Overview
A fully functioning Harley Benton TE-20 BK Standard Series Electric Guitar professionally customised to incorporate a LED infinity mirror – purchased brand new from the Thomann online store specifically for the modification.
The black guitar body is precision milled using a CNC machine to create a semi-hollow body whilst the depth of milling is minimised to retain the body strength when under tension by the strings.
Serviceable
There are two CNC milled acrylic mirrors fitted inside and 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 mirror is removeable, 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).
Optional Sound to Light Feature
An optional neck pickup is fitted 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 contains 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 ‘maton design’ red 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 3.5 hours.
Minimal interference
Addressable RGB LED strips emit audio interference and this was very noticeable when the guitar was originally fitted with a single coil bridge pickup, being played through a guitar amplifier. Hence the single coil pick has been replaced with a hot rail humbucker pickup, which considerably reduces the audio interference to a level that is practical and useable (Technical note:- a notch/parametric/EQ filter set to around 4kHz could further attenuate/eliminate the remaining low level audio interference…..but its not essential).
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 batteries.
The guitar weight is approximately 3.2Kg (was 3.3Kg before the mod).
