Worlds First Analogue Optical Guitar Cable - On Kickstarter NOW!

[lightlead]

Yes we like "Light Gears" too, Johnny from ColPlay said "im playing through lasers!".

Linearity is not an issue with LED's and we don't use any compensation, however we do have a clever patent that keeps our diodes in check.
I think there is a powered cable somewhere on the web. Or their are the buffered pickups of course...Its a choice, and now LightLead is here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16_jkn31HRo

David Holmes
Iconic Sound

[pdf64]

To me, your video just seems to demonstrate the benefits of a buffer between a guitar and lowish impedance input; the optical aspect of the connection seems immaterial?

EDIT: As you are happy to get geeky with scope and sig gen, and a concern has been raised regarding linearity, how about demonstrating your system's signal transfer accuracy over a range of frequencies / signal levels?

Ok for those who like capacitence in the signal chain varying every time they change the cable or strings then a cable is fine.
..
The difference is when your break the tiny copper wires in a cable capacitance adds up.

The above doesn't make sense to me. I can't see that either different strings on the guitar, or a broken strand or two in a copper cable's conductors, will have anything beyond a trivial effect on the cable's capacitance?

Sorry to be picky, your product looks really good!

[lightlead]

To me, your video just seems to demonstrate the benefits of a buffer between a guitar and lowish impedance input; the optical aspect of the connection seems immaterial?

Yes the buffer is a first line of defense, and of course some guitars already have powered pickups. The optical aspect of the LightLead is to ensure that the cable doesn't degrade over time and also avoiding ground loop issues.


I will do a DI comparison video for you.

David Holmes
Iconic Sound

[R.G.]

The optical aspect of the LightLead is to ensure that the cable doesn't degrade over time and also avoiding ground loop issues.

Hmmm. Not degrading over time. Maybe a rotating magazine of stock cables could do that at lesser expense.

And any method for breaking the ground loop - including setting up your amp correctly - will do that. It would be more interesting if this kept the guitar pickups from sensing the ambient 60Hz magnetic field while still sensing the strings. There are already some optical string sense pickups, so don't go running to the patent office with that.

Now if you could just blast out an omnidirectional coded stream of light pulses coded to send guitar signal to several receivers on stage, with coding so that the guitar would not need either a wireless RF rig or a cable of any sort at all... OK, wait, I have to run to the patent office...

[R.G.]

But seriously folks, the problems with an analog (analogue for those of you further east) optical cable are still tied up in that you need to put a lump of electronics in the guitar. Once you cross that boundary, you can convert to pushpull differential pairs and kiss ground loops goodbye that way, too.

Neither of these solve the issue that guitarists LIKE the interaction of the guitar pickup and controls with the amp's input impedance, so you have fake the amp input impedance out at the guitar to get that back, in all of these schemes.

But sure, makes a great way to harvest funds from crowd sourcing.

I'm down on crowd sourcing. Search "crowdsourcing scam". Or just "Devi Ever".

[tedmich]

RG doesn't want to get Con-soled!

Kickstarter can be "scams for dummies" its true. You have to be Billy Corgan smart to avoid this apparently...

[nickb]

But seriously folks, the problems with an analog (analogue for those of you further east) optical cable are still tied up in that you need to put a lump of electronics in the guitar. Once you cross that boundary, you can convert to pushpull differential pairs and kiss ground loops goodbye that way, too.

Neither of these solve the issue that guitarists LIKE the interaction of the guitar pickup and controls with the amp's input impedance, so you have fake the amp input impedance out at the guitar to get that back, in all of these schemes.

But sure, makes a great way to harvest funds from crowd sourcing.

I'm down on crowd sourcing. Search "crowdsourcing scam". Or just "Devi Ever".

If this is what you meant, Crowd Sourcing the labor market, then it's very depressing.

As far as the Codemus novel, I spent several years, tethered to a Blackberry, expected to respond 24hrs a day, meetings at 1am to suit Far East customers and generally having my life controlled by it. That is why I now do my own thing is a quiet rural haven. I went to the park and stayed there