MSA lfret illuminated fretboard - how do they work?

[Dave Nutt]

Ken, didnt Jerry Evendon make a steel with a fretboard that lit up? Would have been way back in the 70s ?

[Ken Byng]

Not quite Dave - Gerry's frets on his Driftwood guitars were luminous, and used ambient light instead of the powered backlighting of MSA's Lfrets. They worked well in low light, and I thought that it was an idea that all steel manufacturers should consider using.

[Jif]

I'm currently building a lapsteel and intend to build a led "fretboard" for it. I'll be making it out of a piece of maple and intend to drill/mount the leds on the underside of the fretboard to illuminate the inlay dots.

I've got some other ideas that I'd like to try out at the same time re fretboard illumination. The fret board will be removable for servicing purposes, or for replacement with another style of fretboard if so desired.

A few years ago I built a midi organ foot pedal unit using a set of foot pedals from an old Hammond organ, I used it at the time to control Ableton Live on stage with my feet! But it can be used as a conventional one octave foot keyboard, (not sure what the right terminology is for these). Anyway, it was difficult to see the pedals clearly on stage for all the usual reasons, so I mounted 8 large ultra-bright leds in a row along the front panel for illumination. It then occurred to me that they could also double up as a little on stage light show, so I built a cct board up which enabled me to sequence the leds in preset patterns. Great fun and it looked great on stage, haven't used it now for a few years though.

So, there are a lot of different things you could do with an illuminated fret board other than just illumination. i.e. if you used led strips for fret markers, they could be programmed to illuminate the fret you should have your bar at when learning from tutorials. It could be midi sync'd so that it was in exact time to a backing track. If you wanted to go totally extreme, you could have 10 leds per fret on a 10 string guitar and illuminate individual strings that had to be played at a particular fret. Stick a led onto all your feet and knee levers and you're there

[Dave Nutt]

Hey jif, remind me not to let you get your hands on my Emmons.
inovation is great but the thought of my fretboard flashing on and off, not for me.

[Jif]

Hi Dave,

We could always build in a revolving mirror ball, it would be good for the pedal steel disco style

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=271831&highlight=disco+pedal+steel

As you may of gathered I was typing with tongue in cheek, but I think if done with a little thought, illuminated fret boards could be useful in dark venues and look good too

[Dave Nutt]

Hey jif
you may have noticed an earlier post to Ken, asking if he remebered a guy- Gerry Evendon putting some lighting effect onto fretboards way back in the early 70s. He worked on my old Sho Bud, when I went to collect it he showed me the new steel be was building, turned the lights out and there it was, red white blues all flashing, he could adjust the flash rate like on christmas tree lights, bloody wonderful he was over the moon with it, mentioned that he could probably install one on my sho bud ('no you friggin well aint') I think was my response
On a serious note, great to see we still have some innovators, other than personal copedent changes and the Franklin pedal I doubt much has changed since the very early models.
Let me know when the prototype mirror ball is finished I will order one for Kenny Byng I am sure he would love one (only joking Ken)
cheers jif.

[Jif]

Hi Dave,

Here's a photo of the Sho Bud Travolta I've been working on recently, each mirror ball would rotate on the fretboard, having a LED laser mounted below reflecting off the mirror ball for that disco effect

Although I'm getting on in years, I'm relatively new to steel guitars, so I'm enthusiastic about trying new things. On reflection, I think this idea is probably not going to fly though, regardless of the amount of spin

Once I get a bit further on with my lap build I'll post some pictures up here, be a while before I get to the fret board though.

[Malcolm]

Geoff, you would also need to add Raybans built in to the obligatory head basket,as under health and safety regs, eyes would need to be protected from all that dangerous light.

[Dave Nutt]

Have you considered fitting amber lights at each end of the steel kinda like car indicators, then left knee left and right knee right levers could iluminate them when pressed, would be a wondrful asset for us older players that dont know our arse from our elbows
Best not let Malcom and the rest of the North of the Border Brigade get involved, they will be looking for under kilt lighting, that would present some H&S issues.(although only small ones) plus! rumours abound that they use flimsy plastic guitars, surely a fire risk

[Malcolm]

I'll have you know Mr Nutt that there is nothing WORN under the kilt, it is in perfect working order, and rumour that some of our older members require rubber gloves and tweezers is slanderous.The lighting required for under kilt lighting would not be practical,as it would require such large lights to illuminate such large objects.
I will not take up any more of your time as I know you have to go and sand down the orange box wood of that old guitar of your's ,as your are getting splinters again.