LEDs, Electric Guitars, and stupid stage tricks!

Hello,

I am designing a small circuit to install in a modification to a "scrap" guitar I am working on. This is the result I want:

I am installing blue LED's (If i can find some) under lexan windows placed in the body of the guitar, these will be on constantly when the circuit is active.

Whenever a string is plucked, red LED's, installed in the same compartments will turn on. These will only be on when a string is oscillating.

The only requirements for this project are:

1) it must be SMALL (I must fit it in the body of the guitar without too much cutting) and run off low voltage (preferably 9V DC) so i can fit it all into the guitar!

2) guitar pickups are passive, meaning they produce no current by themselves

3) can not add noticable noise to the signal going out of the guitar!

I am at quite a loss where to go with this idea, but so far i have planned to run leads from the pickups before the volume or tone resistors in the guitar, this makes the pickup effectively a passive transformer in my understanding of things... where do I go from here?

I would appreciate any ideas or explanations anyone may have! many pictures will be available if it works!!

Thanks,
JM
Jam012385@aol.com

 

you need a battery to power the LED, and a CMOS amplifier for each circuit. If no external power provided, tough luck. It's possible, but not for a amateur.

Give this a try: put a LED and a diode in // and opposite polarity. Put the pair in series with the pickup coil. It may work.

 

Hey KoolKid,

Thanks for the idea, but i can have power, i have room for a single 9V DC battery in the space for whatever needs it.

 

[Lewish]

Hello Blank, One thing to consider is that all the strings vibrate when any one is struck. So, you will probably want to add some kind of threshold detection to keep the LEDs off until the string is actually plucked.

 

[busbar]

Although somewhat larger, for higher currents there is supposed to be significantly more energy in a pair of AA-lithium cells compared to a 9V alkaline battery.