Ava-Adore Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 I have played guitar for a few years, but I have just recently wanted to modify and work on them myself, mostly to save money. I wanted to know if it is possible to put LED's in your fret board in place of the dot inlays? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 ....I have just recently wanted to modify and work on them myself, mostly to save money..... depending on where and what you need the tools can cost more then a custom guitar just kidding(kinda), welcome to the forum I'm pretty sure this topic has come up several times, try using the search tool to search the entire site, though i'll give a vague "yes" you'll probably need to follow the "fretboard removal" tutorial, a dremel will probably help alot for running the wires, and leds are really cheap as a recall.. ike 3 cents a peice on ebay or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 yeah...it's not really a money saving thing...more like an addiction.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted December 29, 2003 Report Share Posted December 29, 2003 Welcome to the forum Ava-Adore First of all yes it can be done, your going to have to route a fine channel down the back of the fret board for the wires of course and also figure out how to make a contact point from the neck to the body since your power supply will more then likely be in the body itself. Were you looking for blinking one's or just standard lit dot's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nordic Gawd Posted December 29, 2003 Report Share Posted December 29, 2003 welcome! I'm actually doing that...... jerk....... well sort of I'm doing an entire inlay in lit acrylic its going to kick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted December 29, 2003 Report Share Posted December 29, 2003 jerk....... whassup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 Were you looking for blinking one's or just standard lit dot's? i was looking to add leds which stay lit and then run the wires to a power supply in the body. there doesn't seem to be enough room for the leds and I can't find smaller ones. any one have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 err...what do you mean with not enough room? just make the holes large enough to go around the LEDs. Or do you think the LEDs are too tall? I'm pretty sure there are LEDs around small enough to pull it off, I've seen LED inlays on quite some guitars so far so it is feasible, maybe Snork can give you some advice on where to get assorted LEDs. Oh and I don't think it would make much of a difference to make them blink or just be on/off, you just need a simple control unit which you can put into the cavity in the body along with the power supply. Perhaps just go to your local electronics store and have them show you some of their LED related stuff... so long ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 I think If i remeber correctly you can get small flat square LEDs that put there light out from the side, perfect for something like this *heads to maplin.co.uk to see if he was making it up* I shall return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 something like this perhaps. Or something like this would be perfect Hope I helped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snork Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 you can shave down the plastic part of the LED. That doesnt mean anything. I do it all the time to mod my molex connectors (power connectors of computer) really cool. it works just shave them down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 The only problem with shaving off the top of an LED is that it is that convex shape that focuses the light from the cathode - so if you do the light wont be as "direct" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 you can shave down the plastic part of the LED. That doesnt mean anything. I do it all the time to mod my molex connectors (power connectors of computer) really cool. it works just shave them down thanks for the tip. shaving the top flat is much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snork Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 yeah and its really easy. but make sure you dont shave down tooo much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 cool idea ava! the leds sould fit fine. you can get 3mm ones which would need a slightly bigger hole for them compared to the side inlays. 3mm leds are common, and the side inlays are usually 1.6-2mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 Thanks for all the replies, i will try to get some pics when i am done. but i still don't know how to do the wiring. can i use the truss rod as one big connector for the negative end of the power supply, so this way i only have to use wires to connect all the positive ends of the leds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 if you earth your truss rod, yes. otherwise i wouldnt think so. just run 1 earth wire from the truss rod to the earth on your jack socket or something, and connest the led's negative to the rod, this would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 I thought i could put the power supply between the 2 pickups, there's enough room, but would it affect the sound at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 Well that way you'd also have to get the wires across the neck pickup cavity...not such a big deal soundwise but when I thought about how to do such a thin I always envisioned a rear rout for the power supply and a little switch on the top of the guitar so long ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 but i still don't know how to do the wiring. can i use the truss rod as one big connector for the negative end of the power supply, so this way i only have to use wires to connect all the positive ends of the leds? do you know how to wire things in parallel? i think that's the way to go on these, cause should one crap out the others will still work, it's a little extra wirring, but not much, anyways i can draw a little diagram if you need it, the wirring is the easy part, it's actually putting it all together and installing it that's hard and time consuming i would run the wires into the main control cavity if there's room and install a regular dpdt on off switch between the volume and tone pots, put the battery in the control cavity if no room you'll have to buy a little battery box for the back of the guitar and rout for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 do you know how to wire things in parallel? i think that's the way to go on these, cause should one crap out the others will still work, it's a little extra wirring, but not much, anyways i can draw a little diagram if you need it, the wirring is the easy part, it's actually putting it all together and installing it that's hard and time consuming I understand what you are saying, but I don't know how to do it. A diagram would help alot. thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTROX Posted January 5, 2004 Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 There was some sort of tutorial guitar with LED's for every note on every fret. I think it was endorsed by Neal Schon or something like that. It had a dial on the pickguard with all the scales, you dial it in and only the "right" notes would light up, so it can be done TO THE MAX!! cgtrox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted January 5, 2004 Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 "There was some sort of tutorial guitar with LED's for every note on every fret" I think that was called "fret light" or something like that. I wanted one BAD, because it lights up all the scales on the board. Now that I'm more into rhythm playing, I'm not really looking for one, because I can just look at different tabs for songs to pick up new chords. Leds have a positive and negative side, which must be wired correctly. I used to have a Stewmac video that showed how to put LED position markers on a fret-board, but I sold that video. The video was called 'shop talk ' 2. 3, or 4. I forget the number. It would be good if you're playing in crappy clubs, where the audience is drunk and makes rude comments to you while you're playing. You could flip a switch, and have ' F*** off and die ' light up on the fret-board. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 5, 2004 Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 this is how you would wire the leds in parallel so that if one burned out the rest would still work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ava-Adore Posted January 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Thanks for the diagram, it helps alot. not that much extra wiring, and well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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