Overview
A fully functioning solid body electric guitar is purchased from new to install a LED infinity mirror.
The guitar body is precision-milled on a CNC machine to create a semi-hollow chamber. Milling depth is kept to a minimum, retaining the body’s strength against the tension of the strings.
Serviceable
There are two CNC milled acrylic mirrors fitted: one inside and one on top of the semi-hollow body. In between the mirrors there is an addressable RGB LED strip fitted around the inside perimeter of the semi-hollow body, held in place by 3D printed black PETG grips. The top acrylic has a small bevel around the outside edge where it has been cut – so no sharp edges! It can also be unscrewed allowing access to the plug-in addressable RGB LED strip if required
The robust modification allows for normal use/playing of the guitar with no extra connections (e.g. USB or external power supplies).
Sound to Light Feature
Current builds include a fitted neck pickup to provide a true sound to light feature. This pickup sends the string vibrations to the in-built microprocessor which processes the sound for activating the LED strip.
Battery powered
The back of the body has two 3D printed housings:- one for the batteries, power switch and ATmega microprocessor and a second one for the remote keypad. Access for inserting/removing of batteries can be achieved via the sliding logo cover.
Each individual addressable RGB LED around the strip contains a red LED, a green LED and a blue LED. When all red, all green and all blue LEDs are chosen to light up (making white light) a good brand of four 1.2V 2500mAh NiMH rechargeable AA batteries will keep the RGB LED strip lit for up to 3 hours.
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Minimal interference
Addressable RGB LED strips emit audio interference that manifest as a ‘whistling’ sound. Hence the single coil bridge pickup has been replaced with a hot rail humbucker pickup which reduces the audio interference to a level that is practical and useable for live performance on stage. Note:- audio interference is more noticeable when using distortion/overdrive therefore a notch/parametric/EQ filter set to around 4kHz will further attenuate/eliminate the low level audio interference…..but its not essential. More recent modified guitars have a bridge humbucker fitted (these are extremely resilient to interference from the LED strip) instead of a single coil hot rail pickup .
Check out a demo video here.
Wall Art
The infinity guitar could also be used as decorative wall art in a shop, restaurant etc…e.g. with a little soldering and basic electrical knowledge, one could further modify the guitar to run off a d.c. 5v power supply instead of/in addition to batteries. This is an additional in-house addon that can be pre-installed on request.
The infinity mirror modification keeps the guitar at a comfortable playing weight, very close to the original solid body weight.
