Transducer pickup systems for acoustic stringed instruments are disclosed. In one embodiment, a pickup system includes at least two pickups, each pickup including a pickup housing and a bottom surface, the pickup housing having sides comprising at least a top wall, each pickup including an electromechanical transducer surrounded by a solid non-conductive material and located the same distance from the top wall and the bottom surface, and each pickup including adhesive on one of the sides of the pickup housing configured to mount the pickup to the underside of the soundboard of an acoustic stringed instrument.

A pickup comprises a mounting component having a mounting plate, a first contact and a second contact. The pickup also has a coil component including a primary flatwork member, a secondary flatwork member, a pole therebetween, and a coil of wire wrapped around the pole. A magnet cooperates with the pole. A first coil end is electrically connected to a first coil component contact, and a second coil end is electrically connected to a second coil component contact. When assembled, the first coil component contact electrically couples to a select one of the first contact and the second contact of the mounting member regardless of the orientation of the coil component relative to the mounting plate.

A pickup comprises a mounting component having a mounting plate, a first contact and a second contact. The pickup also has a coil component including a primary flatwork member, a secondary flatwork member, a pole therebetween, and a coil of wire wrapped around the pole. A magnet cooperates with the pole. A first coil end is electrically connected to a first coil component contact, and a second coil end is electrically connected to a second coil component contact. When assembled, the first coil component contact electrically couples to a select one of the first contact and the second contact of the mounting member regardless of the orientation of the coil component relative to the mounting plate.

A humbucker pickup device for active and passive guitars including a matched pair of elongated coil assemblies with two sets of ferromagnetic pole pieces also includes two elongated, transversely polarized permanent magnets positioned between and parallel to the coils. The magnets are beside each other with opposite poles facing each other. The magnets with two respective pole pieces under each string establish two narrow magnetic fields to interact with the string at two points and a weaker intermediate magnetic field between the said pole pieces. The humbucker device includes an improved differential amplifier built from two or three operational amplifiers. Alternatively, the device may include a steel plate between the magnets for further weakening the intermediate magnetic field. Both embodiments, with and without the plate, are described.

A pickup for a stringed musical instrument, including at least one magnet and at least one pressure sensitive element arranged in contact with the at least one magnet.

A humbucker pickup device for active and passive guitars including a matched pair of elongated coil assemblies with two sets of ferromagnetic pole pieces also includes two elongated, transversely polarized permanent magnets positioned between and parallel to the coils. The magnets are beside each other with opposite poles facing each other. The magnets with two respective pole pieces under each string establish two narrow magnetic fields to interact with the string at two points and a weaker intermediate magnetic field between the said pole pieces. The humbucker device includes an improved differential amplifier built from two or three operational amplifiers. Alternatively, the device may include a steel plate between the magnets for further weakening the intermediate magnetic field. Both embodiments, with and without the plate, are described.

The present invention discloses a modular pickup system that is integrated into an electric guitar that facilitates quick change-out of pickups, free form repositioning of pickups, switch assignment of pickups to the guitar's pickup switch positions or phase (polarity) selection of the pickups.

Percussion devices are described employing sensor arrays based on piezoresistive materials.

Apparatuses, systems and methods are presented which provide for a musical instrument direct box combined with a musical instrument tuner which may be phantom powered from an external audio system. In some embodiments, an apparatus is presented that includes a direct box (DI) module and a musical instrument tuner module coupled to the DI module. The instrument tuner module may be phantom powered based on connection to a remote system geographically distinct from the apparatus, and configured to measure the pitch of the instrument signal and mute the instrument signal simultaneously. In some example embodiments, the apparatus may also include a tuning transformer coupled to the musical instrument tuner module and the DI module, the tuning transformer configured to galvanically isolate a ground domain of the instrument signal from a ground domain of the remote system while the musical instrument tuner module measures the pitch of the musical instrument signal.

Percussion devices are described employing sensor arrays based on piezoresistive materials.