How to build an LED dotted fretboard (tutorial). 

I will prob never build a guitar but I still love these tech tutorials. Thanks for sharing.

You're SOOO lucky that this works with just one resistor!!! Keep in mind that you will burn the resistor out real quick if you do it this way. If you want to do it properly, you check the LED voltage and current, and calculate the right resistor for each LED!!! There's no such thing as a 6-12V resistor. ALL resistors work with 6-12V. You want about 10mA through each LED, so roughly 100mA total. Blue LED's have a forward voltage of about 2,5V at 10mA. You use a 9V battery, so a single resistor will dissipate 0,35W. The one you used is rated for 0,25W. You'd need to use a resistor in series with EVERY LED! For 9V operation you need 650 Ohm resistors. If you do it any other way, the LED's or resistor(s) won't live long, and you can't replace them... A shorted out LED or burnt resistor will cause all the LED's to fail.

Have you thought of using fiber optics as the light source and epoxy for the dots? You would need to do less routing and the light source could be in the body of the guitar and more accessible.

Thanks for taking the time to post this!! Yours is the best and most informative video on this process I've found so far, and I've been looking for a while! Can hardly wait to try this on my next project!

Use a hair dryer for the shrink tube. A flame sometimes goes beyond the heat rating for the shrink tube.

A while back I saw a good video where this guy ,had the leds follow his hand one at a time up and down the neck

I still remember when I learned the hard way that aluminum can't be soldered by any reasonable means. The tape however is a really good idea, copper and gold adhesive backed foil tapes are widely used in electronics and not hard to find.

We all know that guitars with LED lights are crap, but it's still nice to watch that stuff ;D

Led lights on the fret board look great

I guess I now have to do one for people who don't want to take their guitars apart. Thanks for the idea!

Building a p bass, going to do this. Thanks

Just started learning my bass. Boy how id love this on it but in green..

It might be awhile before I can build a guitar and do the LED'S in the fretboard, but those parts have inspired me to other projects. I am looking at a kit guitar that this may work very well in.

Beautiful job! I just finished rebuilding ny very first bass guitar. Neck got destroyed, fixed it and put a new fingerboard on it. Thought of LEDs but wasn't ready for the challenge yet. Now i got more tools like the dremel router and seeing how the channel routes for the wires go, it all makes sense. I have a bit more confidence after watching your video to tackle this mod on a future guitar build!

Nice. this is something I've been thinking of doing to my cigar box guitar.

Love the idea! Maybe one day my guitar can join the family? :)

Why would there be interference? Firstly, it's DC current, so more or less constant and thus not inducing. Secondly, while it might itself pick up environmental noise, it is not connected to the audio circuit (might be different for active pickups) and also, there is both a plus and a minus wire, parallel to each other. Thus, noise would cancel out.

Excellent tutorial, thanks for sharing. Greetings from Yucatan Mexico.

Beautiful work - Looks great!

Ok yuo guita and led thank yuo !!! Hapy you múic guita numbone!!!!

You really don't want to wire LEDs in parallel willy nilly, if they arent matched, which the kind you used rarely are, some will draw more current than the others, and that can be dangerous when you calculated the resistor value to drive them closer to their current limit, that can make some LEDs draw much more current and then burn out. The best option is to use individual current limiting resistors for each LED, and if you really want to use a single resistor, string them in series and use a much higher voltage source. You are also wasting a bunch of the energy of that battery this way, blue LEDs usually have a forward voltage of around 3V, with 2.5V being very common, you could have used strings of 2, or even maybe 3, if you have LEDs with a low forward voltage, in series using that 9V battery, or simply used a rechargeable Li-ion battery, like a 16850, and simply used a 100R resistor per LED (assuming they have a 2.5V forward voltage), that way you can limit the current to each LED to just a bit under 20mA with the battery fully charged. Or if you reeeeeealy wanna get fancy, use addressable LEDs (those use 5V and need proper regulation) and an Arduino do control them, you'll probably want to shield all the wires as much as possible, though, to limit any cross-talk that might happen with the strings when you have data being transferred.

I would worry about the neck radius shaping and hitting the LED's but like the general idea. Maybe I'll do this on the next one.

Great tutorial, really clear, cheers!

Looks great! Only one thing puzzles me, an Americans ability to pronounce solder (should rhyme with shoulder and Boulder)

Pretty cool.

Brilliant project, good video.

Thank u sir, great content

Don't you put any transparent dots inlays on the fret boards?

You wont get even a tiny bit of interference because its a dc circuit and there is no AC making noise!

This was awesome. And very brave 😂

Great video, thanks

That's super cool! Nice job dude! That looks a lot easier than I expected it to be. If you bend a string on top of the led is it still smooth like a factory fretboard? Or does it change the playing abilities at all?

Do you sell any of these? I would love to buy a translucent blue LED Northstar 7-string guitar.

Great 👍👍👍

Curious if you seal the rosewood fretboard after drilling the holes with urethane or anything, just skimmed thru, at work, will watch in detail afterwards.

Killer ❤

what were you using for inlay filler? glitter? any epoxy? or is it slightly recessed as a scallop would be?

I'm amazed that you can do all the routing freehand without having the dremel wander. Where do you get the material (it looks like ebony?) for the finger boards and how do you radius is after doing all the carving?

Can you make a video on how to install LEDs on the side fret markers

Hi. Nice work! 👍👍

Extreme coolness. Suppose you wanted to control the LED brightness. Could that be done with a small pot ? In fact a push/pulls pot, such as to turn on/off and control the brightness?

consider using Manual focus on your camera (unless your using a mobile phone's camera)

What is that translucid dust you poured to fill the dots with?

so..how you fix if Any problem on LED? examp... 1 led not works

What is the name of the powder u use in your inlay and where can i find it? Thanks in advance for answering

What du you put on the top of the leds? Fretboard side?

what size were the drill bits used to drill the fret board? does it matter the direction of the capacitor when soldering?

Does it have to be with an active bass, using its battery? Or can you just separately add a battery just for the lights

Need to see pink light

Could you do this to a fretlight guitar? I would like to run the lights with a 9v instead of having to use an ac adapter.

Where are 2 positive and 2negative wires from?

I'm trying to do that thing on my guitar. Maybe with optic fiber. With leds looks better and easier to do the job but I'm scared... What happens if one led burn out? Can't decide

What size bit did you use for cutting of the inlay? Also what powder did you use?

did you radius the lights to match the fretboard? If not, are you able to feel the lights while you play?

where did you purchase the nn/off switch at? can you provide the location?

Hi, how much does it lasts the battery in this LEDS?

What is the name of the powder u use in your inlay ?? Is it just glue and glitters ?

How do you install these on the side of the neck where the dot markers are

Why not use pcb??

I want to do it but can not find the video.

how to add lighting in the guitar for a particular pattern to be illuminated?

how long does this last ? is there no easy way to replace a bad led after gluing the fretboard? I have read ideas with optic fiber, but almost all use 12v instead of 9v so ... its kinda dificult to do a portable version uh...

Nisssssssssce 🏆

wish i had some power tools

One resistor 12v?

how long does the it last till you have to replace the lights

How did you know what resistors you'd need or where to put them?

Hi, was there a reason why you did not make two LEDs for the 12th fret?

how much can i pay you to do that to mine

Darn. No wonder they charge 780 Euros to do this on SIMS. Hard work, but worth it.

Mind if i ask But how much is the total cost ?

Do you sand the top of the led’s when you radius the fretboard?

Hey , what resistor did you use ?

me when autofocus

What did you use for dot inlay..tranparent?