LED Guitar #2 - Fret wire

Used some epoxy to fill in the hole where the wires come out.

Looks pretty good. The wires are a very small diameter (26 gauge) but they are stranded, so they are pretty resilient if bent repeatedly.

All of my fret wire supplies. The fret wire comes in a tube like the one in the middle. It is straight. I made my own fret wire radius bending tool (on the top left). I modified some nippers by grinding them flush (to make flush-cut snippers). I also have a plastic dead-blow hammer, which is filled with buckshot so it doesn't bounce when you hammer something.

I used this nail file to pop the copper wires back up out of the slots.

You can see that one of the copper wires broke from being bent too  many times.

A second copper wire also broke off. I was a little worried that it wouldn't make as good a connection with the fret wire when the fret wire gets pounded in, but I tested it once it was done, and it works just fine.

I like to bend my copper wires off to the side  and then pound the wire in over it.

 Before and after pounding the fret wire. Just snip off the copper wire when you are done.

Now it REALLY is starting to look like a guitar neck. I filed and sanded the ends of the fret wire until the corners were nice and rounded. I ran my fingers up and down the fretboard to see if the fret wire snags on my fingers or if it is smooth. I think I got this fretboard smoother than the stock one from the factory! 

Next, I need to level the frets and use fret files to crown and smooth them again. This is usually necessary if you don't want your guitar to "buzz" when you play. Otherwise you have to raise the action of your guitar uncomfortably high to avoid "buzzing" strings on the frets. I would say that most guitars you buy at the store have not leveled and crowned the frets. That's why so many guitarists have guitars with really high action, and it hurts their hands to play. Take your new guitar to a luthier to get the frets leveled and your action adjusted. It will make playing guitar much more enjoyable.

LED Guitar #2 - Gluing and Sanding

 Before I could glue it, I needed to mill a groove. 

This 3/8" round bit fits the old groove on the old fretboard perfectly.

Top: new fretboard

Middle: old fretboard

Bottom: neck with protruding truss rod 

 Dry fit, lights off and on.

Notice the squared-off end of the fretboard near the nut slot.

I will sand that once it's glued and dried.

Drew a pencil mark where the hole should be for the wires. 

Hole is drilled. I also used a counter-sink to round over the hole, but I didn't take a picture. 

Ready to be glued. This is a paint tray and paint roller we use for gluing wood at the shop. 

Very handy way to spread glue if you glue large quantities of wood.

This might seem strange, but I often use cling wrap to glue things together. It keeps the fretboard centered over the neck while clamping. For some things like (small) picture frames, or box newels, you can just use masking tape and cling wrap. No clamps required! I chose to use clamps for this job though, there is a large surface area, and I did not want ANY gaps between the fretboard and neck. Glue joints are the strongest when the wood squeezes out all the excess.

 Turned on the lights to double check before the glue hardens.

After the glue dried, a week later I unwrapped it and it looked like this. You can see that some glue squeezed up through the fret slots. My fret slots and milling slots were deep enough on both sides that they overlap in spots, allowing glue to come up through to the surface.

 Here I trimmed the copper wires a bit shorter. Then I used a hammer and thin ruler to beat them into the fret slot so I can sand and radius the fretboard. This was tricky, and the copper wires are getting fragile from all the bending.

Copper wires are successfully pounded into the slots so they won't get sanded off.

Filed off the top of an LED.

Several LED tops filed off.

It's starting to look like a guitar neck.

See how much the fretboard overlaps the neck? I need to sand all that excess off.

I used a large (not handheld) belt sander + an pneumatic orbital sander.

 Sanded all flush and smooth.

Cleaned off the top a little bit with the orbital sander.

Now you can clearly see the excess fretboard has all been sanded off.

I sanded the square corner a little bit...

And now it is sanded just like the old fretboard.

 This is my fretboard radius sanding block. I made it by using two pieces of 1/8" plywood and gluing them together, then drilling holes and putting screws into the block underneath. The block underneath is actually 3 pieces of wood, with a gap in the middle. This allows the screws to pull the plywood layers down and make them curve into the radius you desire. I lay my guitar neck on top and push it up and down to sand the radius onto the fretboard.

 Progressively sanding the radius. You can see a darker purple in the middle where it is un-sanded, and a lighter color on the edges where it is sanding off.

 This process took quite a while, at least a half hour. My arms got pretty tired from all the sanding.

Here it is with the perfect radius sanded off.

LED Guitar #2 - More Milling + Soldering

I need to drill the holes which connect wires from the LED cathodes to the fretwire. I have to drill a hole through the fret slot and then mill some small channels in order to connect the wire to my other channels I already milled. I also decided to deepen some of the original milled channels so that the resistors and solder joints fit inside flush (below the surface).

Here is the wire I will be using. I think it's 22 gauge solid core wire. 

Next to it is the smallest drill bit I could find.

Back side, you can see the small holes I just drilled.

 I milled little slots with the router bit on the left. 

I also decided to deepen the larger channels in certain spots with the router bit on the right. I tested the resistors and found them to be too fat to fit flush inside the previous channels.

 I should have finished all the milling before I cut off the sides and bottom of the fretboard. 

Since the fretboard now has tapered edges, I used double-sided tape 

to stick the fretboard onto this block of wood.

Now to remove the fretboard from the carrier block. 

This double-sided tape is a demon to get off once it sticks.

(Thus the putty knife.)

 You can see the tape residue. I just used my thumbs to rub and "roll" the sticky residue off. 

It's cleaner than trying to dissolve the tape residue with alcohol.

Alright, so a few days later I got around to putting the components in and soldering some of the connections. I got some 26 gauge stranded wire to use as my positive and ground lines up the middle of the fretboard. I like stranded wire because it is more flexible and durable than solid-core wire. I chose 26 gauge because it can easily handle the 200 mA this guitar neck might require, but it's also a very thin diameter.

 3.0 V white LEDs, 150 and 330-ohm resistors (1/4 Watt), small signal diodes (2N914), 

26 gauge stranded wire, and some heat shrink just in case I need some.

Close up of the small channels, and the sections I deepened.

First bend all the components at a 90 degree angle.

Twist the wires together. 

Be gentle, if you bend an LED lead too many times it can break on you.

Here's my soldering iron. It's a Weller, and they typically cost about $40. 

I like the variable temperature feature. It goes up to 40-Watts of power.

These are much nicer than the Walmart 10-Watt iron I used to have.

I really love the brass sponge tip cleaner. I will never use a wet sponge again.

Before^

 After^

 Before^

After^

It's a good idea to check all the LEDs at this point to make sure they still work.

OOPS! I soldered the diodes onto the LEDs before I attached the 22 gauge solid core wire that goes out the little hole!!! Not a huge problem though. I just used my de-soldering pump to remove most of the solder, and then twisted the copper wire around and then re-soldered the joints.

 Here you can see I attached the small copper wire to go through the hole.

It took a little work to get it flush with the surface. 

You don't want anything poking up above the surface.

Finally, I used a little bit of Krazy glue to help secure the LEDs inside once I inserted them and pushed hard with a screwdriver. The only thing I have left to do is solder the red and white wires for +9 V and ground.

 A few days later, I soldered the red and white wires.

 Hopefully this will give you a clear picture of how to do this yourself.

LEDs all on (underneath the bright lamp). 

 LEDs all on (bright lamp is off). 

The last thing I have to do before I can glue the neck together is to use hot glue to secure down the components and wires so everything STAYS in place when I try to clamp it all together. 

Notice the hot glue to reinforce where the red and white wires will go out through the neck. 

Another test run... gotta make sure they're still working before I glue it all up!!!