Really insanely bright LED's

[misterstomach]

This topic has come up before, but a quick search didn't give what I was looking for. Sorry if it's been done to death and I'm just too lazy to find it. How do y'all feel about crazy bright LED's? I know it's kind of popular with a lot of builders and has been for a while. I get that it's kind of cool, in a way, but I'm running into a problem that I can't see anything on my pedal board, particularly in a dark room, cause at any given time I'll have like 4-6 blindingly bright LED's on. I'm missing the stomp switches. I can't make on the fly knob adjustments cause I can't see anything. Is there an easy solution? I'm not dying to open all of my pedals and try adding a resistor on the LED or something, and I don't really know what to do anyway, even if I wanted too. Some of my favorite builders do this, and I really wish it wasn't such a thing. But I guess it is. Is this a problem for others? What do you do about it if so? I've just been dealing with it for years, but recently added two more pedals that have this same issue and it's just getting to be too much.

[BetterOffShred]

I open them up and replace the Current limiting resistor or if the board uses those resistors without color codes I simply add one in series with the Led.. since it doesn't matter which side you put it on. I use a lot of Tayda water clears and find 5.1k-10k to be good values depending on a few things. I like UV LED but obvs you don't want to roast your eyes with those so I go like 10k. Red and yellow and blue all like 5.6k.

[coupleonapkins]

Hole punch + your favorite color of masking tape = success

[Jero]

Cover them/color them seems like the option, if you don't want to add resistors.

[DRodriguez]

Put on some sunglasses

Or any of those other suggestions work great too. Colored sharpies do pretty well too.

[crochambeau]

I hate bright LEDs, I want enough illumination that I can tell if something is engaged in a bright room (or under stage lighting) and that's it.

I recently used a piece of gear from a friend that had a bright LED, I covered it with clear tape, inked the tape, and put another strip of tape over the top to protect the ink. Upon return I could simply pull the tape to remove any trace.

[01010111]

I just got a new pedal, and I’ve never had anything as bright as this. It’s legit bright enough to use as a flashlight. I was hoping the builder had a trimmer for adjusting the led brightness, but no such luck...

[kaeth]

Tape works. I put a little gooseneck lamp to light up my board. It's brighter than the LEDs so I can see everything, but maybe that kills your atmosphere?

[Jero]

I just got a new pedal, and I’ve never had anything as bright as this. It’s legit bright enough to use as a flashlight. I was hoping the builder had a trimmer for adjusting the led brightness, but no such luck...

I've only seen a couple people do this. Might not be a bad idea for more folks to start incorporating.

[AZX309]

I just got a new pedal, and I’ve never had anything as bright as this. It’s legit bright enough to use as a flashlight. I was hoping the builder had a trimmer for adjusting the led brightness, but no such luck...

I've only seen a couple people do this. Might not be a bad idea for more folks to start incorporating.

It is really useful but not a ton of people open their pedals up. logic says why waste the extra couple cents per pedal.

But what to i know, I use a 2k2 with waterclear LEDs.

[K2000]

I cover the bright LEDs with blue painter's tape, which shouldn't leave a sticky residue. And you can still see the light shining through the tape.

I really hate super-bright LEDs, and I wish builders would stop using them. I complained about this years ago on Talkbass, and someone told me super-bright LEDs are important for the people playing outdoor gigs in the daytime. But how many people are playing outdoor daytime gigs? It's answering a consumer demand that isn't there. :rolleyes: I have a $22 micro Rat clone from China with a super bright LED. So even the cheap knockoff builders are using them. It's gotten ridiculous.

[chromandre]

Accidentally ordered 5mm non diffused LEDs. They're great if you need to know pedal status with your eyes closed!

[harpies]

Some tape, fill the bezel with glue, or shine some light back on your board. The addition of resistors is easy but the lazy methods are fine too.

[Jero]

Accidentally ordered 5mm non diffused LEDs. They're great if you need to know pedal status with your eyes closed!

Easy enough to just up your limiting resistor

I just got a new pedal, and I’ve never had anything as bright as this. It’s legit bright enough to use as a flashlight. I was hoping the builder had a trimmer for adjusting the led brightness, but no such luck...

I've only seen a couple people do this. Might not be a bad idea for more folks to start incorporating.

It is really useful but not a ton of people open their pedals up. logic says why waste the extra couple cents per pedal.

But what to i know, I use a 2k2 with waterclear LEDs.

that's sooo bright. I find even 10k to not be enough some times.

[Bartimaeus]

The problem really isn't the LEDs themselves. It's that builders don't scale their resistor values to match. Waterclear LEDs generate a lot more light with the same amount of current, which should be a bonus since you can get better battery life with the same brightness by using higher resistor value. But instead builders just using the 4.7k value standard for regular LEDs...

That said I do sometimes just use the tape method before I try replacing a resistor, especially if I'm considering selling the pedal.