Lighting up the f holes

[ZMech]

Had a thought today that it'd look pretty cool on a dark stage to have a pair of glowing f holes on my double bass. Wouldn't have to be bright, just enough to be seen from the audience. Has anyone ever tried something like that? Would be easy to do if the inside wasn't so hard to access.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ZMech

[steve]

all you'd need to do is rig a couple of LEDs up to a battery with a current limiting resistor on a bit of wire to hook over each f hole, what could possibly go wrong?

[Dad3353]

Good evening, ZMech...
Slightly more delicate to do, but much better effect, is to backlight transluscent paper covering the f-holes. A direct light source inside will not do too much, but a diffuser will really show up, even on moderately lit stages. (I've done this with giant backdrop figures; a pro400 backlighting the tracing-paper eyes was a huge effect for the group...).
Just a tip; hope this helps...

[BobVbass]

Yes - already done this & indeed it does look cool!

I used one of those round LED battrey powered lights with gaffa tape to hold it in place - fell off halfway through the gig with the spinning and thumping and haven't done it since as the prototype needed work

I like the tracing paper idea - would probably help with feedback as well....

Nothing like a gimmic to hide low a skill level. I use a lot of gimmics

[xgsjx]

Partylight?

[ZMech]

[quote name='Dad3353' post='1230606' date='May 14 2011, 12:41 AM']Good evening, ZMech...
Slightly more delicate to do, but much better effect, is to backlight transluscent paper covering the f-holes.[/quote]

Great idea, thanks for that. It'll be really annoying to tape in on the inside, but might be doable. Tracing paper would be ideal, probably with a red LED, and I'd need a switch and battery on the outside, maybe attached on the back of the tailpiece. At the moment this is all theoretical, but will put up any photos as and when.

[ZMech]

[quote name='steve' post='1230413' date='May 13 2011, 08:49 PM']what could possibly go wrong?[/quote]
Your mate could point out it's the musical equivalent of putting neon lights under your car. The idea's now been ruined for me.