clamp onto the violin

• PETG bends, rather than breaks, under repeated strain which is preferable in a performance

• PETG deforms enough for the screws on the feet (see below) to tap in the plastic

Orient the model with the bottom of the shoulder rest (the only flat plane) on the build plate.

Supports are unfortunately required due to the organic shape. The default supports setting in PrusaSlicer worked fine for me and were easy enough to remove.

Depending on your printer, sanding may be required to prevent rough surface artifacts from scratching either the player or the violin. A thin layer of adhesive foam may also help improve comfort.

Additional hardware

This model is only the top part of the shoulder rest -- the part that actually sits on the player's shoulder. It does not include the feet that attach the shoulder rest to the violin.

I designed it with the feet from the Everest fractional violin shoulder rest (affiliate link) in mind as I had a few lying around. It may also work with the feet from Kun and similar, though I have not tested this.

Depending on how the rest is adjusted, you may need to cut and smooth down the screws on the feet so they don't poke the player.

Sources included

I have included the Autodesk Fusion f3d file. This may be useful to:

• Resize the shoulder rest for other sizes of violin

• Adjust the curvature of the cutouts for player comfort

• Accommodate different printer tolerances for the holes for the feet, or resize for different feet entirely

• Design your own feet (make sure to use a soft material like rubber or TPU between the foot and the violin to avoid any damage)

Please pardon the modeling techniques -- this was my first time modeling anything remotely organic.

If you choose to share your modifications, please include your f3d file.