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My (Nearly) Blind Friend The Guitar Hero

Recently I went to meet my friend, a nearly blind guitar player.
We frequently talk about gear, and not seldomly I bring with me a new stomp box I have made. As usual, those are never plain vanilla and are spectacular in a way.

He is really good at the guitar, and he harnesses the fretboard like no other despite his unfortunate handicap. He is not totally blind, he can detect bright lights, but for all practical means, he is blind.

He invited me to attended a rehearsal session, and he complained that when he turns around, like to adjust the amp, and then when he turns back, he can never be quite sure where his body position currently is in relation to his pedal board.
He also sometimes loses the orientation of where all the footswitches are in relation to his foot.

Somebody who was helpful, but obviously not very practically skilled, had mounted a cube, comprised of a shabby piece of wood, in a makeshift manner on to the flight case's side wall towards the musician. While the sheet material of the case's aluminium frame is not very strong by itself, it does not need to be. Once mounted together, it is very strong, but if applying punctual forces, like from wiggling on a self-tapping screw, the wall is prone to fail quickly.

This is a disaster if, during a solo, he wants to hit a stomp box, and the  wiggly  contraption comes loose, which makes him needlessly nervous. So that was a challenge for me. Be prepared for some sarcasm.

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How I Healed A Blind Man's Eyesight (And Made Others Blind)

A LED strip on the back helps to find the pedal board ( (click on the picture to load larger image) I added a strip of white LEDs to the back of the pedalboard. An L-shaped 1cm aluminium bracket serves as heatsink, as mechanical protection and as blinding protection for the audience. A standard DC connector, bolted to the plate, serves as tension relief. An old 20V laptop supply serves as power unit. He is very happy about the illumination, but I don´t know how happy the other band members are. The LEDs are really bright despite being run at a much lower voltage than they are made for. At least the audience is protected from the piercing lights.

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How I Gave A Disoriented Man Direction Again

Feel Stops denote the position of pedals: (click on the picture to load larger image) I mounted an aluminium bracket with a T-nut to the flight case's front wall, using M6 through-bolts and counter-washers and a lock-nut on the inside. A plastic spacer is needed to make up for the protruding corner bulges. Door-stopping rubbers serve as position indicators. Two small ones towards the sides and a big one to denote a center position as an anchor for re-orientation. A small end plate mounted with two self-tapping screws has been added onto both ends to prevent loss of the feel stops, should one ever become loose inadvertently. Note that the lights are off in this view to stop confusing the camera.

Close-up of the feel stops;;(click on the picture to download) M6 hex bolts go through the rubber door-stops, with a washer inbetween and a slider nut on the rear side. The sliders go into the T-nut and a firm turn of the whole arrangement locks them on any position desired. The spring action of the rubbers locks them firmly. The heads of the mounting screws that bolt the assembly onto the side wall had to be tapered on the grinder in order to fit through the slots.

Yes, so small can things be that improve somebody's life...
 
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