Moonglow Side dots anyone?

RoccoRiggs

RoccoRiggs

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My roasted maple neck came with Moonglow side dots. Charged them up for 2 days straight using a black fluorescent tube light. Was promised 18 hours of "charge" on them. After 30 minutes, the side dots became virtually invisible. Anyone else have charging issues- or is this typical ?  Was psyched initially as the idea of lit markers appealed to me as there are always circumstances of darkness in many venues. When the markers are initially charged, they are excitingly and wonderfully bright, but the glow fades rather quickly. Working with Warmoth now to resolve the issue, and per tech, perhaps a batch of "bad" dots..Just a feeler out to those who have had experiences. Don't want to disassemble the guitar, send my neck in for evaluation, and be without my axe for weeks as I am gigging quite a bit. Especially don't wish to hear quality control say...his expectation was greater than the actual performance of the product..but...really, less than an hour of bright seems unacceptable given the marketing promise. Thanks !
 
No, I haven't got any experience with them, but I've order such side dots on the neck that I'm currently waiting on. I will let you know when I get it how I think they fare.

I'm expecting some light from them and assuming that would suffice should I happen to play live in a dark place, and that they'll be charged again as soon as the lights in the room come back on. Mind you, I'm not planning on playing in the dark, just knowing where my hands are until the lights come back on.
 
I haven't tried them either, but I wouldn't expect them to last terribly long between charges. The spec for some other dots I've seen say 2 hours glow time in darkness, but my experience with other glow-in-the-dark things says that's pretty optimistic. They may be visible in complete darkness an hour and a half after a full charge, but I'd wager they wouldn't be very bright. They're not like LEDs that are either on or off, they diminish in intensity as time goes by, so their useful illumination time may be fairly short depending on ambient lighting conditions.

It might be worth it to buy one of those little keychain-sized AAA LED flashlights and some velcro so you can carry a "recharger" on the back of your headstock. They're small and surprisingly bright, plus having a flashlight onstage comes in handy more often than you'd think when you're trying to see settings or cable connections behind gear, etc.

 
The best lume material (that is used in expensive watches for example) will reach maximum charge in about 10-15 minutes under sunlight. The lume will fade out over 30 minutes but it can stay visible in total darkness for up to 3 to 4 hours. I have a neck with moonglow side dots and I haven't done any testing, but I doubt Warmoth is using the lume that Seiko or Rolex use in their dive watches. My guess is that if you fully charge them, they might work decently well in a dark, live setting but that's about it. Although I think they're white enough that they are still pretty visible even when not charged.
 
They are really bright after letting them cook under a Black Light tube for hours, quite awesome..but they fade fast. An hour is generous..Tough to see the whitish marker on the all maple neck and fret board as well..not entirely recommended..I may just cover them with black dots..sigh..or get a pocket black light and charge it during sets..they say black light UV charges much faster than led, etc. Love the neck though..roasted maple with stainless frets.. :glasses10:
 
I keep waiting for someone to come up with Tritium dots. No need to charge them - they glow all the time. Or, at least until the Tritium decays. It has a half-life of 12.5 years, so your side dots would probably glow for about 25 or so before you'd need to replace them.
 
Cagey said:
I keep waiting for someone to come up with Tritium dots. No need to charge them - they glow all the time. Or, at least until the Tritium decays. It has a half-life of 12.5 years, so your side dots would probably glow for about 25 or so before you'd need to replace them.
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Honestly, at that point I'd rather just have LEDs.
 
Seriously though ... surely the whole point of lume-inlays mustn't be for them to glow for hours on end? Just like those glowing markers on a watch - we're not sitting in darkness looking at the watch for hours until the light goes out just to cry out, "Dang, I knew exactly what the time was fifteen minutes ago, now I can't see what the time is anymore ..."

Unless you're playing a three hour Rush set in total darkness - surely you should be able to navigate around the fretboard with the help of the glowing inlays? Or am I missing something? 
 
Often, darkness is an issue for me on certain stages at certain times..I saw this material as a solution to a problem which I have often encountered. The markers die during 1/3 of a sets worth of music, or 20 minutes. With a maple board on a maple neck, the clear colored moon glow dots are virtually invisible when the lumen dies. The clearish markers may be o.k. for rosewood/mahogany, but the clear dots on the maple are indiscernible. My disappointment lies in the fact that these are advertised as 18 hour glow-18 minute is more like it. I searched Warmoth for info, but didn't find any reviews of the markers, so I figured I'd take a shot..I would have been better with black dots, or binding if I knew these were going to be duds. 35 year player here, I know what my needs are, my expectation was high..these disappoint, just a heads up for those who think these may be a solution for those who seek what I have.
 
That is an exceedingly handsome axe.  The luminlay thing for me is not worth the expense, but then I don't gig - I'm mostly playing at home by myself, with the occasional foray into my local dive bar for a blues jam.  There's enough light in those circumstances to get the job done.  Sorry you feel like you may have been had.
 
problem solved with Testor's model paint.
 

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That'll work. I think I would replace the inlays altogether for wearability's sake, but maybe the Testors will hold up.
 
As a kid, there was plenty of "glow in the dark" stuff to be had. Stickers, pens, Trapper Keepers, even one time there was this brand of fruit snacks in the shape of sharks. All different sharks, Mako, Hammerhead, Great White! Speaking of which, one time there was a promotional offer where in the box they'd include a glow in the dark Great White shark toy/prize.

So naturally, as a kid you take that glow in the dark shark and hold it next to the light for like 30 seconds and turn off the lights, and maybe the glow lasts a minute at most. But then your new friend is coming over and you want to impress him by charging it up to max brightness. So you stick the glow in the dark shark in the lamp, and balance it so you don't have to hold it. And then the doorbell rings and your friend says "What's that smell?"  :doh:

That was a cool prize/toy man until I burned it with the lightbulb. I never got another glow in the dark shark after that  :(
 
30 minutes? I dont know man, given my experience with glow in the dark stuff, I'd say 30 minutes is rather on the spectacular side.

If you are looking for a show stopper, maybe pursue an LED battery pack system to really wow the audience.
 
RoccoRiggs said:
Often, darkness is an issue for me on certain stages at certain times..I saw this material as a solution to a problem which I have often encountered. The markers die during 1/3 of a sets worth of music, or 20 minutes. With a maple board on a maple neck, the clear colored moon glow dots are virtually invisible when the lumen dies. The clearish markers may be o.k. for rosewood/mahogany, but the clear dots on the maple are indiscernible. My disappointment lies in the fact that these are advertised as 18 hour glow-18 minute is more like it. I searched Warmoth for info, but didn't find any reviews of the markers, so I figured I'd take a shot..I would have been better with black dots, or binding if I knew these were going to be duds. 35 year player here, I know what my needs are, my expectation was high..these disappoint, just a heads up for those who think these may be a solution for those who seek what I have.
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I just got a roasted maple neck with ebony fingerboard and had the moonglow side dots put in for the same reason; there are frequently dark spots on stage or pauses between light changes etc.  Right before I ordered the neck, I saw the video Warmoth put out claiming that if you charged them for 5 hours, you got 5 hours of light out of them, etc.  1:1 charge output.  I was skeptical as well, but figured that Warmoth wouldn't lead me astray.  Well I charged them all day and took them to their first gig, and they were barely visible when I took it out of the case after travelling to the venue.  Super disappointed in them.  The only plus side is that they are slightly bigger than standard dots which makes them a bit easier to see, considering their milky color when not "glowing".  I should've listen to my skeptical muse and just went with standard dots.  Shame too, I really love the neck otherwise.  As I product though, I think I'd dump these and stop promising people they will perform as advertised.
 
I went so far as to buy the black light tube as recommended by my Warmoth tech (no biggie, $10 at WalMart)..man , they looked really good after 2 days of charge..pulling the guitar away from the lamp, the moon glows were so bright, they looked incredible..almost liquid..suspended in the board like they were floating in space in my dark bathroom- needless to say..the glow wore off by gig time..great concept..but...the tech said I could return the neck for testing, but if the brightness and longevity equaled those in stock, I would be responsible for shipping $ both ways..not a biggie, but i think I know the reply already..Maybe one day I will send it back..will post if there is indeed a problem with the batch of dots we got.
 
RoccoRiggs said:
...the tech said I could return the neck for testing, but if the brightness and longevity equaled those in stock, I would be responsible for shipping $ both ways..not a biggie, but i think I know the reply already..Maybe one day I will send it back..will post if there is indeed a problem with the batch of dots we got.
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I haven't seen the ad, but a few people say that Warmoth advertises an 18 hour glow time. It seems that if Warmoth does indeed make this claim, they should refund your money if their test reveals that your neck doesn't glow for 18 hours.  And if the other necks they have in stock don't glow for 18 hours, it seems like there is a real problem between what they advertise and what is reality.  But charging you for shipping if the entire batch is defective doesn't sound right to me.  If anything, they should eat the shipping both ways AND refund your money for substandard performance if the real world experience doesn't match what they advertise. 
 
They may very well glow for 18 hours, but how brightly isn't specified. If they're anything like any other glow-in-the-dark material, they have a half-life. That means after X amount of time, they will only glow half as brightly as they did at first, then over the same time period their brightness will decrease by half again, and again, and again until they're not glowing any more. But, depending on ambient light, their visibility may not be in a useful range long before they stop glowing altogether. They're not like lamps or LEDs where they're either on or off. It's a gradual thing. So, maybe they're visible in stage light for 1/2 an hour, but in absolute terms and in absolute darkness, they don't stop glowing altogether for 18 hours.

To get illuminated markers, the thing to do would be to embed light guides (like fiber optics) in the neck at fab time sourced by an actual lamp or LED, or even individual LEDs like on a Fretlight neck. Then you wouldn't have the dimming problem, assuming you kept fresh batteries in the instrument.

Another solution might be to use markers that would fluoresce under UV light, and strategically place an UV lamp somewhere onstage. Then you would get somewhat constant intensity and not have to worry about batteries. But, you may get other things glowing that you don't want to glow, like poorly brushed teeth or biologically stained clothing :laughing7:
 
Here's a link to the 18 hour claim on their promo video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeleviZBJT8
Cagey, I  tried bringing the black light to the gig to place it in a place to  reflect the dots to no avail. I'm happy with the model paint over the dots for now. I love the guitar, and the neck ..good stuff. Loaded it with a set of Joe Bardens, a KGC brass block trem with titanium saddles..Went with hipshot open back staggered tuners. Out of the box, with the stock Earvana Tusq nut, I am having no fret problems, buzzes with the ss frets....its a 9 out of 10, would've been an 11..
 
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