Maybe you think old hat as you can drive MIDI from many guitars or mount a MIDI pickup on many others. The MIDI pickup can be used to send MIDI to a light controller.
But ... you lose the original purpose of the pickup which was to drive a MIDI synth, typically a Roland GR-20 but there are multiple others and newer ones. Mine is busted but I still wouldn't give up the pickup to control lights as maybe Tinkerbell makes the synth work again.
Step up to a MIDI pad as Amptone Lab has an XY MIDI Pad that looks to be a square about ten cm on a side and it mounts flat to the body of the guitar. (There is considerably more to installation than just sticking it onto the body as various switches are required and the body needs to be bored for the MIDI cable. This is for experts.)
Notes:
Prices: XY MIDI Pad is €139 which is about $175 US. The other models are somewhat less.
Weight: No luck finding any specification but it couldn't be much.
Installation: Don't even think about it. Find a luthier.
Total Cost: I'd plan on spending as much for the installation as for the device so call it $350 US.
Play: A MIDI cable adds a lot of drag. If you already have one for a guitar synth, you're going to want to play in one place as dragging two MIDI cables plus the standard would leave you gift-wrapped by the end of the song.
MIDI pads are a big hit with people lately, particularly with Ableton Live musicians. However, those pads are huge relative to a guitar body and would be impossible to use. The XY MIDI Pad is tiny and easily mountable to a guitar. That will make the guitar hideously ugly but there is a lot of coolness in the capability the pad gives.
There are three types of MIDI pads as the mini is a bit smaller than the XY MIDI Pad but still mounts the same way between the bridge and the strap. Amptone Lab also has a MIDI Strip and it mounts parallel to the strings, taking up quite a bit less space than the other models. (See above about installation)
The larger MIDI pads send a one octave range of notes plus 0-127 in controller code which should be quite enough to do some kind of devilment with a light controller.
The big question is what do you do as presumably you want the lights to change in sync with your move. Maybe you sweep some grand chord and the lights should change when it starts? in the middle? after the last string? For me it seems it would be most natural after the last string, your hand is naturally moving over the strip anyway so ... pop ... and the lights change.
The actual purpose is the light controller manages a family of lights (e.g. Elation DMX Operator and many others). It has patches which direct how each one of the lights in the family will behave. If you send a MIDI signal from the guitar, it can change from one patch and all the lights will change at once. Typically you would not want to do that on the beat or whatever as it would compromise your playing way too much plus it would be way too much excessive. It seems most natural that the lights would change with song to verse or break to crazy guitar, etc. Therefore, not so many patches would be needed in the light controller as you won't change them that much anyway.
Note on Elation DMX Operator The device only responds to MIDI notes and it will pick up 0-127. However, the XY MIDI Pad sends notes through only one octave. Nevertheless, the ability to select between twelve light/laser patches on the controller from the guitar is spectacular.
Or maybe you would want to change lights quickly. What do I know. They're your buttons, do something insane with them. The potential is definitely there.
Note on above: all of them use batteries. With the 13-pin MIDI cables from Roland, there's a hot wire but the Amptone Lab devices appear to use standard MIDI and therefore do not have an external power supply.
But ... you lose the original purpose of the pickup which was to drive a MIDI synth, typically a Roland GR-20 but there are multiple others and newer ones. Mine is busted but I still wouldn't give up the pickup to control lights as maybe Tinkerbell makes the synth work again.
Step up to a MIDI pad as Amptone Lab has an XY MIDI Pad that looks to be a square about ten cm on a side and it mounts flat to the body of the guitar. (There is considerably more to installation than just sticking it onto the body as various switches are required and the body needs to be bored for the MIDI cable. This is for experts.)
Notes:
Prices: XY MIDI Pad is €139 which is about $175 US. The other models are somewhat less.
Weight: No luck finding any specification but it couldn't be much.
Installation: Don't even think about it. Find a luthier.
Total Cost: I'd plan on spending as much for the installation as for the device so call it $350 US.
Play: A MIDI cable adds a lot of drag. If you already have one for a guitar synth, you're going to want to play in one place as dragging two MIDI cables plus the standard would leave you gift-wrapped by the end of the song.
MIDI pads are a big hit with people lately, particularly with Ableton Live musicians. However, those pads are huge relative to a guitar body and would be impossible to use. The XY MIDI Pad is tiny and easily mountable to a guitar. That will make the guitar hideously ugly but there is a lot of coolness in the capability the pad gives.
There are three types of MIDI pads as the mini is a bit smaller than the XY MIDI Pad but still mounts the same way between the bridge and the strap. Amptone Lab also has a MIDI Strip and it mounts parallel to the strings, taking up quite a bit less space than the other models. (See above about installation)
The larger MIDI pads send a one octave range of notes plus 0-127 in controller code which should be quite enough to do some kind of devilment with a light controller.
The big question is what do you do as presumably you want the lights to change in sync with your move. Maybe you sweep some grand chord and the lights should change when it starts? in the middle? after the last string? For me it seems it would be most natural after the last string, your hand is naturally moving over the strip anyway so ... pop ... and the lights change.
The actual purpose is the light controller manages a family of lights (e.g. Elation DMX Operator and many others). It has patches which direct how each one of the lights in the family will behave. If you send a MIDI signal from the guitar, it can change from one patch and all the lights will change at once. Typically you would not want to do that on the beat or whatever as it would compromise your playing way too much plus it would be way too much excessive. It seems most natural that the lights would change with song to verse or break to crazy guitar, etc. Therefore, not so many patches would be needed in the light controller as you won't change them that much anyway.
Note on Elation DMX Operator The device only responds to MIDI notes and it will pick up 0-127. However, the XY MIDI Pad sends notes through only one octave. Nevertheless, the ability to select between twelve light/laser patches on the controller from the guitar is spectacular.
Or maybe you would want to change lights quickly. What do I know. They're your buttons, do something insane with them. The potential is definitely there.
Note on above: all of them use batteries. With the 13-pin MIDI cables from Roland, there's a hot wire but the Amptone Lab devices appear to use standard MIDI and therefore do not have an external power supply.
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