Luminous Fret Markers

[mcnach]

The Luminlay ones are particularly good where there's soem kind of blue/UV lighting onstage.

 

Years ago I had a 'nirvana black' Warwick Corvette $$ and I used to play in a couple of very dark venues (well, it was dark on my side of the stage). One day I bought some Glowtech paint and some powder too, and made a paste with it, then applied small 'blobs' at the side dot markers. It wasn't very pretty if you looked up close, but it wasn't that obvious. It glowed brightly for long enough, but I could also feel the 'blobs' with my thumb, so I could find my way even if the glow weren't there. Not the prettiest solution but that worked very well for me.

If you want it to look good, Luminlay is great. Just have the little UV keyring-torch in your pocket if you think you might need to refresh the glow, a simple swipe along the neck will get you going.

 

Since I switched to maple neck/fingerboards I haven't bothered with anything glowing.

[BigRedX]

I had Luminlays fitted to my Warwick StarBass as The Terrortone used to play some very murky "stages" and the conventional markers were impossible see once I'd put my shades (part of our stage wear) on.

 

I would have done the fitting myself, but with the bass being a set neck getting the ones at the body end in looked tricky so I took the bass to a recommended luthier in Nottingham who charged me about £70 for the fitting a took about a week to do it. They made a excellent job of it and IMO it was well worth the money. Had it been a bolt-on neck I would have probably done it myself.

 

As others have said you need to remember to charge the dots up before you go on stage, so just remember to keep the charging torch in the gig bag or case that the bass goes in and you'll be fine. If you are really paranoid buy a spare and keep it in your leads (or other gig items) bag.

[Hellzero]

Most of you seem to forget that as the "Luminlays" are activated by UV, simple outdoor light works as well as there are plenty of UV's even without a bright sun.

 

On the other hand, IR don't charge them, so remember that thick glass is a great UV filter, only letting IR through, which means it won't charge behind a double or triple glaze window. 😉

[andyonbass]

This was my cheapo solution 

 

Still going strong after a couple of years…

 

 

[EddieG]

I've got Luminlay markers in a couple of my basses but I decided I wanted to try them a bit bigger and maybe with material a little more intense, so I cast some of my

own. 
I first made a silicone mould of some 5mm rods. I then got some blue strontium aluminate powder (blue glows the longest), mixed it with some epoxy resin, a little drop of Elmer's Clear Glue to ensure that the powder didn't immediately sink, and then moulded them. Getting the resin into the mould can be a little tricky, especially making sure you don't have voids anywhere, but I managed to figure it out.

 

I then installed some in a J&D 5-string I bought as a short term backup and experimentation ground (amazing bass for the money, btw!), and they turned out really well.

 

As I said, blue glows the longest and I've timed these to still be emitting light visible to the eye around 4hrs later! In daylight they have the appearance of a slight cream colour. 

[itu]

Green is the basic colour that glows longest. While I worked in a watch factory, we tried to laminate up to 4 layers of strontium based luminous material to a plate. After UV activation the material glew around 75 hours (+3 days) in a completely dark room.

 

That powder was even better than Super Luminova.

[EddieG]

56 minutes ago, itu said:

Green is the basic colour that glows longest. While I worked in a watch factory, we tried to laminate up to 4 layers of strontium based luminous material to a plate. After UV activation the material glew around 75 hours (+3 days) in a completely dark room.

 

That powder was even better than Super Luminova.

I can only

go on the results I've personally had having tried both colours, and settled on the blue. I've also got both colours in Luminlay "black pipe" material, and the blue definitely lasts longer. 

Nowhere near scientific, but here's a couple of quick phone photos, taken directly after charging with an UV torch, and then 5 minutes later. The blue definitely holds its intensity for longer  

Edited November 25 by EddieG

[NancyJohnson]

With my EUB, I bought some sheets of luminous stars.  Amazon.  They work fine.

 

[Shaggy]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

With my EUB, I bought some sheets of luminous stars.  Amazon.  They work fine.

 

 

Tried  similar, and they're great for a while, but with my sweaty hands they tend to detach after a while.   Good if you want to keep a vintage / valuable bass all original though.

Big fan of Luminlay - fitted them to both my gigging basses.