Electric piano
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Kawai Gakki Seisakusho
InventorsRiichi Kitashima, Masakazu Matsumoto, Shinji Tagaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electric piano having a casing provided with a frame made as a casting or the like with a plurality of strings stretched on the piano and supported at intermediate portions by a bridge member. A plurality of hammers driven by respective keys strikes the strings and pickups are provided for detecting vibrations of the strings. An amplifier is connected to the pickups and a speaker is connected to the amplifier. The bridge member is supported on supporting members attached to the frame through shock absorbing members of rubber or the like, and the pickups are constituted by piezoelectric elements mounted at any desired position in the supporting members.
Claims12
In an electric piano having a casing with a frame, a plurality of strings stretched on the frame, a bridge member supporting the strings at intermediate portions thereof, a plurality of hammers for striking the strings, a plurality of keys for actuating the hammers, electrical pickups for detecting vibrations of the strings, an amplifier connected to the pickups and a speaker connected to the amplifier, the improvement comprising a vibratable supporting member supporting said bridge member, means including shock absorbing members dampingly supporting the supporting member on said frame, said pickups comprising piezoelectric elements mounted on the supporting member, said pickups including first pickups mounted between the bridge member and the supporting member in the low and middle frequency range and second pickups attached to the outer surface of the supporting member in the high frequency range, the number of pickups being considerably less than the number of strings, said bridge member being elongated to extend over a multitude of strings, said bridge member constituting a sound-board.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.