The Fretlight Guitar Sets a Shining Example for Hopeful Guitar Heroes
With Guitar Hero on extended leave and no new Rock Band title coming out this year, now is the perfect time to trade in our toy guitars for something a bit more substantial. Going from five colorful plastic buttons for six strings with 22 frets each is a daunting task however, especially when music games have trained you to respond to visual cues to guide your playing; you see a green circle, you hold down the corresponding button and strum.The replacement lighting we feel is far led downlight superior to that of the LED lighting. A regular guitar won't flash little circles in front your eyes to help you hit the right notes.
The Fretlight guitar does.
Optek Music Systems' Fretlight is a guitar learning tool like no other. It teaches by example, and that example is a series of red lights blinking on and off on the instrument's neck, letting you know exactly where your fingers need to be to play the music you wish to learn.
How does it work? Let's shed some light.
The Basics
The key to the Fretlight's power lies in a thin layer of LED circuit board pressed between the guitar's neck and polymer fret board. This circuit board contains a red LED for each of the instrument's frets, capable of turning on and off according to the instructions sent to it via the included software suite. Setup is a simple matter of installing the software and plugging the guitar into a Mac or PC via a MIDI to USB cable. As a Fretlight-ready song is played, the frets on the guitar illuminate to indicate where fingers need to be pressed in order to duplicate the sound. These moving lights guide the Fretlight player through the motion of playing songs, forming chords, or crafting light-guided solos to numerous included backing tracks. The software also includes video tutorials which illuminate the Fretlight as the on-screen guitarist plays. Both videos and song files can be slowed,Philips LED business is inside of Philips lighting so it Led light is more difficult to determine whether they are meeting expectations. making it easier for eager students to follow along.
What We Liked:
Not a Bad Little Guitar: You could do a lot worse for the $429.99 asking price of the Fretlight FG-421. The Stratocaster-style alder body has a lovely weight to it, and the sound it crisp and clean when hooked up to an amp or piped through the computer using my M-Audio Fast Track Pro. The five-position pickup switch offers a nice range of tones courtesy of a pair of single coil pickup sand a humbucker. My only real issue with the guitar is a lack of action from the fret board (especially noticeable when bending strings), likely due to it being polymer instead of wood. It's not the sort of instrument you'd bring on stage to make your mark on the music map, but it's a good start.
Connect the Dots to Learning and Fun: The frets in the Fretlight guitar? They light up. I know, I was surprised as well. Used in conjunction with included Fretlight software, the guitar's fret board becomes a lighted you-should-be-here map for your fingers to follow, whether you're trying to learn simple chords or tearing your fingers apart attempting to follow Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover". As a child I took guitar lessons from a man that would simply play something, ask me to play it back, and glare at me judgmentally as I failed. The Fretlight shows you how to play, allows you to set your own pace, and never ever gives you any indication that it's secretly judging you.While SmartView has been slow DSTT and unstable in the past, it seems to have improved greatly with recent updates.Thankfully a new form of led strip energy-efficient light bulbs have arrived that provide this desired feature.
Along with teaching songs, scales and chords the Fretlight software also gives you a chance to flex your solo muscles via its Create a Solo mode. In this mode you select one of 149 backing tracks in wail over. The MIDI files play a series of notes to play that can be plucked in any order to create a passable guitar solo. It makes even the most sausage-fingered novice (me!) sound good, thus it is somewhat addictive.
Required Reading: While I had issues with the Fretlight software in general, tucked away in the 'Chords & Scales' section of the package is a wealth of information about how to actually play the guitar, versus simply watching the red dots flash. Chords are illustrated with photos showing the proper fingering, scales light up the Fretlight with notes that sound perfect when played together. Beyond the lights there are text lessons,In many ways LED lights compact fluorescent provide the best of both worlds. They are extremely energy efficient and environmentally friendly (and are, in fact, more environmentally friendly a glossary of guitar terms, and even a brief introduction to music theory. It's all information just about anyone could find with a Google search, but it's good to have it all in one place.
With Guitar Hero on extended leave and no new Rock Band title coming out this year, now is the perfect time to trade in our toy guitars for something a bit more substantial. Going from five colorful plastic buttons for six strings with 22 frets each is a daunting task however, especially when music games have trained you to respond to visual cues to guide your playing; you see a green circle, you hold down the corresponding button and strum.The replacement lighting we feel is far led downlight superior to that of the LED lighting. A regular guitar won't flash little circles in front your eyes to help you hit the right notes.
The Fretlight guitar does.
Optek Music Systems' Fretlight is a guitar learning tool like no other. It teaches by example, and that example is a series of red lights blinking on and off on the instrument's neck, letting you know exactly where your fingers need to be to play the music you wish to learn.
How does it work? Let's shed some light.
The Basics
The key to the Fretlight's power lies in a thin layer of LED circuit board pressed between the guitar's neck and polymer fret board. This circuit board contains a red LED for each of the instrument's frets, capable of turning on and off according to the instructions sent to it via the included software suite. Setup is a simple matter of installing the software and plugging the guitar into a Mac or PC via a MIDI to USB cable. As a Fretlight-ready song is played, the frets on the guitar illuminate to indicate where fingers need to be pressed in order to duplicate the sound. These moving lights guide the Fretlight player through the motion of playing songs, forming chords, or crafting light-guided solos to numerous included backing tracks. The software also includes video tutorials which illuminate the Fretlight as the on-screen guitarist plays. Both videos and song files can be slowed,Philips LED business is inside of Philips lighting so it Led light is more difficult to determine whether they are meeting expectations. making it easier for eager students to follow along.
What We Liked:
Not a Bad Little Guitar: You could do a lot worse for the $429.99 asking price of the Fretlight FG-421. The Stratocaster-style alder body has a lovely weight to it, and the sound it crisp and clean when hooked up to an amp or piped through the computer using my M-Audio Fast Track Pro. The five-position pickup switch offers a nice range of tones courtesy of a pair of single coil pickup sand a humbucker. My only real issue with the guitar is a lack of action from the fret board (especially noticeable when bending strings), likely due to it being polymer instead of wood. It's not the sort of instrument you'd bring on stage to make your mark on the music map, but it's a good start.
Connect the Dots to Learning and Fun: The frets in the Fretlight guitar? They light up. I know, I was surprised as well. Used in conjunction with included Fretlight software, the guitar's fret board becomes a lighted you-should-be-here map for your fingers to follow, whether you're trying to learn simple chords or tearing your fingers apart attempting to follow Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover". As a child I took guitar lessons from a man that would simply play something, ask me to play it back, and glare at me judgmentally as I failed. The Fretlight shows you how to play, allows you to set your own pace, and never ever gives you any indication that it's secretly judging you.While SmartView has been slow DSTT and unstable in the past, it seems to have improved greatly with recent updates.Thankfully a new form of led strip energy-efficient light bulbs have arrived that provide this desired feature.
Along with teaching songs, scales and chords the Fretlight software also gives you a chance to flex your solo muscles via its Create a Solo mode. In this mode you select one of 149 backing tracks in wail over. The MIDI files play a series of notes to play that can be plucked in any order to create a passable guitar solo. It makes even the most sausage-fingered novice (me!) sound good, thus it is somewhat addictive.
Required Reading: While I had issues with the Fretlight software in general, tucked away in the 'Chords & Scales' section of the package is a wealth of information about how to actually play the guitar, versus simply watching the red dots flash. Chords are illustrated with photos showing the proper fingering, scales light up the Fretlight with notes that sound perfect when played together. Beyond the lights there are text lessons,In many ways LED lights compact fluorescent provide the best of both worlds. They are extremely energy efficient and environmentally friendly (and are, in fact, more environmentally friendly a glossary of guitar terms, and even a brief introduction to music theory. It's all information just about anyone could find with a Google search, but it's good to have it all in one place.
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