LED fretboard markers

[SpondonBassed]

4 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Of course, what these guys never tell you, is that playing the instrument is a complete waste of time - the colour changing and switching of the LEDs inject a whole lot of noise into the audio path. I have even challenged a couple of builder on Facebook to tell me otherwise... and without fail, all of them have admitted that the LEDs are pretty pointless if you actually want to play with them on and not wanting to hear a load of unwanted noise coming from the switching controllers.

The only person that I know have nailed it that I know of, is Bernie at GB and his electronic guru, Richard. - Even GBs don't use the addressable Neopixels that all these other guys are using... GBs are single colour LED... for this reason. No point iin having all the showbiz if your can't use it without a load shizz coming out of you speakers. Having said that, some people would argue a load of shizz comes out of my speakers - even when I'm playing a bass without LEDs.

These multicolour LEDs only serve one purpose - to get your brand noticed on Facebook.

I wondered about noise from that sort of kit.  I larfed at the FB comment.

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 1, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[EBS_freak]

25 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I wondered about noise from that sort of kit.  I larfed at the FB comment.

The other thing that they don't tell you, is that the power drawer on that number of LEDs is horrendously high. A single neopixel at full brightness is 0.06A at 5V.  So I don't know, 150 of those gives you 45W, 9A...  So with a 2000mAh battery, you are looking at a run time of about 13 minutes. Plus... you've got to take into account the controller, that normally requires a 12v source. So in reality, you are looking at a 12v battery so you can power the controller... and then a buck transformer - or a number of to cater for the wattage - (with associated losses) to take it down to  5v.

So all in all, you are looking at a complete mess or cavities in your bass... or you are looking at running something phantom powered up a cable. Want to run an external controller outside of the bass to control the LEDs? Well... you've got 1.5m before you get data loss... and thats not taking into account the voltage drop you'll get between your power source and the last LED in your chain. (Ever noticed on some of these LED guitars how some LEDs are not as bright as the others? - thats because they haven't injected power regularly enough in the LED chain... or they haven't got the ground only connected at the last pixel so the distance between +ve and ground for  all pixels is the same).

So yeah... marketing gimmick. 

[EBS_freak]

3 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

I can see this fine, if it's any help!

I have LEDs on my Status- I probably wouldn't have ordered them myself, but as the bass was second hand I was quite happy to go with them. They have come in handy once or twice on dark stages, being a very black bass. They do also get a big reaction from punters, especially playing a more modern sounding, dancey set. Probably wouldn't pop them on with a blues band, though!

Indeed- right time, right place. whizzed up people at a wedding love it. Down the pub playing blues? Well, yeah, you should get all the ribbing you deserve. Like everything, right bass for the occasion. 

You'd be a   d i c k   turning up to play blue with a 7 string bass too... 😛

Edited June 25, 2018 by EBS_freak

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 1, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[josie]

I can see some point in having edge markers, the bass I saw had steady red ones on the front. I do think of them as a cheap gimmick I'm afraid, out of place on something as reputable as an Alembic. There are some pretty impressive examples on the thread above, but I'm afraid I still think if I saw one at a gig it would make a poor first impression and I'd be distracted from actually listening to it. Purely imho of course!

This is the best pic I could get on my phone from a long way back.

[Woodinblack]

9 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

The other thing that they don't tell you, is that the power drawer on that number of LEDs is horrendously high. A single neopixel at full brightness is 0.06A at 5V.  So I don't know, 150 of those gives you 45W, 9A...  So with a 2000mAh battery, you are looking at a run time of about 13 minutes. Plus... you've got to take into account the controller, that normally requires a 12v source. So in reality, you are looking at a 12v battery so you can power the controller... and then a buck transformer - or a number of to cater for the wattage - (with associated losses) to take it down to  5v.

What leds are those? not sure what a neopixel is, but a normal red led is 20mA at 1.8V at full brightness, which is pretty bright.

But I must admit more what I am after is a fine red (or whatever colour, definitely not blue) dot on the side marker, that wouldn't be just visible under normal lighting conditions. So I am thinking with fibre optics, 10 dots powered by one LED. Or at the very most like the lights on Jimrs2k2 status

 

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

What leds are those? not sure what a neopixel is, but a normal red led is 20mA at 1.8V at full brightness, which is pretty bright.

But I must admit more what I am after is a fine red (or whatever colour, definitely not blue) dot on the side marker, that wouldn't be just visible under normal lighting conditions. So I am thinking with fibre optics, 10 dots powered by one LED. Or at the very most like the lights on Jimrs2k2 status

 

Neopixels are ws2812bs - basically a 5050 RGB addressable LED (so basically 3 LEDs in one that are blendable to achieve your desired tone)

[Phil P]

That particular Alembic is mine. I lent it to my son who was playing at the festival so he didnt have to bring one of his Alembics up from London.

It's a series 1 with moderate customising. Series 2 electronics. It has red side marker LEDs as well as the fret markers. The markers have a dimmer on the front so you can turn them down or off if you want. Its the bottom knob on the picture. The LEDs only illuminate when it's powered from the DS5 power supply. They dont come on when using battery power.

It had LEDS when I bought it. I like them.

Each to their own.

[EBS_freak]

I like it too Phil.

[Woodinblack]

5 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Neopixels are ws2812bs - basically a 5050 RGB addressable LED (so basically 3 LEDs in one that are blendable to achieve your desired tone)

Ahh - so one with a processor in too - makes sense. Don't think I would use one of those on a bass!

3 hours ago, Phil P said:

That particular Alembic is mine. I lent it to my son who was playing at the festival so he didnt have to bring one of his Alembics up from London.

It's a series 1 with moderate customising. Series 2 electronics. It has red side marker LEDs as well as the fret markers. The markers have a dimmer on the front so you can turn them down or off if you want. Its the bottom knob on the picture. The LEDs only illuminate when it's powered from the DS5 power supply. They dont come on when using battery power.

I like that. I probably wouldn't play it live, but only because it had a string too few!

In fact the only thing I am not so keen on on that is the XLR on the front.

[Woodinblack]

20 hours ago, dood said:

Any excuse, here are mine:

 

What is the pattern on yours?

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Ahh - so one with a processor in too - makes sense. Don't think I would use one of those on a bass!

Yes and no. In terms of the processing of the ws2812b chip, it looks after the addressing and processing of the RGB values... but it won't generate any patterns or anything like that. Thats where the external processor comes in.

Edited June 26, 2018 by EBS_freak

[three]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Ahh - so one with a processor in too - makes sense. Don't think I would use one of those on a bass!

I like that. I probably wouldn't play it live, but only because it had a string too few!

In fact the only thing I am not so keen on on that is the XLR on the front.

I don’t think that’s an xlr, it’s the socket for the Alembic cable to the DS5.  This will carry power to the bass (lights and actice circuit) and signal back to amp/FoH.

Phil P - what an outsatanding bass - looks like 13 piece wings - unusual and beautiful cocobolo (if that’s what it is - I’m on a phone).  On topic again, I’m not a fan of front of board lights but Alembic will supply pretty much any configuration and I’ve not had any problem with unevenness. The little silver circles that surround side of board lights are a lovely and very subtle touch

[Phil P]

Yes. It's bookmatched cocobola. Mica at Alembic calls it the great red spot bass and it was built as a custom. The LED pack was included in the build spec.  Series Alembics generally have  a 5 pin XLR for +-15volts and stereo output. You can use a 1/4 Jack which switches over to internal batteries, but life is short. The Alembic XLR leads are amazingly reliable so pretty much everyone uses them. My son does post here as JackPlug. he has a few other Alembics, with and without LEDs. His series 2 has blue side markers so I guess Josie wont like that either. She might like his Wolf which has no LEDs, no XLR and probably enough strings for Woodinblack.

Each to their own.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Phil P
typo and details

[Woodinblack]

Oh don't get me wrong, I think they are a work of art, with or without the xlr, just seemed an odd placement. They look very solid, never had a chance to play one.

For me, combine the wood of the top one with the string count of the bottom one, we are talking! Oh and throw in the LEDS, I would always like those, because in my book if you don't want them you can turn them off, and I am sure when I played Jims Status it sounded better with the LEDs on!

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

What is the pattern on yours?

Many years ago, a bass chatter actually worked out that the dots form a sort of scale.. a weird one mind, but that wasn't the plan. Both my 7 and my 6 string have the same inlay. I guess you could call it a single strand of a DNA helix. We originally planned (or rather I had the crazy idea) of having a complete DNA design across the fretboard. but it just looked daft. I guess we had the same view as Josie is having about LEDs in general. It was just way over the top and from a distance made no sense whatsoever. So one single thread winding down the fretboard ended up being a way more tasteful and stylish addition. Interestingly, the original design that started life on my 7 string was made up of clear blue dots. It looked understated on the massive bird's eye maple fretboard. When I came to commission the 6 string headless, we went with the same colour scheme, electronics, everything so I had a 'little sister' to the big 7er. However, unbeknownst to me, Jon Shuker was hatching a plan. A very thoughtful and kind gesture which he surprised me with when I went to collect my six string. Somehow he'd managed to keep secret that the blue dots were not blue dots.. Imagine my surprise when he flicked up the switch and my new fretboard lit up! 

I don't have the LEDs on all the time. Sometimes they go on just for fun and that's what they are for. No big "hey look at me" moments or ego boosts needed  

Edited June 26, 2018 by dood
bloody autocorrect

[josie]

6 hours ago, Phil P said:

That particular Alembic is mine. I lent it to my son who was playing at the festival so he didnt have to bring one of his Alembics up from London. 

 

Beautiful. Wish I'd had a chance of a closer look at the time.

I liked the band enough to buy the EP btw:

https://www.emilyfayemusic.com/about

 

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

What is the pattern on yours?

Further to my last, as they say. Just found a snap of my 7er.

[jazzyvee]

On 26/06/2018 at 00:12, josie said:

I can see some point in having edge markers, the bass I saw had steady red ones on the front. I do think of them as a cheap gimmick I'm afraid, out of place on something as reputable as an Alembic. There are some pretty impressive examples on the thread above, but I'm afraid I still think if I saw one at a gig it would make a poor first impression and I'd be distracted from actually listening to it. Purely imho of course!

This is the best pic I could get on my phone from a long way back.

I think I know who that bass player is and if I'm right I have played that bass too. 🙂

LED's are available for all their models and the series II they come as standard all others are optional. I have side LEDs on mine and whilst they are a great asset, after a while you kind of forget they are there, until someone points them out. Front ones are more for show in my view and I personally wouldn't spec them as the cost would be better spent on the sound and other ergonomic preferences on the bass. However if i found a great bass, having front LED's wouldn't stop me buying the bass but i'd keep them turned off. 

 

 

[jebroad]

I love them and i'm incorporating them in some future builds (hopefully)

Edited June 28, 2018 by jebroad

[jazzyvee]

For anyone looking for after market side LEDs then I can recommend Fretfx. have them on all my basses that don't have led's installed at manufacture.

Other than that Simms do them at far greater cost but I hear good things about his work.

[Woodinblack]

I am guessing that even the budget option is expensive?

[jazzyvee]

I think mine were about £90 each.

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, jazzyvee said:

For anyone looking for after market side LEDs then I can recommend Fretfx. have them on all my basses that don't have led's installed at manufacture.

Any pics of what they look like?