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An inexpensive LED leak light you can make yourself

There's a guy selling these in Germany through ebay. Works well at first. LEDs are mounted on a copper strip. The whole thing's then put into clear shrink tube. Packs up after a few weeks, and then you're forever soldering the copper strip where it's broken at the kinks.
 
This sounds like the identical problem. The high quality commercial LED leak lights are all rigid. There is probably a good reason for this. Still, it would be very useful to have a light that bends to properly check the low C tone hole that is close to the center of the bow. I'm still looking for a better quality LED strip that bends for that application.

I just returned from a sax workshop at the NAPBIRT training center in Normal, Illinois and they have several of the Votaw 110 volt flourescent light fixtures in both the 12" and 20" lengths. These have been the industry standard for many years, and are perfectly safe to use when properly insulated.
 
There are many different "light ropes" of LEDs available...

...from catalogs like Solutions. They are usually featured around the holidays, and have dozens of "flexible" LED 'fixtures' in each. Perhaps a truncated one of these might work - I don't know if they can be cut to length or not.
 
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This is what I bought.

It is very heavy duty, all three the conector the plug and the wiring. It is also waterproofed. Uses wiring rather than copper strips, large wiring. For the money, I doubt it can be beat. They also have a 48" length for the Bass guys/gals.

I built electric cars in the early 90's, and continue to do complicated guitar wiring settups. From my electrical experiences, there is no weak point in this light.
 
I don't like the fluoroscent leak lights for a bunch of reasons (big, usually too long, heavy, can break, etc.).

Re this:
Still, it would be very useful to have a light that bends to properly check the low C tone hole that is close to the center of the bow. I'm still looking for a better quality LED strip that bends for that application.
At least with my rigid LED leak light, I can usually check the low C with the light either from the body side or the bell side, all the way down. I usually use the bell side for low C since it's better and for a first check, I check all pads anyway so check the C with the other lower keys. There's more than enough light this way since the bulb is thin enough to get there. It's also thin enough that it's often possible to put it through the low C# tone hole (with C# key on) or maybe low B sometimes, and it gets a better angle for low C (though it's usually unnecessary). It's not hot so there's no problem of it touching the pads.

To me, a rigid, not too long and not too short leak light is just about perfect. I can also check 2-piece sopranos from the top (much more comfortable sometimes) and with 1-piece sopranos I can check the palm keys. The only thing it's not good for is some baritone keys.
 
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