Acrylic Guitar LED mod

I put a string of ASDA's finest cheap LEDs into my acrylic guitar

Stuff used:

- Acrylic Guitar
- Blue LEDs from ASDA (�3.50)
- A Rocker Switch salvaged from a broken laptop power supply
- A bunch of Icicle sticks which were saved up (I knew they might come in handy)
- Soldering iron
- A Drill
- A steel rule
- Screwdrivers
- My brother's arm. I didn't have a set of helping hands at this point

This took about 30minutes and (I think) looks pretty awesome

EDIT: If you mess up your guitar, It's not my fault, it's your own, so please don't try to sue me or anything =D

Step 1: Making Battery Space

I never use the tremelo system on my guitar (partly because I didn't get a tremelo arm with it, and partly because it throws my guitar out of tune) so I figured I could lock down the bridge... somehow

Then I found a bunch of old icicle sticks lying around and jammed them between the bridge and the body of the guitar and removed the springs. this left a perfect space for the battery compartment.

Obviously, since the switch is on the compartment, this was going to be awkward for switching the lights on/off. So the switch was left on and another switch was inserted in the wiring.

Comments

[PeeB4Ugo]

I would add these strings

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=dr+strings&start=261&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=625&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=zyNsQPuIX6wGRM:&imgrefurl=http://kickport.com/blog/2012/01/the-hottest-new-gear-from-day-one-of-namm-along-with-the-kickport/&docid=gip8CrCB-hm1uM&imgurl=http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/100_2441.jpg&w=1920&h=2560&ei=NIi2T6DbL7GM6QHTxLGACw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=421&sig=110560063112201783142&page=13&tbnh=141&tbnw=120&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:261,i:187&tx=103&ty=97

they rock \m/

[WillsBradford]

They look amazing!

[Denbball]

Beginning May 1 2012, DJ Guitars will be offering Acrylic Modular guitars with your choice of graphics and lighting inside for under $900 Will keep you posted with the progress.

[jgwak]

is this battery powered? or is it somehow connect to the pickups or something? because just by putting it in and soldering all together wont actually light up the LEDs. : /

[WillsBradford]

Uhh, yeah, I probably should've mentioned that.

The string of LEDs I bought had a battery pack connected to it :)

[Max "the bassist" Pratt]

I am about to rout an acrylic guitar on my cnc and maybe i could throw a battery cavity into the cad drawing

Thanks so much

Also if you sand sertant parts of the acrylic or drill holes in it those willlight up brighter, look into it

[TheAntiHeroHimself]

You should make a video of it and post it here, I mean, a picture looks nice and all, but I'm sure it'd be nice to see it in action =]

It'd also be awesome to make it a strobe light! haha

[diy-guitar-guy]

i have experiance with blocked trems and the best thing to do if you want your guitar to stay in tune the best is to buy another spring and have four on it. the strats i have it on barley go out of tune

[jeff-o]

It really begs the question, "If you have an acrylic guitar, why wouldn't you install LEDs??"

Very cool.

[big-jamie]

 i have an Acrylic guitar, had it for a while so im looking to...spice things up a bit, so adding LEDs seems a good way to do so, but the reason i hadnt installed them earlier is because....i love my guitar, and if something goes wrong i'd be devastated i'd screwed my guitar

a reasonable answer for a rhetorical question =) lol

[rangeside]

I was kinda wondering the same thing.

[tj the gnome]

I'm about to try this with a floyd rose. the process should be the same but if theres anything that i should know about...

[WillsBradford]

I'm not sure what the Floyd Rose tremelo system's like inside.
But it should be similar.

Bear in mind, if you mess it up completely, It's not my fault =D

[tanicka.thomas]

that guitar is sic

[tanicka.thomas]

rite bac

[tanicka.thomas]

g2g bye

[tj the gnome]

This is Pretty cool, but where can i get a cheap acrylic guitar?

[tanicka.thomas]

i dont no but my brotha got hes from sydney

[WillsBradford]

Not sure, Try eBay? I just found one in a local Music Store

[tj the gnome]

ya i found some cool ones on ebay, they even have a randy rhodes one! i know how i'm doing this now, haha.

[DylanD4194]

Pretty sick man..... you need to add multicolor lights and a selector switch. that way you can change it up from time to time. or better yet, a circuit that has different color lights sinked with the strings.

[Koelker12]

that is possibly one of the coolest guitars ive ever seen.

[WillsBradford]

Thanks =]

[riconaka]

This is the coolest mod! thank you! I've been wanting to do this to my acrylic Mockingbird. Where in the guitar did you install the LEDs?

[WillsBradford]

Thanks. Awesome, Mockingbirds look pretty cool. I put the LEDs under the Scratchplate

[RapidMustang]

Now all we need is an ible on how to make an acrylic guitar! That would be awesome.

[WillsBradford]

I did think about trying to make my own acrylic guitar, but slabs of acrylic are about £100... and I'm skint xD

[Hamb0]

Cool

ALMOST as good as mine :P

http://www.instructables.com/id/The_Plastic_Rainbow_Instrument_of_Sonic_Mayhem_P/

I would enter it for this contest but blah blah only published since start of yadda yadda. Its only some daft monkey lights anyway..

Anyway, nice instructibly. Hope to see more.

[WillsBradford]

Nice, it looks pretty cool with the different colours =]

[daniel2008]

it would be great if you tried making a multi colored LED equalizer, so the lights would react/change to the music being played

[WillsBradford]

Awesome idea, I might try it sometime =]

[FlameSnake]

U have this contest in the bag pretty much this is INSANE BUT i dont have a guitar :( o well i still vote urs when i can:)

[WillsBradford]

Thanks, but I wouldn't say that. There's a lot of awesome stuff and there's still quite a bit of time.
Thanks anyway =]

[Iridium7]

does the acrylic sound good?

[koalabacon]

acrylic has a bright tone to it. you wont get a lot of bass out of it.

[WillsBradford]

I think it sounds pretty cool, but I'm no expert =]

[Iridium7]

all i needed was an opinion. :)

[WillsBradford]

cool

[masterofsniping92]

I thought acrylic guitars looked nice WITHOUT lights... This is just plain awesome. Only downside is that the only acrylic guitar I can purchase from the Guitar Center near me is approximately $3000. I don't remember what it's called, but I think it's an artist signature.

[koalabacon]

youre thinking of the dan armstrong sig model. go on ebay and look for GALVESTON model guitars. they make surprisingly good acrylic guitars for pretty cheap. (150ish) dont be fooled by they price. the hardware and craftsmanship on it is good