L.E.D. fretlines?

[kuso]

When I saw this topic, I immediately thought of this stuff:

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That being said, it looks like that runs off 110v with a hefty inverter, but you can cut and bend it any way you like. A fretboard and/or neck with a recess on it with a sheet of this cut to size running down the whole thing would light up inlays, fret lines, whatever you wanted.

 

[Reticle]

I was thinking one could just use the round fiber optic cable, inlay it 3/4 of the way into the board and sand the tops flat/even. Although the makers of sideglow cable say you need a lot more wattage to achieve a comparable output to endglow cable. Then again I may be completely off.

That was actually my original intention but I have been told that most fiber optic cable will lose it's luminosity if is bent greater than a 1" radius. That pretty much limits me to making more or less straight runs to the marker. Also, after a bit of reading, the power requirements listed are for making runs in the hundreds of feet. Sideglow can easily make a 3-4 ft. run with a decent L.E.D., it just loses a lot of it's glow when making bends.

 

[Reticle]

When I saw this topic, I immediately thought of this stuff:

Link Removed

That being said, it looks like that runs off 110v with a hefty inverter, but you can cut and bend it any way you like. A fretboard and/or neck with a recess on it with a sheet of this cut to size running down the whole thing would light up inlays, fret lines, whatever you wanted.

Yea, that stuff is quite cool but it definitely requires 110v power. It is actually considered a lamp, as it has a conductor sandwiched between an insulator, a dielectric sheet, a phosphor sheet, and an indium tin oxide sheet. Pretty brilliant actually, a 1mm thick light bulb. It's possible it can be adapted to low voltage, but that's WAY more than I want to get into right now.

 

[JAUQO III-X]

Martin Sims of Sims LED's and Enfield Guitars has done LED fretlines before.

Below are a couple of recent links of a Enfield bass that was at the recent 2010 NAMM show that had LED dots.The dots look bigger than they actually are when alight but they're really very thin.



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[lunarpollen]

I wonder if it would be possible to do LED frets...Some kind of superhard clear fret material with LEDs underneath... I know that they can make certain superhard minerals in labs, you'd just need some kind of mineral harder than stainless steel that is at least semi-transparent when made as thin as a fret....

 

[lunarpollen]

On the Mohs scale, knife steel is about 5.5, and steel files are about 6. Quartz is about 7. Assuming stainless steel strings are softer than quartz, couldn't frets be made out of quartz? They could be made rounded, without any sharp edge so that they wouldn't cut into the strings. Bright LEDs underneath quartz would make the quartz glow nicely!

 

[uaudio]

Not my style of thing (I like my frets), but +1 subscribed.

 

[lunarpollen]

Damn it someone's already making quartz frets.

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Anyone wanna try putting LEDs under these? Then both fretless and fretted instruments could have glowing lines!!

 

[Reticle]

The quartz would probably work pretty well. Unfortunately, they do not sell them, only install them and I'll venture to say that they are far from cheap.

 

[bergy9650]

On the Mohs scale, knife steel is about 5.5, and steel files are about 6. Quartz is about 7. Assuming stainless steel strings are softer than quartz, couldn't frets be made out of quartz? They could be made rounded, without any sharp edge so that they wouldn't cut into the strings. Bright LEDs underneath quartz would make the quartz glow nicely!

hahahaha thats impressive (to me at least) that you thought of that.

 

[Bassman203]

I was thinking quartz but that it would be horrible carving it. Lucky some one already does it.

 

[J-Razz]

LED frets and inlays? Wait 'til Bootsy sees this =D

 

[dazzzed78]

I want to see the finished product.
Subscribed

 

[Slappingpopping]

imagine multiscale fretless + LEDS. Umm hello dingwall?

 

[lunarpollen]

heh imagine a fretless bass with fretboard made out of quartz.... with LEDs in it... hahaha talk about neck dive, jeez...

 

[Jazz Ad]

Whoah. Lots of juju on this site.

With quartz crystal frets, you get clear tone, extended sustain, and a density that blocks all string energy from going thru or around the fret. This causes the string to go from a 440arc to a roll. The string follows the the same molecular structure as the quartz, a single helix pattern that makes the string fully tunable, only in RPS. This produces a warmer, fuller, more powerfull sound, that makes a stock metal fret guitar sound flat.

 

[Buchada Azeda]

heh imagine a fretless bass with fretboard made out of quartz.... with LEDs in it... hahaha talk about neck dive, jeez...

Do that on a Warwick Thumb and you would have a downright bass.

 

[MakiSupaStar]

This is really interesting. That would look killer on stage. Subscribed.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

I was thinking one could just use the round fiber optic cable, inlay it 3/4 of the way into the board and sand the tops flat/even. Although the makers of sideglow cable say you need a lot more wattage to achieve a comparable output to endglow cable. Then again I may be completely off.

There's a company that makes fiber optic cable in squared shapes.

 

[boamedt]

alembic told me while i was at the factory tour, that they have done this, i believed they used plastic inlays, with the side dot as the led, and while on would light the fretline as well