Help With My Strat

[Danielv4]

Hey,

Ive recently got into modding my guitar. I want to put red Leds on each corner of both of my humbuckers( I have a H-H Strat). I want to operate the LED's by a switch sort of like the Les Paul toogle switch, as a on off switch. I will be switching my tremelo bridge to a custom shop brand bridge so i think the springs on the back wont be used and I can that to hold the Batteries. How would I power these and what electronics would I need.

Im not very experienced with any customising Im 13, but i have high hopes.

Thanks anyways,

Daniel

[Nitefly SA]

um lets see.....LEDs (pick a size) some wire, a 9 volt battery aswell as the connecter,a 3 way switch. better electronics people will probably tell you to get some resitors and stuff but i have 3 LEDs hooked up to a 5 way (strat) switch right now that works just fine.

[Robert_the_damned]

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=22271

that's a very similar thread that was up recently

Lovekraft's link I think would be very useful to you

Robert

[lovekraft]

...better electronics people will probably tell you to get some resitors...

Yes, because if you hook up a standard LED to a good 9 volt battery without that resitor, you will instantly convert it to a DED (darkness emitting diode). I don't know how you've managed to avoid this (unless you unwittingly bought 12 volt LEDs), but there's not a standard LED in any color that will survive 9 volts without some current limiting. If you're gonna give advice, make sure you understand the subject matter, so you don't screw up other people's projects by proxy, please.

Danielv4, if you need to know how to wire LEDs, try this page.

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm

Or this one.

http://www.lsdiodes.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page_4

[Danielv4]

I have a question about Electronics

What exactly would I need for a H-H Strat including the LEDs?

[Nitefly SA]

he was asking what he needs i told him, i didnt tell him to not use resistors i just told him i didnt and it worked fine, and if he blew his LEDs thats a 3...4 dollar loss?

[lovekraft]

OK, but it's not your 3 or 4 bucks to waste by giving bad advice - you implied that resistors weren't necessary, and if he'd followed your advice using standard LEDs, he'd have blown them almost immediately, and would have no idea why! Seriously, let it go, while it's still just a mistake - this is not an argument you can win.

[Nitefly SA]

all i said was it worked fine for me, but to wait for better electronics people.

[psw]

Welcome to PG

What exactly would I need for a H-H Strat including the LEDs?

This depends on what you want to do...if you want the LED's to light when a pickup is selected, this will take a switch with more poles than a gibson style toggle switch. If you just want an on off switch just about any toggle will work...SPST is the simpliest, but not momentary (that wont stay on). If you wanted an added cool feature, you could make it a kill switch also...so when the lights are off, the guitar sound is off also. This would still work even if the batteries are flat but would require a DPDT switch...hope that helps for a starter...

pete

BTW...the size of the resistor depends on the number of LED's, what type and the type of battery you want to use...there is a way of working it out but you need to know this first. If you are using a single 1.5 pencil battery, with several LED's you may not even need the resistor..."MAY"