Re: luminous fret markers?


"Jose de las Heras" <josenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7dt0eqF2dr1fsU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's not the end of the world, but playing in dark stages with coloured
lights blinding you ocassionally sometimes makes it a bit harder to play.

I haven't yet played enough that I have perfect muscle memory of where every
note is, so sometimes I do need to look at the fretboard and see where I am.
Side fretmarkers are really helpful. If you can see them.

With one band in particular I play my very dark "nirvana black" Warwick
Corvette $$ that lacks markers on the front, only has the smaller side ones.
That's ok. Except we often play at a particular bar where I see nothing.

I suspect most people just suck it and get over it. I will too. But
meanwhile I was thinking of having some sort of "aid".
I've seen things like "FretFX": an extremely strip of coloured leds that
attaches to teh side of the fingerboard. I'm positive this will work, but it
seems a bit "showy".
So I bought a small vial of the brightest phosphorescent paint I could find
(water-based) and put small dots over the existing fret markers (can be
scratched out easily leaving no mark). It's perfect right after you flash
the paint. Bright enough, yet unobstrusive and nobody else would really
notice them. The problem is after only a few minutes the glow has halved or
more. A faint glow remains for hours, but that's only visible in total
darkness and would not work.

Has anybody tried anything like this successfully?

At this point I've accepted to just deal with playing blind and practice to
get better at it. But I thought I'd ask anyway.

Jose
--
www.mcnach.com
Richt Hoat Chillies: http://www.myspace.com/rhcpscot - Bass: OLP MM2
Conscious Route: http://www.myspace.com/consciousroute - Bass: Warwick Corvette $$
www.myspace.com/purplenoise68
-
Current favourite guitar: Fender 'Sambora' Stratocaster
Current favourite bass: Warwick Corvette $$

I think my old mate Andy Bond addressed this back in thye '70s while developing the Bond Electraglide guitar, using LED dots.

Anyway, I have exactly the same problem you describe with my early Strat (which I don't want to modify too much), and wonder whether it might be possible to use a UV lamp (yeah, I know, discos...) to highlight the dots you've painted. Pop it on a nearby PA cab, maybe?

Just thinking out loud...

Roger

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Short review on the old guitar player
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  • Re: SOT: Tastes in Music
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  • Re: luminous fret markers?
    ... I haven't yet played enough that I have perfect muscle memory of where every ... With one band in particular I play my very dark "nirvana black" Warwick ... Conscious Route:http://www.myspace.com/consciousroute - Bass: Warwick ... There's a rival of FretFX called Fretlord, who do a similar LED strip ...
    (uk.music.guitar)
  • Re: Short review on the old guitar player
    ... play or not - I don't care if they don't know the song. ... the quicky recording to back up some of this BS. ... I know a bass player who can't ... the dots but can't do the same in G w/o the dots. ...
    (alt.guitar.beginner)