LED Ukulele

I made this ukulele for my college. It's a demo that we can show to freshmen so they can get excited about electrical engineering. I put a 4x4 matrix of LEDs in this ukulele, and I have a microcontroller called an MSP430 Launchpad which controls when they turn on and off.

The point of this ukulele is to teach you how to play chords. It has 3 songs programmed into it that you can work through to learn the chords. Pretty fun little project.

I had the department buy me this ukulele on Amazon and then I took a clothes iron to the fretboard to get it off. It took a long time to melt the glue enough to get the fretboard off. I don't really recommend using a clothes iron unless yours gets hotter than mine does. Also, steam is not good for any musical instrument. If you can find yourself a cheap heat gun, you're better off. I got a heat gun for $14 at a local Harbor Freight store. (cheap Chinese made tools... I know.)