I have an acrylic guitar that I want to stick LEDs inside of, but I want them to light up when I play. Any ideas?

I have an acrylic Tele-style guitar, I plan on sticking LEDs inside of it. I already know the basic circuitry for that, but I'd really like to get the LEDs to sync with my guitar when I play it and maybe even use RGB LEDs so it does multiple colors. 

the maximum amount of LEDs that would be used would be 3 and the whole thing would need to run off of a 9-volt battery. so any ideas?

Comments

[CameronSS]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Blinking-LEDs-to-Music/

That runs off a 9V battery and uses an iPod headphone port for power, so you might even be able to use the guitar output directly. Not sure how hot a signal that is, you might have to tap into the amp.

If you could get the signals to work, you might even be able to do fun things with separate banks of light for each pickup, or each string. That would probably be an even weaker signal, though. I'm not familiar with electric guitar circuitry.

[tieguy]

Yeah I was thinking that one too, but i want it to be INSIDE the guitar, because it's acrylic.

[CameronSS]

You aren't going to find transparent electronics anywhere. No matter what you do, you're going to have to carve out a spot and embed some components or a circuit board. I'm not entirely sure what specifically about that project makes it unsuitable.

[tieguy]

.....I have a transparent guitar. it's acrylic, I'd be sticking the electronics behind the pick guard.

[CameronSS]

Okay, so what else do you want? You've gotten plenty of ideas for making the electronics, I'm not understanding what the issue is with having a transparent guitar.

[tieguy]

there's no issue, but I'm wondering how to make it so the LEDs react to the plucking of strings. for instance, would it be possible to wire it into one of the pickups without losing sound quality. Or would it be possible to wire in a small microphone to pickup the sound instead of a headphone jack? would that require an amp for the mic?


Also, it'd be great to have more than one LED color, so could I create the same circuit in that 'ible, but with two red LEDs and two blue LEDs?

[NachoMahma]

> would it be possible to wire it into one of the pickups without losing sound quality.
.  Probably. Use a pre-amp with a high impedance input and loss/distortion should be minimal.
.
> Or would it be possible to wire in a small microphone to pickup the sound instead of a headphone jack? would that require an amp for the mic?
.  Very possible. You will probably need a pre-amp, but may not need one for something like a piezo.
.
.
.  Combine that with the link CameronSS provided earlier (you can find more sophisticated circuits, but that one should work well for your purposes) and you should be good to go. Everything, including a 9-volt battery, should fit comfortably behind the pick guard.

[usLEDsupply]

i would get a color organ or even a cheap $5 led music flashy thing on ebay that plugs into your lighter socket in your car that has a mic and flashes a bunch of leds then take it apart and use the circuit to control your own RGB leds or Flex Strip (you may have to use a darlington array if you have a lot of leds)

you may have to use a 12v battery as well but i think it would be worth it

a little info on connecting a darlington array
http://fritzing.org/projects/arduino-knight-rider-with-8-blue-12v-led-modules/

[FastLearner]

You could have a sound sensor hooked up to the LEDs.

[7654321]

Well electric guitars have very low output voltage, usually between 100mV and 1V, so you would might need a small amp. And the project Cameron mentioned would probably work.

[Re-design]

Look up "color organ". THat's what you are needing.