A magnetic pickup is configured for a stringed instrument with at least one string, a neck part, and a body, which has a soundboard. A north and south pole of the magnetic pickup define a magnetic axis. The magnetic axis of the magnetic pickup is oriented substantially parallel to the soundboard or, in the region of the magnetic pickup, an auxiliary magnet having a magnetic axis is arranged, the magnetic axis of the auxiliary magnet is oriented substantially parallel to the soundboard or at a right angle to the magnetic axis of the magnetic pickup.

An interchangeable transducer system for electrical musical instruments, wherein the system embodies one or more transducer cavities formed into the musical instrument, wherein self-contained transducers can slide into and out of each transducer cavity. Thereby the same instrument can generate vastly different tonal qualities depending on the type of self-contained transducers the user interchanges within each transducer cavity.

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 system includes an electric stringed instrument with a remotely controllable electronic configuration. A system includes a remote control for configuring the electronics of an electric stringed instrument. A system includes a remotely controllable electric stringed instrument, a remote control for configuring the instrument, a MIDI controller, and cords interconnecting the system.

A pickup for stringed instruments with an interposed tone-altering signals process is described herein. In one aspect, the pickup can include a first coil wound around a first plurality of pole pieces, where a first end of the first coil is coupled directly to an amplifier output; a second coil wound around a second plurality of pole pieces; and a tone-altering signal processor coupled to an end of the second coil and the amplifier output.

A simple yet effective sustainer for electronic stringed instruments having a bridge pickup and a neck pickup. A driver assembly, disposed adjacent the neck pickup of the instrument, includes a plurality of electromagnetic transducers operative to induce vibrations in the strings. A battery-operated electronic amplifier has an input adapted for connection to the bridge pickup, and an output connected to the driver assembly, such that, when the instrument is played, string vibrations sensed by the bridge pickup are amplified by the electronic amplifier and used to drive the driver assembly, thereby sustaining the played string vibrations. The driver assembly may be disposed in a ring that surrounds the neck pickup of the instrument. The ring may include an ON/OFF switch that routes power from the battery to the electronic amplifier and simultaneously deactivates the bridge pickup in the ON position. The ring may further include a phase reversal switch.

The embodiments herein provide a system and method for instantly switching sound pickups in an electric guitar using a spin wheel arrangement in the middle of a song. The spin wheel houses a pickup assembly with multiple pickups. The spin wheel allows a guitar player to easily roll neck pickup to bridge position and bridge pickup to neck position in middle of a song by rotating the spin wheel. A click stop arrangement halts wheel rotation after completing a semi-circular rotation around a center screw. The backend portion of pickups is connected to spring loaded plunger. The contact pads at bottom portion of guitar body establishes electrical connections between pickups and control components. The pickups under the strings get activated. The spin wheel arrangement allows a guitar player to add favorite pickups for generating various tonalities beyond the limit of a single guitar.

A humbucker pickup device for active and passive guitars including a matched pair of elongated coil assemblies with two sets of ferrous 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 and said two sets of pole pieces create two narrow magnetic fields under each string to interact with it at two points. The humbucker device includes an improved differential amplifier built from two or three operational amplifiers. Alternatively, the device may include a steel plate positioned between the magnets and extending to the strings for weakening a wide magnetic field between pole pieces of the different sets. Both embodiments, with and without the plate, are described.

A switched reversing configuration control for string instruments connects to a pair of pickup sensors located on an electric string instrument for selectively electrically configuring the pickup sensors between (a) the pair of pickup sensors being coupled with like polarity in one of series or parallel with respect to a pair of output terminals, or (b) effectively coupling only one of the pair of pickup sensors to the output terminals, or (c) the pair of pickup sensors being coupled with opposing polarity in one of series or parallel with respect to the output terminals. An optional reverse polarity passive boost circuit is provided for increasing the output voltage coupled to the output terminals when the pickup sensors are coupled with opposing polarity as compared to the output voltage that would otherwise be provided absent the reverse polarity passive boost circuit.

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.