GUITAR - FEBRUARY 1999 REVIEW

Back in '94 only a bold or foolish soul would have predicted that someone could make a living fitting show-off LEDs to guitars and basses. But that's exactly what Martin Sims did - and the growth of interest in his unique service is reflected by the fact that in the spring of '99 SIMS LED will open an office/workshop in Manhattan. 
 
Martin's method of retro-fitting illuminating side and face fingerboard dots without removing the guitars fingerboard is highly efficient and, importantly, servicable. 
 
"We haven't had any failures with proper use,' boasts Martin, 'but who knows... in 10 or 20 years' time we want to make sure our customers are still happy.' 
 
And customers he has aplenty: Sims have modded instruments for the likes of John Paul Jones, TM Stevens, Billy Sheehan, Stuart Zender, Skunk Anansie's Cath Lewis, Wet Wet Wet's Graham Clark, Mark King and many others. 

 
Shine on crazy Mark King: basso supremo approves of his LED fingerboard mod.

But it's not just fingerboard dots: Venom's Cronos has a bass with illuminating devil's eyes and a laser... And when Billy Sheehan heard about it, he had to have a laser too. 
  

So what does the future hold? 'We now do black dots for maple fingerboard Strats - they look like standard dots when they are switched off,' volunteers Martin. 'We now use mother-of-pearl dots as standard and because we make them ourselves we can retro-fit any size, depending on the make of the instrument. We're doing work for the Fender Custom Shop, Tobias, the Yamaha Custom Shop, Lakeland - we've just done a Lakeland bass for the New Power Generation's Rhonda Smith, with her signature lighting up at the 12th fret - and Warwick, including some prototypes of a new limited edition bass to be shown at NAMM '99. We also chromed a Stage 1 Warwick bass - on wood that's a hell of a job...'