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Project Notes

#539 Metal Earth Lead Guitar

Pimping up the Metal Earth Electric Lead Guitar kit with some sound activated LEDs with electronics squirreled away in an “amp”.

MetalEarthLeadGuitar_build

Here’s a quick demo..

clip

Notes

I picked up a Metal Earth Electric Lead Guitar ($9.95) kit while browsing a book store years ago and it has sat on a shelf ever since.

About the Kit

The kit is one in a series of laser-cut metal kits by Fascinations, Inc.

  • Item#: MMS074
  • Number of sheets: 1 Sheet
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Assembled Size: 4.45” x 1.52” x 1.25” (11.4 x 3.9 x 3.2 cm)

kit_parts

The Electronics

I’m using a simple sound-activated LED circuit, powered by an 18650 Lithium Battery charger/boost module that provides a 5V output.

Breadboard

The Schematic

Construction

Attaching the LEDs in parallel inside the guitar body..

build_led_insert

the sound module is built on a small piece of protoboard, with the electret mic poking through the “speaker”.

build_sound_module

With everything installed, including the 18650 charge/boost module and a power switch on the side. The micro USB connector for charging the battery pokes out the side of the enclosure.

build_assembled

Final build..

MetalEarthLeadGuitar_build

Rear view..

MetalEarthLeadGuitar_build_rear

Credits and References

About LEAP#539 CraftLEDAudio
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects. Two main themes have emerged in recent years, sometimes combined:

  • electronics - usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting
  • scale modelling - I caught the bug after deciding to build a Harrier during covid to demonstrate an electronic jet engine simulation. Let the fun begin..
To be honest, I haven't quite figured out if these two interests belong in the same GitHub repo or not. But for now - they are all here!

Projects are often inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the many great electronics and scale modelling podcasts and YouTube channels. Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know (or send a PR!). See the individual projects for credits where due.