Fretlight Guitars

Has anyone heard or used this guitar with the fretboard that lights up ? The guitar is plugged into the usb port on your pc or notebook and chords and scales light up as you follow the lesson. This is not only for newbees but can be used by seasoned player to expand there chord knowledge. It can allso be used with out the light show. Sounds quite interesting

If you do a search on-line, you'll find lots of reviews that basically say the quality isn't there for these guitars. Keep in mind they are made in China, and that the fretboard isn't actually wood. They always have plenty of "factory error" models available on Ebay, so the idea that the quality is questionable certainly seems to true. Also, I've noticed that Fretlight is ultra-agressive about going after anyone that posts negative reviews about their product.

Still, I've always wondered about these guitars in terms of learning scales, but I don't know how helpful it would really be to have the frets light up. I would imagine it would be far more useful as teaching tool, so that instructors could show their students where the notes are on the fretboard all at once, rather than just one note at a time.

I did a lot of research on-line, and if you decide to go for one, you might want to think about getting the lowest base model. I think you can get these for about $300. The reviews I read said the pricer "Pro" models did not play well, and weren't worth the extra money. Sometimes on Ebay they have the older used versions, the ones that didn't require a computer, but just had a little dial on the guitar. One of those for a couple of hundred bucks might be an option.

ha ha, SL has a thing against China products I think. :) Definitely an area to be concerned about these days, though.

As far as the guitar, my opinion is you might consider it as a learning tool, but I personally would not buy it as a main guitar. I wonder what's all running inside the neck? It's probably a pipe full of wires with a woodgrain finish...?

Great for a learning aid, but I wouldn't want to gig one. Then again, I've never used one, so what do I know?

Originally Posted by: Razboha ha, SL has a thing against China products I think. :)

Sort of. I used to buy electronics without really worrying about them having issues, especially more expensive stuff. Just about two years ago, I bought a Korg D3200 recording console. Long story short, it had a part malfunction, turned out to be a common issue, there was lots of reports on-line about it. The repair guys were just like "made in China dude" and I had to fight like bloody hell with a completely unapologetic Korg to get it warrantied. I'm a bit of dinosaur, and back in the day when you bought an amp like a Fender or a Peavey, there was no "oh yeah, it might, er, probably will blow up 2 weeks after you buy it". I mean, stuff was just bullet proof back then. Electronics in general seemed to last forever. I was really interested in the Fender Princeton re-issue, until I read it was made in China, and that people were having all kinds of problems with it. And this with an amp that costs $1000!! I bought a british built Laney Lionheart instead. It cost the same and is built like a tank.

But enough hijacking this thread. Back to the Fretlight, you're probably safe as far as functionality goes. They do warranty their products, and there were guys saying they had returned guitars for exchanges with no problems, and then a few who said they did have issues with returns, so a bit of a mixed bag, but most of the reviews in regards to warranty were positive.

I think Razbo, you're nailing it with the "wouldn't want to gig with it". Also, the real key is being able to visualize patterns on the fretboard. I wonder if seeing the dots there helps with that, or if its more like training wheels, when the lights go out, you're lost. I'd love to hear from someone who bought one... lets all chip in a $100 and send it to each other for 2 months at a time???

http://www.fretlight.com

The ad sings a good song.. In theory it sounds good.. It is a interesting reading and watching.

Happy reading
Gordon

Had one and got rid of it. Had several issues with it. As was mentioned, quality isn't good. Tuners were trash and it wouldn't hold tune very long although you could easily replace the tuners. It had two dead spots in the neck around the 11 and 15th frets. Aside from that, it isn't every easy to see the lights when you are playing it. If you sat it in your lap Jeff Healy style then sure no problem but looking down at it while playing it was hard to see the lights well and then to be certain which string the light was under.

One of the neat things it had was a piece of software that would basically play the tab on the guitar. They had some midi type cheesy player for some songs and you could play the song at a slower speed and have it light the notes for you. Kind of a paint by numbers thing. Learned Oye Como Va and Evil Ways with it and I will admit it I picked them up probably quicker than I do most songs. But in the long run it was a novelty and wasted money IMHO. Sent it to Musicians Friend for a store credit.

^^Nothing like real experience to answer a burning question!

Originally Posted by: Razbo^^Nothing like real experience to answer a burning question!

Yeah, thanks Jack! That was a good little review and convinced me its not a worthwhile purchase.

I got one recently.... for learning, it is a good piece of kit (please suggest an alternative guitar [not the yamaha EG plastic thing either!!!!???) but the necks are flimsy, due to the plastic composites fretboard, and all the wiring inside. Now im an engineer, and one 3 mm core of fibre containing 128 individual cores would reduce this 40 fold. Make the overlay fretboard with a seriously HARD composite and it wouldn't dive n pitch tuning when playing aggressively. BTW, haters.... they are good tools. learn a scale, then remove interval notes, leave just root notes and then maybe put little paper dots on roots on your normal axe and after a couple of weeks u are locked in. im hoping the new generation has more balls to the neck and sorted these little 'gripes', but no end-of-game issues.