A sustaining device is described for prolonging the vibration of the strings of a stringed musical instrument, such as an electric guitar having two or three electromagnetic pickups. The pickups are all low impedance transducers that can function either as pickups or driver transducers, depending on whether they are connected to the input of the instrument pickup amplifier or to the output of the sustainer amplifier, respectively. When a transducer is being used as a sustainer driver, it cannot be simultaneously used as a pickup. Different methods of selecting transducers to function as pickups or drivers are described. The transducers, having only hundreds of wire turns instead of the usual thousands of turns for common pickups, have a flat audio frequency response that can be modified to produce a multitude of common pickup sounds by manipulating the transducer resonance frequency, bandwidth, and amplifier gain.

A method, apparatus and kit for forming a pickup for a musical instrument comprises a ferromagnetic core having an electrical winding wound therearound, the electrical winding having an output wire operable to output a signal for receipt by an amplifier representing sound vibrations produced by the musical instrument, an activation magnet, and a flexible mount wherein one of the ferromagnetic core and the activation magnet are rigidly secured to the musical instrument and wherein the flexible mount is located the ferromagnetic core and activation magnet so as to permit a degree of movement by the other of the ferromagnetic core and activation magnet relative to the musical instrument under vibration thereof.

A modular electric guitar system is disclosed that includes tool-free interchangeable body components, including tool-free sides of a guitar body which may alter the instrument's overall shape, and tool-free interchangeable pickup cartridges to provide a dynamic range of instrument shape, size, and sound.

Systems and methods for onboard, real-time pickup blending for electric guitars/basses may utilize every possible tonal combination that double coil pickups can offer. The industry standard pickup toggle switch may be removed from electric guitar/bass instruments. Instead of a user being limited to only using one pickup at a time to be selected, the user may mix in any combination of the pickups (top, bottom, or both) at any time. Accordingly, multiple pickups can be on at the same time and/or the user may blend in (or out) any percentage of any of the pickups that the user wishes to create a large combination of tones.

A process for making a variable wind guitar pickup and a variable wind guitar pickup made by the process is provided. The pickup is capable of many sounds by changing the number of windings using a selector switch such as a five-position or six-position selector switch.

The present invention relates to a novel device and related method for a musician, performer in a band, or an ensemble, to stop, shut-off and/or disengage the signals created by their instrument electronically through grounding or disconnecting the instrument's connection to an audio generation device such as an amplifier, speaker, or other digital interface. The invention is exemplified by reference to an electric guitar connected to an amplifier, with the control device disrupting the electrical connection therebetween and incorporating a guitar pic for the control of the connection disruption. The control device may be implemented either by grounding the connection between the instrument or by disconnecting it completely using an electrical switch.

A device for switching electrical or electronical systems for picking up the vibrations of the strings of a musical instrument having a front face includes: a cradle to be fastened or integrated to the front face and provided with a unit for electrical connection to an amplification circuit; at least one barrel that is provided with at least two pickup systems, which is fitted to the cradle so as to be mobile in rotation with respect to the cradle between at least two positions so as to place, in each position, one pickup system in working position opposite the strings and that includes a unit for electrically coupling at least the pickup system opposite the strings to the connection unit; and a unit for rotating the barrel. The axis of rotation of the barrel is substantially parallel to the front face when the cradle is fastened to the latter.

A stringed instrument with an interchangeable magnetic pickup system to enable any number of a plurality of pickups to attach to the instrument in variable positions is provided. The stringed instrument includes a base with a central opening, a plurality of strings coupled to the base and extending over the central opening, a main magnetic mounting plate coupled to the base within the central opening and electrically coupled to a phono plug output of the base, a plurality of secondary magnetic mounting plates coupled to the base within the central opening and electrically coupled to the phono plug output of the base, and a plurality of pickup assemblies coupled to the base. Each pickup assembly has a first magnetic member electrically coupled to one of the secondary magnetic mounting plates and a second magnetic member electrically coupled to the main magnetic mounting plate.

This invention eliminates most mechanical switching in vibrational pickup circuits by using variable gains to combine signals of sensors in differential amplifiers as J−1 humbucking pairs for J>1 number of sensors, with the sensors matched to produce the same level and phase of unwanted hum from external sources. It can also combine J>1 number of matched sensors with K>1 number of dissimilar sensors which are matched only to each other in the same manner. This produces not only all the possible mechanically switched humbucking signals, but all the continuously-varying combinations of humbucking signals in between.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is an electric violin comprising a sound bar having a first tang and a second tang. The central portion of the sound bar rests on a top plate of the violin, separated by a separator pad, and the first and second tangs protrude to an inner cavity of the violin through a first and a second plate hole of the top plate. A pickup assembly includes a first and a second pickup, where each of the pickups comprise a bobbin made of two plates separated by a plurality of magnetic polepieces and surrounded by a coil wire. Each of the pickups includes a compression mechanism including a height adjustment screw that holds the compression mechanism at a firm tension while the distance between the plurality of the magnetic polepieces of the pickup and the corresponding tang satisfies a tolerance gap.