The electric guitar contains at least one pickup in a recess on the guitar body. This pickup can be installed in a mounting frame and has electrical contact points which lead via a cable to the output port on the guitar body. The pickup has a fixing plate on its rear side, which is screwed onto the height adjuster of the pickup via a threaded bush at a variable distance from the base plate of the pickup. It contains spring-loaded pins which are electrically connected to the coils of the pickup. The fixing plate can be inserted without tools from the rear of the guitar body into a recess in the pickup frame and removed again from the pickup frame without tools. When the pickup is inserted, the pins on the fixing plate are connected to the electrical contact points on the mounting frame and the fixing plate is held in place on the mounting frame by means of permanent magnets.

A foldable stringed instrument, for example in the form of a travel guitar that folds mid-neck to assume a reduced profile is described. The mid-neck folding is accomplished in a symmetrical manner about a three-part hinge located in the neck to configure the travel guitar into a reduced profile. The bridge assembly can be translated longitudinally relative to the head of the guitar to allow sufficient detensioning of the guitar strings to enable an upper portion of the neck to be folded away from a lower portion of the neck and/or body to assume a reduced profile. To deploy the travel guitar for playing, the upper portion of the neck is unfolded into alignment with the lower portion of the neck and/or body, and the bridge assembly translated longitudinally relative to the head and locked in position to allow the guitar to be tuned for playing.

An input musical sound signal is input to band pass filters, and pass musical sound signals for each sound pitch are acquired. Total level ratios based on a total of levels of a sound pitch lower than those of the pass musical sound signals are calculated from the levels that are levels of the pass musical sound signals, and output coefficients are acquired on the basis of the total level ratios. Levels of octave musical sound signals acquired by converting the pass musical sound signals into sound pitches lower than those of the pass musical sound signals by one octave are multiplied by the output coefficients. In accordance with this, the octave musical sound signals of a low sound pitch can be extracted from among the octave musical sound signals.

A process for winding guitar pickups in which I tap in on different places on the bobbins giving the player the ability to change the number of windings and sound with switches.

This invention discloses a hollow-body guitar with a large rectangular sound hole between the neck and bridge, with two pickup mounting slots on each side of the sound hole in removable top plates, including a system of top plates and mounting adapters for 7 different single-coil and dual-coil pickup types. The invention has a system humbucking pickup circuit mixing modules that can be cascaded in linear or tree form to mix all the types of pickups in the output, providing a much wider range of tones than current 3-way and 5-way switching systems. For example, three matched single-coil pickups and one humbucker can be mixed to provide 19 humbucking circuits and 18 circuits with hum. Mixed a different way, using switchless analog circuits, they can produce the tones of all 19 switched humbucking circuits, plus all the continuous variations in between.

Provided is a modular string instrument including a core string instrument and interchangeable instrument body types. The core including: a core shell forming a basic shape of the core string instrument, a string instrument head, a neck base, a chassis assembly configured to be inserted into the core shell, extending from the head to the neck base and comprising a strings anchoring bridge, a plastic fret board configured to have frets attached thereon, the fret board configured to cover the core shell and to encase the chassis assembly within the core shell, a neck base cover configured to be attached to the neck base, a pickup cassette bay configured to encase an interchangeable pickup cassette, and strings stretched from the bridge over the pickup cassette bay, over the neck base to the head.

A rechargeable battery powered stringed instrument assembly for eliminating a requirement to replace batteries includes a stringed instrument, which comprises an active pickup and which has a battery and a connector engaged thereto. The connector is operationally engaged to the battery, which is rechargeable. A power cord is selectively engageable to the connector and is configured to selectively engage an electrical circuit to operationally engage the battery to the electrical circuit. The power cord allows flow of electrical current from the electrical circuit to the battery to charge the battery.

A rechargeable battery powered stringed instrument assembly for eliminating a requirement to replace batteries includes a stringed instrument, which comprises an active pickup and which has a battery and a connector engaged thereto. The connector is operationally engaged to the battery, which is rechargeable. A power cord is selectively engageable to the connector and is configured to selectively engage an electrical circuit to operationally engage the battery to the electrical circuit. The power cord allows flow of electrical current from the electrical circuit to the battery to charge the battery.

A programmable signal processing and musical instrument setup system for stringed musical instruments, comprising at least one analog signal processing circuit, a control circuit operably coupled to at least one analog signal processing circuit, and a storage unit operably coupled to the control circuit, being arranged on the musical instrument for storing setup parameters for the musical instrument. The system comprises: a communication module with an individual identification information connected to the control circuit for enabling communication with an external programming device that has a storage unit configured for storing an individual identification information of at least one musical instrument, in association with the musical instrument in at least one configuration file. The external programming device is further configured for receiving and sending data to and from a selected musical instrument, when connected, wherein the data transferred to the musical instrument can be stored in the musical instrument and can be used after the external programming device is disconnected.

A programmable signal processing and musical instrument setup system for stringed musical instruments, comprising at least one analog signal processing circuit, a control circuit operably coupled to at least one analog signal processing circuit, and a storage unit operably coupled to the control circuit, being arranged on the musical instrument for storing setup parameters for the musical instrument. The system comprises: a communication module with an individual identification information connected to the control circuit for enabling communication with an external programming device that has a storage unit configured for storing an individual identification information of at least one musical instrument, in association with the musical instrument in at least one configuration file. The external programming device is further configured for receiving and sending data to and from a selected musical instrument, when connected, wherein the data transferred to the musical instrument can be stored in the musical instrument and can be used after the external programming device is disconnected.