The FretLight Guitar from Optek Music Systems is a product that is trying to drive the instrument into the 21st century through utilising software based technology to make learning the guitar more fun and intuitive. These specially designed guitars use LEDs in the fretboard to show you exactly which notes you should be playing!
The idea behind the FretLight system is a simple one. Instead of reading the information you need from a book or screen and then conveying that data onto your guitar’s fretboard, the guitar will display the information for you, on the neck where you need it.
The guitar connects to your computer via USB, and once connected specially designed software will communicate information between guitar and computer. This might include lighting up a song note-by-note, displaying chord or scale shapes, or demonstrating one of the many inbuilt lessons. The guitar also functions normally and can be plugged into an amp.
Left Handed Fretlight Guitars and Basses
Fretlight FG-521 Left Handed Guitar
The FG-521 Traditional Electric has a classic look, sleek contours and rocks with the best of them! The robust pickup selection gives you a palette of tones to choose from while the strat-style alder body give this guitar a classic look. The Stratabond birch neck ensures that no matter what the environmental conditions, the neck remains straight and true.
Also available in black.
Fretlight FB-525 Bass
The FB-525 Bass gets big “J” tone out of its single coil bridge pickup and classic “P” style neck humbucker. Controls include a three-way pickup toggle switch, master volume and master tone. The FB-525 is finished with chrome hardware including a fixed bridge, and a two-way truss rod. Fully adjustable bridge saddles give you complete adjustability for a playing experience that can only be described as pure heaven! The Stratabond™ birch neck ensures that no matter what the environmental conditions, the neck remains straight and true.
Purchase Information
Both the guitar and bass are $400 at the time of writing, which I’m pleased to see is the exact same price as the right handed models. They both come bundled with software to get you started, and you can also choose an optional built-in tuner for $50 extra on the guitar.
For more information:
FretLight Guitar Website
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