How did the light show work?

[Alanko]

I'm interested in the guys of those Lightshow instruments Rickenbacker made, including a 4005 variant. I've never seen it explained as to how they worked. From what I gather, the lights run off of mains electricity delivered via a 5-pin jack. The lights themselves seem to respond differently depending on which notes, or strings, are being played. How did this circuitry sense the strings, and convert that into switching for the lights?

[Highlander]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9LhbRdWrFs

A "Light Organ"

QED...

[Alanko]

Thanks for the links! They sound like a nightmare of hot plexiglass and mains voltage...

I still don't understand the circuitry involved, from converting the output of passive pickups to 3-bands of control voltages for the lights.

[chromium]

I still don't understand the circuitry involved, from converting the output of passive pickups to 3-bands of control voltages for the lights.

There's a circuit example here with a nice video walk-through explaining how the color organs typically work.  Similar concepts are probably at play in the Ric, just using different components...

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?search_type=jamecoall&catalogId=10001&freeText=2126272&langId=-1&productId=2126272

[Alanko]

I cannot get that link to work. 

[Highlander]

Strike 2...

[chromium]

Weird- the link works ok for me, so not sure what's up with that.

Here's the link for the video at any rate:

[Highlander]

Very geek... 

Went the other way, Joe, and got back to the source... two links...

Light Organ PDF

relevant page link

[Alanko]

Many thanks guys! I will look at these when I get some down time.

[Denis]

Here's a video of one in the dark!

[uwe]

I didn't know that it goes on and off as you play it, très cool if not exactly practical. I'd play it in a psychedelia band. A thousand p(o)ints of li(gh)t(e).

[Jeff Scott]

I didn't know that it goes on and off as you play it, très cool if not exactly practical. I'd play it in a psychedelia band. A thousand p(o)ints of li(gh)t(e).

It's a light organ; remember those?

[Denis]

Until I found that video I assumed that individual lights were tied in with individual strings or tones. Never occurred to me that groups of lights or sections of the bass would light up like that.
Either way, I like it.

[uwe]

It's a light organ; remember those?

I like my organ heavy.

[Highlander]

Hammond C3 is pretty heavy...

John Lord let me play with his organ, just would not cut it, I guess...

Edit Uwe: Un-for-give-ab-le!