Starting work on the world's first RGB gaming guitar

Hateingpotato · July 30, 2023

About a year ago an idea hit me right in the head about putting a screen into a guitar, from there the idea snowballed into a whole project that has been in the development for quite some time now, but now it's finally turning into reality. This development process really kicked my butt from the start with all the logistical ideas on how things would connect, what parts to use both in the guitar and what computer should I put in. In later stages a lot of time was spent on making my own computer case that would allow me to insert and remove the computer with relative ease, as if you want to upgrade parts down the road. This project also got me into 3D printing since that was the best way to make such small case with all the necessary features, as it did allow me to rapidly demo out ideas and concepts. The current build details include these parts (can be subject to change as the project goes on):

PC:

- Minisforum UM560 (16Gb ram + 512Gb M.2) - choose just because its a powerhouse of a pc, has decent cooling solution that alows me to exaust the head out with relative ease, also fits perfectly in the guitar body thickness wise. it also has a display port type C on the front that is going to be used to power the display in the guitar.

LED stuff:

- Micro LEDs APA102 - 200 LED/M - found LEDs with great density and width that fits perfectly into the edge binding of the guitar (tested how it's going to turn out before hand, light is not that well defused, but that is to be expected when there is only 2mm of resin between the LED and the outer edge so I can live with it)

- ESP32 board - I am using two of these to power and control LEDs in the neck and body separately that i can later combine in to one using WLED, planing on having it soundreactive, that can be done through WLED or LEDFX

DISPLAY:

- WaveShare 7 inch QLED display: I am using it since it's about the biggest display I can fit between the bridge of the guitar and the neck and it has a decent way of mounting it

GUITAR PARTS:

Bridge: GHOST ResoMax NV - The only reason I'm using this bridge is because of the display that's in between the bridge and neck, there is no place for normal guitar pickups. But there is also another problem when it comes to picking up noise from the LEDs or the computer it's self, that's why I choose a bridge that has pizza pickups in it that allows me to pick up the sounds the string produce with no noise from the LED light.

The plan is for this guitar to have the ability to be played as a normal guitar, have on board recording capabilities, casual gaming/working, RGB edge binding that reacts to the music you're playing on the guitar, or the music on the PC its self.

here are some progress fotos so far!

Guitar body before the edge binding is on and unpainted