A solenoid triggered electrical musical stringed-instrument is provided. The instrument includes a body with a bridge, a neck coupled to the body and having a plurality of frets, a plurality of strings extending over the plurality of frets and coupled to the neck and bridge, a plurality of solenoids coupled to the bridge of the body, each solenoid corresponding to one of the plurality of strings and designed to deploy and retract, and an open switch array coupled to the neck of the instrument and having a plurality of momentary switches electrically coupled to the plurality of solenoids, each momentary switch corresponding to one of the plurality of solenoids associated with one of the plurality of strings of the instrument. Any string or momentary switch is depressed to deploy the plunger of one of the solenoids to hammer one of the plurality of strings.

A switching device receives an output cable from a guitar. The output cable has a plurality of conductors corresponding to each of the pickups on the guitar, typically 2 or 3. A passthrough signal based on manually switched pickup selection corresponds to a main guitar output. A pickup buffer circuit on the guitar isolates the signal conductors from the selected passthrough signal, and also switches the pickup buffer circuit on and off to allow for backwards compatibility. A multi-conductor cable and jack simultaneously transmits the plurality of signals to the switching device. The switching device receives the multi-conductor cable. A combination circuit in the switching device combines the signals from the pickups and also delivers the individual pickup signals to a respective output jack. Each output jack simultaneously delivers the respective pickup or combined signal to a mixer, amplifier or other signal processing device for recording and/or further processing.

The invention relates to the field of plucked string musical instruments, specifically to designs of electric musical instruments which transform mechanical vibration of strings into electrical signals, more particularly to compact electronic guitars, and can be used in portable electronic guitars. The application of the invention claimed allows to create a compact electronic guitar that can be quickly assembled/disassembled, while the string elasticity level remains the same in both disassembled and assembled states (making the guitar immediately available for use once the parts of the body have been connected) and to provide the possibility to obtain information about vibrations and excursions of the strings located on the neck occurring as a result of using various playing techniques requiring certain actions to be taken in relation to the strings located on the neck, such as hitting, displacing the pressed string sideward, sudden pressing down of the string and sudden releasing of the pressed string, moving the finger along the string, either pressed or not. This provides the possibility to use a larger number of events occurring with the string to generate acoustic oscillations.

An electronic drum pad includes a drum shell; a mesh head stretched at the upper opening of the drum shell; a hard-resin sheet disposed adjacent to the rear surface of the mesh head and having a ring shape with an opening made at a center thereof; a cloth disposed adjacent to the rear surface of the hard-resin sheet; a strike absorbing member disposed adjacent to the rear surface of the cloth and formed by overlaying a plurality of sheets; and a tray disposed adjacent to the rear surface of the strike absorbing member and fitted into the lower opening of the drum shell.

A hi-hat cymbal sound generation apparatus according to the present invention includes an input part, a recording part, a trigger part and a sound volume control part. The input part acquires distance information on a distance between a top pad and a bottom pad, state information and vibration information on a vibration of the top pad. The input part acquires the state information by determining the state information based on a corrected distance, which is obtained by adding a distance correction value, which corresponds to a magnitude of the vibration indicated by the vibration information, to the distance indicated by the distance information. The recording part records data on a hit sound in each state indicated by the state information. The trigger part checks whether the vibration indicated by the vibration information falls within a predetermined range in which a sound generation procedure is to be started.

Apparatus and associated methods relate to acoustic-electric sensor system including a main acoustic sensor operably coupled to detect string vibrations of an acoustic-electric instrument and a feedback suppression acoustic sensor configured to primarily detect sound board vibrations of the acoustic-electric stringed instrument at a location with a substantially attenuated string vibration signal relative to its sound board vibration signal. In an illustrative example, a mixing circuit may at least partially cancel out sound board vibration signatures output by the main and feedback suppression acoustic sensors with one another to produce a mixed output signal. The feedback suppression acoustic sensor may be spaced outside of an ellipse substantially centered around a sound board string coupling point. The main acoustic sensor may be arranged in close proximity to receive the string vibration signal. The mixed output signal may substantially reject audio feedback disturbances while retaining the unique characteristic sound of the instrument.

An electronic wind instrument according to one aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of performance keys for specifying pitches, a breath sensor which detects at least a breath input operation, and a controller (CPU), wherein the controller (CPU) selectively switches between a first mode of outputting first sound waveform data generated on the basis of the breath input operation and operation of at least one performance key from among the plurality of performance keys, and a second mode of, when the breath input operation is detected, outputting second sound waveform data based on musical piece data regardless of whether operation of the at least one performance key is detected or is not detected.

An apparatus, system, and method for an electronic handheld musical instrument that generates electronic signals for processing by a processor-based module to generate musical sounds adapted to replicate non-electronic traditional hand percussion and other handheld instruments, is provided. A piezoelectric-based trigger is secured in an enclosed volume or enclosure formed in the electronic handheld musical instrument. When manipulated by a musician in a normal fashion, freely moving beads float or travel within the enclosure of the electronic handheld musical instrument and strike against a sensitive face of the piezoelectric transducer device to create a desired sound effect.

An interchangeable pickup support is for a stringed musical instrument. The support is of the type that includes at least a base body provided with an attachment to a stringed musical instrument and a support for supporting and attaching the pickup to the base body. The attachment includes at least a fastener which is movable by an actuator which is rigidly connected to the fastener, the ends of which are configured to project in part through respective holes arranged on the outer surface of the base body and attached to the stringed musical instrument. The base body also includes at least a retainer for the fastener in the attachment to the stringed musical instrument.

A laser trigger for a bass drum includes an enclosure attached to a drum rim which contains at least one reader of strokes performed with a foot pedal beater. The stroke reader is directed towards the beater, and has a laser beam emitter and the photoelectric element, whereas the retroreflective coating is applied on the pedal beater to reflect the laser beam in the direction of the photoelectric element at the moment of stroke. The enclosure/housing cavity includes a stroke recognition circuit based on parameters of the electric signal from the photoelectric element connected with the processing circuit that includes an audio frequency electric signal generator, which is connected with the output connector to connect the cable for outputting these signals for further processing and amplification.