SIMS Bass Neck LED Retrofit

I will be reviewing SIMS aftermarket retrofit of a guitar/bass neck to install LED's in the position marker dots. SIMS can be reached via their website at http://www.simscustom.com/ . They have several colors/options that can be selected, I chose the neck only option, which involves detaching the neck of your instrument and sending it to them, and they install the led's and the wiring loom, which leaves you a bit of simple drilling and wire-routing to complete. This option saves 40% over sending the whole instrument, not to mention the shipping costs (which were the only negative I can find for this product). Shipping overseas and back will run you over 100 bucks, just for the neck. Anyway, as far as ease of use goes, this really couldn't be easier, especially since I was building a kit bass from the ground up. Just drill a hole to run the wire loom, and another for the activation switch, and bolt your neck back on. That's it. Detailed instructions are available on their website. I had the whole thing up and running in about 15 minutes.

Ok, the best part of this as far as sound quality goes, is that it doesn't affect sound quality or playability in the slightest. I could discern no additional buzz when the led's are on, and the neck plays identical to it's original condition. I don't know how the heck they get the led's in there, but hats off to SIMS for not altering the playability of the neck with some god-awful routing job or whatnot. The led's are incredibly bright, and a sure-fire attention-getter onstage.

Seems very reliable. No problems so far. Battery life varies on the brand of battery, but seems to run about 24 hours of continuous use. I chose the blue led's, which their website claims are a bit more battery-hungry than some of the other colors. I dont' use them for practice, so you can get a lot of shows out of one battery. My only niggle is that the battery clip they supply was fairly cheap and came apart on me during installation. However, this didn't really bother me, as I had already intended to wire the loom to a pop-up battery compartment.

All businesses should be run like SIMS. All of my questions and inquiries via email were responded to promptly and courteously by Martin Sims, the owner of the company himself. Martin went above and beyond to ensure I was satisfied with his product. I had no problems installing his product, but I'm sure if I did, he would have been willing and able to give me all the tech support I needed to get the job done.

Let me tell you, nothing gets attention onstage like these. I have heard nothing but good comments about my new bass, and most of them center around the "cool blue lights." The main reason I first expressed an interest in these is because I am virtually blind without my glasses, and now, for the first time, I can play without them, because the led's make it possible for me to see the marker positions consistently under the constant variable of onstage lighting. The fact that they are such a crowd-pleaser is just a very cool bonus. In 18 years of playing, this is by far my favorite purchase. I am going to make another bass this summer, and rest assured, SIMS will be a major part of it. Well done!