FretFX LED fret markers

[Happy Jack]

My main gigging bass is a Mike Lull T5, which has been my go-to bass since the day I bought it four years ago.

The only thing about it I don't like is

The neck of a bass guitar, when I'm on stage, is about the same distance from my eyes as a paperback when I'm reading it, and I need reading glasses. It's an age thing. Without glasses those tiny little dots that Mike Lull uses are vague blurs; under stage lighting they disappear completely. 

My usual solution is to enlarge the dots using Tippex / Snopake or similar, but that's a pretty cheesy solution on a £4k bass. 

Another thread here on BC reminded me about FretFX LED fret markers, which I read about years ago but discarded when I found they had to be specially imported from the States - too much like hard work.

I finally decided to give them a go and visited https://www.fretfx.com/

It's not the slickest website on the net but everything you need is there. My Lulls are all 35" scale but that's not a problem, and there's a decent choice of colours. I have red LEDs built into my Status Streamline so I decided to stick with red for this project too. Since FretFX treat each order as a custom build there's quite a long lead time (several weeks) plus of course they then have to be sent over from the States by post. All told, I waited a month for mine.

What arrives is pretty damned minimalist - a cardboard poster tube containing a 2"-wide strip of the plastic corrugated sheets that builders use as temporary flooring and carpet protection. The LED strip runs inside the corrugation to protect it and keep it straight, and all that you can see is the battery holder, a strip of six CR2032 batteries, and some business cards.

Once the two cable ties are snipped, the LED strip slides very easily out of the corrugation.

At this point, you realise that this is NOT an "LED strip", it's a length of fibre-optic cable with 'pulses' at fret-marker intervals, and the entire light-source is a single LED up in the battery compartment. It's actually a very elegant design and of course means that you can easily and safely cut the fibre-optic strip anywhere you like without affecting the uncut portion.

Rather than an off/on switch of some sort, the design has the CR2032 protruding from the batter holder (though still held in place firmly) which means that you switch it on by inserting the battery the right way up, and switch it off by removing the battery and re-inserting it upside down. A very nice piece of lateral thinking IMHO.

The installation process is really very simple and involves peeling off the plastic on the back of the fibre-optic strip while being very careful to line everything up the way you want it. It's a bit fiddly and Silvie is way better at this stuff than I am, so I stepped back and watched. 

The only thing to watch for is the routing of the portion of the strip that runs from the 1st fret to the battery holder on the headstock, i.e. the portion that is not actually stuck to anything. Once the main strip and the battery holder are fixed in place, some thought is needed to avoid (i) looking unsightly and (ii) having the cable pass where the weight of the bass will crush it when on a wall hanger or similar.

It's also worth mentioning that the LED is really pretty bloody bright! (Well ... duh!) When doing the installation, in broad daylight on a sunny day, Silvie had to have the LED markers off since they were dazzling her.

For an installation video, see the next post.

 

[Happy Jack]

 

[Happy Jack]

And the result?

First, in daylight:

That doesn't really do it justice, so here we are in my studio under sort-of stage lighting:

 

[Happy Jack]

When playing the bass, I can feel the 'pulses' under my thumb if I choose to, but under live conditions I can't imagine that I will notice them after the first four bars of the opening song.

If I had a magic wand to wave, then I'd probably add a Brightness knob to allow me to control just how bright these are. I suspect that would seriously compromise a very simply solution though.

I am intrigued however to see just how bright the green or yellow versions are - if the red is this bright then you could probably read a book by the yellow ones!

Will this prove to be a robust, long-lasting solution?

Ask me in five years ...

[T-Bay]

How much did it work out with post? (tax?)

[Silvia Bluejay]

I imagine the LEDs will decrease in brightness progressively as the battery's charge diminishes.

[Happy Jack]

51 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

How much did it work out with post? (tax?)

US$130.95

At the exchange rate of two years ago ($1.61) that would have been reasonable without actually being cheap.

At the current exchange rate ($1.26) this is clearly not the solution for everybody!

[HazBeen]

My eyes still work well enough, but Yamaha decided it was a good idea to use maple fretlines on a light rosewood board. Basically in any coloured/low light condition I cannot see the fretlines....  this may be a permanent fix to my glow in the dark pen solution. 

[T-Bay]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

US$130.95

At the exchange rate of two years ago ($1.61) that would have been reasonable without actually being cheap.

At the current exchange rate ($1.26) this is clearly not the solution for everybody!

That’s not horrendous, and a lot cheaper, not to mention a lot less risky, than having them permanently installed.

[Osiris]

The FretFX look great on the Thunderbird 

I recently picked up a new Mustang PJ which is a cracking little bass, but the top edge fret markers are the usual small white dots, but on this bass they straddle the maple neck wood the pale Pau Ferro fretboard wood. The trouble is that the Pau Ferro, although darker then the maple, is still more pale than rosewood. The result being that the fret markers are really difficult to see unless there is plenty of ambient light, which there rarely is on a gig. So something like the FretFX would be a great solution for me. It's Either that or taking a black marker pen to it, which is something I'd rather not do just in case I ever move the bass on in the future. 

Or ask @Happy Jack if he'd cut out some of the magic roundabout style flowers from his table cloth so I can use those as fret markers instead. No chance of missing those on the gig   

[Happy Jack]

12 minutes ago, Osiris said:

Or ask @Happy Jack if he'd cut out some of the magic roundabout style flowers from his table cloth ...

Oi! That's our Silvia's ironing board, I'll have you know. 

[Osiris]

11 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Oi! That's our Silvia's ironing board, I'll have you know. 

[Silvia Bluejay]

12 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Oi! That's our Silvia's ironing board, I'll have you know. 

Yup, 'cos ironing board makers believe people who iron are a. usually female, and b. devoid of any taste...

Haven't found a decent ironing board cover in the correct size for mine...

[Osiris]

6 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Yup, 'cos ironing board makers believe people who iron are a. usually female, and b. devoid of any taste...

Haven't found a decent ironing board cover in the correct size for mine...

If you find a more aesthetically appealing cover and want shot of the current monstrosity beauty then please give me a shout 

[Delberthot]

On 08/08/2018 at 11:31, Happy Jack said:

US$130.95

At the exchange rate of two years ago ($1.61) that would have been reasonable without actually being cheap.

At the current exchange rate ($1.26) this is clearly not the solution for everybody!

I'm thinking about getting another one of these but there's also the £20.52 VAT plus Royal Fail's ransom fee of £7 which takes it to about £131 but still cheaper than the £450 that it would cost to get the full SIMS treatment.

I think that the red are the brightest of all of them. The green was pretty bright and the blue, to me at least, was the best balance. That was back when you could get them from the US and slip under the radar for about £70 delivered

[r16ktx]

I have a blue FretFx (34") that came off the bass I had converted to fretless. I didn't refit as I found them too bright - instead I had luminlay side dots.

If anybody wants the redundant FretFx they're welcome as it's just decorating a house plant right now...

[r16ktx]

On 15/08/2018 at 18:25, r16ktx said:

I have a blue FretFx (34") that came off the bass I had converted to fretless. I didn't refit as I found them too bright - instead I had luminlay side dots.

If anybody wants the redundant FretFx they're welcome as it's just decorating a house plant right now...

 

 

Just so people know - this has now gone 

[Happy Jack]

Damn! I just missed it ...

 

[tauzero]

On 08/08/2018 at 10:35, Happy Jack said:

I am intrigued however to see just how bright the green or yellow versions are - if the red is this bright then you could probably read a book by the yellow ones!

Will this prove to be a robust, long-lasting solution?

Ask me in five years ...

 

What about in three and a half years?

[Happy Jack]

3 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

What about in three and a half years?

 

So far so good. The CR2032 lasts for ages, the LED strip is still absolutely fine, the glue has yet to fail, I'm really very happy with it.

 

[tauzero]

1 minute ago, Happy Jack said:

 

So far so good. The CR2032 lasts for ages, the LED strip is still absolutely fine, the glue has yet to fail, I'm really very happy with it.

 

 

There seems to be one minor issue with me getting one (that's apart from the fact they've got a big backlog, about 3 months):

 

 

Can you see what it is yet? Ooops, shouldn't quote Rolf Harris.

[Happy Jack]

You can stick the battery compartment on the back of the upper horn ... makes no difference to the operation.

 

[gafbass02]

My most recent set recently gave up the ghost after about ten years, they were on my blue jazz and used as the backdrop for one of the fretfx website pages. I’ve used them since they first appeared, but don’t have any at present. They’re cool though. 

[tauzero]

On 03/01/2023 at 09:59, Happy Jack said:

You can stick the battery compartment on the back of the upper horn ... makes no difference to the operation.

 

 

So the battery can be attached at either end of the strip?

[Happy Jack]

3 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

So the battery can be attached at either end of the strip?

 

At the risk of being pedantic, the battery compartment is a permanent connection so you'd actually attach the strip running from battcomp/horn up the neck towards the headstock.