Famous Fretboarder in LED horror shock

sev112

Bridgehouse said:

sev112 said:

Did you also try and play those upside down Hendrix-type strats in the background

One of them is @clarky ‘s pukka left hander!!!

I presumed they all were

Funkfingers

digitalscream

Y'know, much as it ain't my cup of tea, that was the first time I genuinely smiled all day. Bonkers!

Bridgehouse

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Don’t get me wrong Alan, it made both me and @digitalscream smile a lot - and given how noisy It was in the hall and how tiring standing up all day is - that’s quite an achievement!

Yeah, apparently it was heavy and was a bit cumbersome, but man did it look cool and it really did tickle our funny bones. 

You should be proud of the fact it was the only thing I saw at the show that was noteworthy enough to get its own thread

SimpleSimon

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Not sure showing people a guitar that plays like a stinker is going to generate much investment potential. I presume when PRS used to turn up back stage at potential punters gigs he knew the guitar played and sounded flawless hence his rise to where he is now?

Bridgehouse

@Alan_Parkes  - meant to say, post a thread in Making and Modding or Made in the UK and let us know more about it - it would be nice to have something genuinely different and unique over there  

Bridgehouse

SimpleSimon said:

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Not sure showing people a guitar that plays like a stinker is going to generate much investment potential. I presume when PRS used to turn up back stage at potential punters gigs he knew the guitar played and sounded flawless hence his rise to where he is now?

Except the playability would be easy to sort - this Guitar was TOTALLY about the visuals..

Plectrum

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

Apparently it weighed about 500kg and was as easy to play as a Chibson..

Lighter and more playable than a real Gibson, then?

You've not set the bar very high there

digitalscream

To be perfectly honest, I don't think the setup was bad at all - my main issues were the weight and the fact that the neck was far too big for my delicate little hands. I actually think a lot of folk here would have quite liked it!

Plectrum

Bridgehouse said:

I have videos too...

I saw a few times. It looks heavy but fun

Alan_Parkes

Thanks for your comments Simon and I take your point. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to finish it before the show and I took it along just to gauge reaction and see if there might be a market for this kind of product - I wasn't really expecting anyone to actually plug it into an amp and play it, to be perfectly honest.

Alan_Parkes

Bridgehouse said:

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Don’t get me wrong Alan, it made both me and @digitalscream smile a lot - and given how noisy It was in the hall and how tiring standing up all day is - that’s quite an achievement!

Yeah, apparently it was heavy and was a bit cumbersome, but man did it look cool and it really did tickle our funny bones. 

You should be proud of the fact it was the only thing I saw at the show that was noteworthy enough to get its own thread

Thanks - very kind of you to say that and delighted to hear that it made your day, as it were. I've posted something up in the Making and Modding section as you suggested. 

Bridgehouse

Alan_Parkes said:

Bridgehouse said:

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Don’t get me wrong Alan, it made both me and @digitalscream smile a lot - and given how noisy It was in the hall and how tiring standing up all day is - that’s quite an achievement!

Yeah, apparently it was heavy and was a bit cumbersome, but man did it look cool and it really did tickle our funny bones. 

You should be proud of the fact it was the only thing I saw at the show that was noteworthy enough to get its own thread

Thanks - very kind of you to say that and delighted to hear that it made your day, as it were. I've posted something up in the Making and Modding section as you suggested. 

Good man!

viz

Alan_Parkes said:

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. Sure it's heavy, but this was just a prototype I'd built to take to the show and I hadn't fully set it up or adjusted it yet, so its a bit of a stinker to play right now. If you'd like to know more about it and the other LED guitars I've built, please check out my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

It’s an amazing concept!

Roland

@Alan_Parkes  What can you do to get the weight down, eg making the body hollow?

Alan_Parkes

I'm afraid I'm the creator and inventor of this "Spectrumaxe" guitar. 

Thanks very much everyone for your thoughts and comments - must admit a few of them did make me giggle. Sure, it's no lightweight and at this time only a prototype that I hadn't fully set up in time for the show, so a bit of a stinker to play right now. However I took it along to see what kind of reaction I might get.  Most people who saw it thought it was amazing, so on the whole I was really delighted with the feedback. If you'd like to know more, please have a look at my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com

Thanks,

Alan

Alan_Parkes

Roland said:

@Alan_Parkes  What can you do to get the weight down, eg making the body hollow?

The simplest answer is to use a smaller guitar body - acrylic plastic is an incredibly dense material compared to wood and accounts for most of the weight. I'm planning to make my next model based on an SG style acrylic body, that is significantly smaller and lighter than the acrylic Strat body. Think it would be quite difficult to make the body completely hollow, but it's worth considering for future development.

Alnico

 @Alan_Parkes

What does a custom build run to in £'s?
Say I wanted an RG like Steve Vai's 20th Anni. Jem....?

Skip to 1:03 to see the effect.


Steve's doesn't have dancing fretboard lights (Loser!) but I'd like my version to have them, so what would that kind of thing come in at?
(Yes I know it's difficult to quote, I mean what ballpark.....£600?,...£6,000? etc)

thomasross20

Aw man, totally awesome!!

Alan_Parkes

Alnico said:

 @Alan_Parkes

What does a custom build run to in £'s?
Say I wanted an RG like Steve Vai's 20th Anni. Jem....?

Skip to 1:03 to see the effect.


Steve's doesn't have dancing fretboard lights (Loser!) but I'd like my version to have them, so what would that kind of thing come in at?
(Yes I know it's difficult to quote, I mean what ballpark.....£600?,...£6,000? etc)

It's certainly quite difficult to give you an accurate estimate, as it depends on your choice of pickups, and neck quality etc. I would need to look into this in more detail with some guidance from you.

I'm planning to make a fairly basic model with dynamically responding LEDS in the fretboard only for about £500. One with an acrylic body with dynamically responding LEDS in both the fretboard and guitar body (like the one I took to The Guitar Show at the weekend) is likely to be nearer £1K. However if you want performance grade/quality pickups and neck etc., it could be substantially more. I can also build and fit a Spectrumaxe neck to an existing guitar from around £200. However please check out the Q/A page on my website at: www.spectrumaxe.com