lecompt Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 hey all i have aqquired an old les paul copy to do up, its pretty interesting but removing the pickguard on the front (yes, its not rear routed its got a big control plate), removing this revealed some pretty nasty routing for the p'up wires. now, one option is to fill these in BUT i had another idea, but dont know if its possible. basically, i want to make a new control plate to cover the whole routing, this isnt a problem, but i want some sort of lighting underneath that. this is where i was thinking l.e.d's, but i have no idea where to start, i was reading about general l.e.d's and how they are mounted and soldered onto a board but this would be to big to fit in the guitar, so my question is, is there a way to mount the l.e.d's inside the control route and have it powered by a battery? sorry if thats confusing i dont know a better way to put it thanks! matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Mounting LEDs in the cavity and powering them with a battery is no problem but I'm not sure I understand how you would be using the LEDs. Can you explain further? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Is a translucent cavity cover that's backlit with LEDs what you're going for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lecompt Posted November 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 exactly, lovekraft! the idea in my head is so that when the l.e.d's are lit it will show off the wiring inside. also, im not sure if i would need a switch for them or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 (edited) Read this. It will tell you everything you need to know about wiring leds. You could use a switch or you could use one of these 1/4" jacks as the switch. Then again, you could use both. Have a good look around the site that's in that first link I posted. It's good place to educate yourself on electronics. peace, russ Edited November 23, 2005 by thegarehanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lecompt Posted November 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 nice one, i've read that page, the one thing i dont understand about the wiring is what wire is actually used to connect between the led/battery/resistor? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 The positive wire goes to the resistor, then the cathode on the LED. If you want to put a switch in there, you'd put it somewhere between the battery and cathode. If you read the whole page, it will make it clear. If it doesn't make it clear, I don't know if I can either, because that's the site I used to verse myself on electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lecompt Posted November 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 ahh ok, so if i understand this right, it would sort of go: battery>>>>>resistor>>>>led.1>>>>resistor>>>>led2>>>>>battery is that right? also, do the wire that comes "down" off the l.e.d be bent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 (edited) The wires that come off the LED do bend. However, it's a little more tricky than just putting as many resistors and led's in series as you want. Do you know how to calculate the value you need for a resistor based on the led you have? You need to learn how series and parrallel circuits opperate. Basically, in a series circuit, current is constant and voltage drops from component to component. On a parrallel cirucuit, voltage is constant and amperage varies from component to component. If you wanted two leds in series, you would only need one resistor, however the value of that resistor would be different than if there were only 1 LED in the circuit. Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to teach yourself about these kinds of circuits(it's fairly easy stuff) and then come back to this project when you have a respectable knowledge of the task at hand. That page I linked you to answered all of these questions; it shows how to wire multiple leds in both series and parrallel. peace, russ Edited November 23, 2005 by thegarehanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 I've always liked this page. It's LED basics. This is a collection of great articles/pages on the subject. There's a link to a calculator, battery information, wiring descriptions (series/parallel,...). I think it's written very well although I do have a background in this area. Just a few more places to check out if you are interested. One piece of advice - When you get to the soldering, be careful with those LEDs! They do not like heat at all. Try to keep as much of the leads as you can and use a clip for a heat sink. As you build experience, you'll know what you can and can't get away with. For a beginner, I'd really pay attention to the heat and the amount of time that iron is on the LED lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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