The Tabber uses an Arduino Uno microprocessor to control strips of LEDs in the neck of a guitar. Photo - Justyn Myers

This Month’s Hack of the Month Award goes to Robert Sanchez and his team for their Tabber LED guitar system. Congratulations Tabber team!

Tabber is a system of Arduino controlled LED strips embedded at each fret in the neck of a guitar and a mobile app that controls the pattern of lights. Tabber can be used to display anything from simple scales and tablature to flashy light shows that follow the music (See video after the break).

“Tabber’s primary purpose is educational, but it’s got a few tricks up its sleeve,” Sanchez wrote in an email, “It’s your visual teacher, lighting up the correct notes as you play along. But once you practice up, you can take advantage of Tabber’s light pattern performances which are completely customizable to you.”

Although Tabber doesn’t control sound in the sense that we normally report on, the concept of sending visual feedback to an instrument is certainly relevant, especially since the introduction of controllers like the Novation Launchpad and the monome. This is one of the few examples of controlable visual feedback we’ve seen in a traditional instrument.

Sanchez developed the idea for Tabber out of frustration he experienced learning to play guitar in college.

“I couldn’t play my drums in a dorm room anymore and electric drums were way too expensive,” Sanchez wrote, “I decided I wanted to learn guitar, but it was painstaking and I never spent the effort. I thought then about Tabber, but didn’t have the skills nor did I know anyone who did.”

Eventually, Sanchez met members of the Betaspring accelerator program and decided to put his idea into action. Sanchez and his team built the first version of Tabber at Boston Startup Weekend last Nov., and have since developed the project further at Music Hack Day Boston and the most recent Music Hack Day San Francisco.

“We do a fair amount of work behind the scenes, but we love the environment of hackathons,” Sanchez wrote, ”so we try to appear at as many as possible, including AngelHack coming up, to create and showcase new things we build based on the feedback we receive.”

The Tabber team plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign on March 10th to help make Tabber into a full-fledged music product.

“I’m interested in creating the full musical experience in a portable way and I’m hoping that will get us started in a great way involving the community,” Sanchez wrote, “Music has and always will be more than just about musical notes, it’s about enjoying and sharing with people. From music creation, to music enjoyment, we hope to be there for the ride.”