An apparatus for selecting between sets of pickups for a stringed musical instrument including a top plate with two sets of pickups embedded therein that is rotationally attached to a back plate. The apparatus includes an electrical connector that enables electrical connection between the pickups and the instrument. The apparatus further includes attachment structure enabling fastening of the instrument to a backside of the instrument. The apparatus is configured to extend through a body of the instrument such that the top plate is adjacent strings of the instrument.

This invention refines and expands the use of mode switches in common-point connection circuits for matched pickups on musical instruments. For example, on a 3-coil S-type electric guitar, where the common-point connection circuit with a single-ended output provides three humbucking pair outputs and three humbucking triple outputs, a 4P2T mode switch can ground the common point and provide both all of the standard non-humbucking 5-way switch outputs, as well as adjusting the tone capacitor to make both humbucking and non-humbucking tone outputs more compatible. On an electric guitar with three dual-coil humbuckers, mode switches of one 6P2T, one 2P2T and three 1P2T can choose between dual-coil and single-coil operation modes, humbucking and non-humbucking modes, and partially simulate the effect of flipping single-coil magnets at will, by choosing which coil of each humbucker is used.

An electric musical instrument includes a body and a resonant stack. The resonant stack includes a bridge having a bridge mass and at least a first spring having a first spring constant, in which the first spring is positioned between the bridge and the body. The resonant stack has at least one resonant frequency that is dependent on the bridge mass and the first spring constant. The electric musical instrument includes a plurality of strings that extend across at least a portion of the body, in which each string has a vibrating length defined at least in part by the bridge. The electric musical instrument includes at least a first pickup device to detect vibrations of the strings and generate a first pickup signal, and at least a second pickup device to detect movements of the bridge and generate a second pickup signal.

This invention derives directly from U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986 (Baker, 2019). Primarily, it makes better use of the mode switches, SWa and SWb in FIG. 17 of U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986, and similar functions in SW1 to SWj+k in the same Figure to provide a better-organized and expanded set of outputs for sets of either 3 single-coil pickups or 3 dual-coil humbucker pickups, in such a way that all of the electro-mechanical controls will fit on a standard-sized electric guitar. In addition, the expanded use of mode switches allows 3 dual-coil humbuckers to partially simulate 3 single-coil pickups with reversible magnets to see what kind of tonal options might result, and justify the inventions in NPPAs Ser. No. 15/917,389 (Baker, 2018), Ser. No. 16/752,670 (Baker, 2020) and Ser. No. 16/812,970 (Baker, 2020). While the invention can be extended to more than 3 pickups with the switch concatenation disclosed in FIG. 19 of U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,450 (Baker, 2019), the digital-analog switching in U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,450 or U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986 would be more practical.

A hum-cancelling system includes two or more hum-cancelling coils configured in a distributed manner, connected in series with each other. The hum-cancelling coils form a series circuit that is electrically connected to at least one pickup. Each hum-cancelling coil includes a top plate, a bottom plate, and a coil of wire wrapped between the top plate and the bottom plate.

Guitar strings composed of an Iron and Nickel smelted alloy for use with wide aperture single coil pickups, and guitars therefor.

A hum-cancelling system includes two or more hum-cancelling coils configured in a distributed manner, connected in series with each other. The hum-cancelling coils form a series circuit that is electrically connected to at least one pickup. Each hum-cancelling coil includes a top plate, a bottom plate, and a coil of wire wrapped between the top plate and the bottom plate.

A system and a kit can be used for onboard, real-time blending for electronic pickups to produce various tonal combinations. In one example, at least one of the electronic pickups has dual coils. The dual coil pickup can be electrically connected to a switching circuit positioned on a stringed instrument. The switching circuit can be adjustable in real-time to select between at least two conditions for a signal of the dual coil pickup. In one instance, the conditions can select north coil only, series wiring of the dual coils, or south coil only. Alternatively, the conditions can select series wiring or parallel wiring of the dual coils. Each of the electronic pickups is electrically connected to a taper circuit positioned on the instrument. Each taper circuit is adjustable in real-time to vary an amplitude of the signal from the respective electronic pickup for output of the instrument.

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 inventions relate to the field of electric musical instruments, more particularly, to an optical sensor for a stringed musical instrument with a digital interface and to a stringed musical instrument with a digital interface equipped with said sensor (MIDIMusical Instrument Digital Interface). Implementation of the disclosed inventions allows to obtain a signal corresponding to vibrations (deflections) of a string in two mutually perpendicular planes, with the influence of the device generating such signals on string vibration parameters being reduced, without signals generated by different strings being mixed and with dimensions of the optical sensor being reduced to allow for its compact placement on a stringed musical instrument.