LED inlays!

[guitarstv]

Saw Muse play on their Simulation Theory tour last year.  Bellamy and Wolstenholme both had guitars with LED fret markers, and they looked amazing.  I know Warmoth offers glow in the dark inlays, but they just aren't bright, don't hold a charge for long enough, and stop working over time.  LEDs and a battery box would solve all these problems.

But I also know that I'm weird, so not sure how much interest there is out there for such a thing. 

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Nearly everything I build is sans fret markers. I find that I have very little opportunity to look at the fretboard when I'm playing, for me the side markers are a lot more useful. It's very personal of course, and I play bass almost exclusively, so YMMV. I think the demand would be limited and there would be a serious cost  due to the added complexity of keeping LEDs, wiring and truss rod out of each others way. But they definitely look cool.

 

[BroccoliRob]

Saw Muse play on their Simulation Theory tour last year.  Bellamy and Wolstenholme both had guitars with LED fret markers, and they looked amazing.  I know Warmoth offers glow in the dark inlays, but they just aren't bright, don't hold a charge for long enough, and stop working over time.  LEDs and a battery box would solve all these problems.

But I also know that I'm weird, so not sure how much interest there is out there for such a thing. 

Yo where wuold the battery go? in the neck? In the body (then you now have wires goin thru a neck pcoket between two separate parts of a guitar?)? the logistics are freakin up my mind. Are those Muse guitars bolt on or set neck?

 

[Cagey]

I have a "Fretlight" guitar and that's how they do it. For those unfamiliar, those guitars have a composite material fretboard, sorta like "Richlite" in that it appears to be a high-grade black Ebony. Each of the 22 positions has 6 LEDs imbedded in the material from underneath, so from the face it just looks like Ebony, but the LEDs can be illuminated individually to indicate fretting positions  in any pattern you'd like. They're designed to be teaching aids, and are controlled by electronics. Power/signal are fed to the neck via ribbon cable between the neck and body.

I took it apart to find all this, as that's just how I roll :icon_biggrin: Anyway, I doubt a battery would last long, controlling/lighting up that much gimcrackery, so there's a what looks like a pedal that plugs into the thing to supply the needed magic.

It works really well as designed - you can run software on your computer and watch the thing play all sorts of stuff light-wise, kinda like a player piano. You're supposed to follow the lights and learn to play scales, chords, songs... whatever.

I have almost no time on mine, since oddly enough, for as good as the guitar is overall, the frets are garbage. I mean, I've played $99 blisterpak "starter" guitars with better fretwork. So, my intention all along has been to refret it. I just haven't done it yet as I'm a little apprehensive about working with a composite 'board.

 

[BroccoliRob]

Mr Cagey, im still unclear. the one you describify is a set neck or bolt-it-on? I am still confuzzled about running wires from a body battery box up to a neck in either #scenario. I don't mean to sound afool.

it's just a weird system to think a bout. Like when i tried to explain black holes to a guy guitar center (I don't know if he was an employee or not but he did have a black polo on). space is like a bathtub, and you fill it with light (no LEDs) and black holes are just where the light drains out. Where does the light go? It goes back into space as light-vapor, and when it condensates, that’s how a sun is formed. He said "so  suns are really clouds of light?" and i was like yes, and then they rain sunshine and the cycle repeats.

 

[Cagey]

It's a bolt-on neck. The long and the short of it is making such a thing available from Warmoth would probably not be something they'd want to do the R&D for.

 

[swarfrat]

If you're actually playing on stage with lights, a retroreflective inlay might work better, look better, be more visible, and not need batteries. It'd even change colors with the lights.

 

[BroccoliRob]

It's a bolt-on neck. The long and the short of it is making such a thing available from Warmoth would probably not be something they'd want to do the R&D for.

But where was the battery, in the neck? thats the burning question that i can't get out of my head

 

[Cagey]

No battery. Power comes in from USB.

 

[Logrinn]

A solution could be to place a led in the body abutting the neck pocket. Then you could have a fibre optic ”cable” in the neck under the fingerboard. This would start at the ”bottom” of the neck next to the trussrod and get the light from the led and at the other end(s) it would split into several light emitting ends that could work as inlays.
The battery would go somewhere in the control cavity.

In my mind this works anyway  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Or, some UV light sensitive markers with an outboard UV light source. Be sorta invisible to others, but make your guitar's dots light up w/o power. Of course, then your teeth, dandruff, lunch droppings on your shirt, etc. would all light up, too  :laughing7:

 

[BroccoliRob]

No battery. Power comes in from USB.

So usb charges it up? But it has to be charging a battery of some kind. Or are you saying there is no battery and the guitar to be connected to USB all the time to use it, in which case how does the power get from a body, through the bolt on neck joint into the neck? Can the neck be removed without breakin A wire?

 

[Cagey]

No battery. USB cable is always hooked to guitar. USB has a surprising amount of power available for a serial link. Even the old USB-1.1 spec provided for 5V @ 1.8A. Later versions could go as high as 5A. The comm protocol never needs that kind of power, but some devices are powered by it, and some do have batteries that may need charging. Plus, it's a "daisy chain" comm link, so there can be multiple devices attached all drawing from the same source.

 

[aarontunes]

Like this?

[youtube]https://youtu.be/vSghRDICrbA[/youtube]

 

[Cagey]

Perhaps Joel and the bots could do something with that on MST3K...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

And the award for “Most creative use of a face shield goes to....”  :toothy12: :icon_thumright:

 

[BroccoliRob]

so the USB plugs into the body.

And there's a wire in the neck pocket doing into the neck heel to provide said power to the inlays?

That's so freaky

i want it

 

[Cagey]

It's a wonderful instrument. This particular model (they don't make 'em anymore) has Lollar p'ups, birdseye top, one of those super-stable "engineered wood" necks like Martin uses these days, etc. and there's a plethora of fascinating software available for it. Its only downside, as I think I mentioned somewhere here, is that the frets need some serious attention that I haven't given them yet. I would have returned it originally as a bad job (and I'm not one to return instruments), but I figured I was gonna refret it w/ stainless anyway so I kept it. Otherwise, it's still new and essentially untouched.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

If you're actually playing on stage with lights, a retroreflective inlay might work better, look better, be more visible, and not need batteries. It'd even change colors with the lights.

There we go, Moontape inlay!!!

 

[guitarstv]

If you're actually playing on stage with lights, a retroreflective inlay might work better, look better, be more visible, and not need batteries. It'd even change colors with the lights.

I really like this idea . . . but retroreflictives tend to only shine at certain angles depending on where the light is hitting them.  I don't think it would look cool for the audience unless the spotlight was in the crowd.  Then the guitar would be beaming back some awesomeness.