Sound pickup for stringed instruments

Abstract

A sound pickup for a stringed instrument, the sound pickup including a housing arranged at a body of the stringed instrument below strings, wherein the housing includes at least one magnet enveloped by a coil so that a magnetic field is generatable by the at least one magnet, wherein the coil is electrically connected with at least one amplifier and with at least one speaker so that a movement of the strings in the magnetic field generates an electrical current in the coil, wherein the sound pickup includes an arrangement configured to adjust the magnetic field of the magnet which causes an adjustment of sound characteristics of the instrument.

Claims

1. A sound pickup for a stringed instrument, the sound pickup comprising: a housing arranged at a body of the stringed instrument below strings, wherein the housing includes at least one magnet enveloped by a coil so that a magnetic field is generatable by the at least one magnet, wherein the coil is electrically connected with at least one amplifier and with at least one speaker so that a movement of the strings in the magnetic field generates an electrical current in the coil, wherein the sound pickup includes an arrangement configured to adjust the magnetic field of the magnet which causes an adjustment of sound characteristics of the stringed musical instrument, and wherein a cover of the housing that is oriented towards the strings of the stringed musical instrument is made from electrically conductive material and includes an arrangement configured to continuously variably adjust a size of an opening of the cover which causes a continuously variable control of an attenuation of the sound pickup.

2. The sound pickup according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement configured to adjust the magnetic field includes a first electromagnet and at least one variable resistor that influences the first electromagnet.

3. The sound pickup according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement configured to adjust the magnetic field adjusts a position of the magnet in the coil.

4. The sound pickup according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement configured to continuously variably adjust the opening of the cover of the housing includes two perforated plates that are supported at the cover and that include aligned borehole patterns and that are movable relative to each other and that are configured to achieve different openings and damping effects.

5. The sound pickup according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement configured to adjust the magnetic field includes a first permanent magnet and an additional permanent magnet, electromagnet or a component made from ferro magnetic material whose position relative to the first permanent magnet is adjustable.

6. The sound pickup according to claim 5, wherein the adjustable position is adjustable at a right angle relative to an orientation of the strings.

7. The sound pickup according to claim 5, wherein the additional permanent magnet, the electro magnet or the ferro magnetic component is arranged outside of the housing.

8. The sound pickup according to claim 5, wherein the additional permanent magnet, the electromagnet or the ferro magnetic component is arranged within the housing.

9. The sound pickup according to claim 5, the position of the additional permanent magnet, the electromagnet or ferromagnetic component is adjustable manually.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention is now described based on advantageous embodiments with reference to drawing figures, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of an electric guitar;

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates a partial sectional view of a prior art sound pickup;

(4) FIG. 3 illustrates a partial sectional view according to sectional line III-III in FIG. 1:

(5) FIG. 4 illustrates a partial sectional view of another embodiment of a sound pickup with two electromagnets; and

(6) FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate views of a housing cover of a sound pick up in different positions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(7) The drawing figures show a sound pickup for stringed instruments overall designated with reference numeral reference 10.

(8) FIG. 1 shows an electric guitar 11 in a top view. The electric guitar 11 includes a body 12, a neck 13 with a finger board 14 and a head plate 15 with adjustment mechanisms 16. Strings 18 are run with a tension between a bar 17 at the body 12 that supports the strings and the adjustment mechanisms 16.

(9) The sound pick up 10 is arranged between the bar 17 and the neck 13 in a recess 19 (c.f. FIGS. 3 and 4) of the body 12 wherein the sound pickup is connected by a cable 20 with an amplifier V and a speaker L.

(10) Last not least a connection socket 21, a volume and sound controller 22 and a sound pickup actuator 23 is arranged on the body 12.

(11) FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art sound pickup A. The sound pickup A is arranged in a recess B of the body C of an electric guitar. The sound pickup A includes a housing D with a cover E in which a magnet F is arranged that is enveloped by a coil G. Strings H are run above the cover.

(12) The electromagnetic sound pickup A including the permanent magnet F and the coil G converts the string oscillations of an electric guitar into electric AC signals. In particular the movement of the strings H in the magnetic field changes a flux of the magnetic field, so that electro-magnetic induction generates an alternating current with the frequency of the oscillation of the string H in the coil G. As described supra, with respect to FIG. 1 the electric signal is fed into an amplifier and then amplified into a speaker signal.

(13) FIG. 3 illustrates a first embodiment of a sound pick up 10 according to the invention. The sound pickup 10 includes a housing 24 a magnet 25, a coil 26 that envelops the magnet 25 and a cover 27 of the housing 24. Two permanent magnets 28 are arranged on both sides adjacent to the sound pickup 10 wherein the two permanent magnets are vertically movable in the instant embodiment.

(14) As a matter of principle, it is conceivable that the permanent magnet 28 is pivoted in a variation of this embodiment.

(15) The position of the at least one additional magnet 28 is continuously variable by a mechanical sound pickup actuator 23 or by an electrical sound pickup actuator 23. Thus, the magnetic field generated by sound pickup 10 can be continuously amplified or attenuated since the movement of the strings 18 generates different levels of electromagnetic induction and thus a variable alternating voltage while the electric guitar is being played. This advantageously causes the different sound characteristics according to the invention.

(16) FIG. 4 shows a sound pickup 10 similar to the embodiment according to FIG. 3, however in this case the additional magnets 28 are configured as electromagnets 29 including an ion core and a coil that are also vertically move able. Also here pivoting or rotating the electromagnets 29 is possible.

(17) Last not least FIGS. 5A-5C show an advantageous embodiment of the cover 27 of the housing 24 implementing continuously variable control of the attenuation. Thus, the cover 27 is formed from two covers 30 that are horizontally movable relative to each other and that respectively include longitudinal slots 31. An opening condition of the housing 24 is adjustable as a function of the cover 30.

(18) When the covers 30 are offset relative to each other the housing 24 is completely closed and a maximum attenuation is achieved.

(19) When the longitudinal slots 31 are aligned in both covers 30 the housing 24 is open by a maximum amount and thus the attenuation is at a minimum.

(20) Alternatively, however it is also possible that the covers 30 include hole arrangements instead of longitudinal slots 31 or that the device for variable adjustment of the opening condition is configured as a metal lamella adjustable roll up shade supported at the cover of the housing, so that different positions of the lamellae facilitate achieving different opening conditions and damping effects.

REFERENCE NUMERALS AND DESIGNATIONS

(21) 10 sound pickup 11 electric guitar 12 body 13 neck 14 finger board 15 head plate 16 adjustment mechanism 17 bar with string support 18 string 19 recess 20 cable 21 connection socket 22 volume and sound characteristics controller 23 sound pickup actuation 24 housing 25 magnet 26 coil 27 cover of housing 28 permanent magnet, additional magnet 29 electromagnet 30 cover 31 longitudinal slot A sound pickup B recess C body D housing E cover F magnet G coil H string V amplifier L speaker