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US 4,748,887 AGranted
Electric musical string instruments and frets therefor
OwnerSteven C. Marshallinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electric string instrument, e.g. an electric guitar, has one or more resistive elements associated with each fret whereby sideways deflection of a string while in contact with a fret creates a change in the effective resistive value of that fret. This may be used to provide "blending" of a note. Each such fret has one conductor, thus enabling a 144 wire harness in the neck of a guitar to be reduced to 24 conductive paths, which may be provided on a printed circuit board. Preferably both the strings and the frets are electrically scanned. The instrument may be employed as a MIDI guitar controller or an audio guitar or simultaneously as a combination of both. A guitarist can use a normal playing style, without special adaptation, to obtain a full range of expression, including pick velocity.
Claims37
An electric musical instrument, comprising:
- a body;
- a plurality of electrically conductive spaced apart strings connected at opposite ends to the body;
- a portion of the body carrying a plurality of spaced apart frets disposed below said strings, said strings being individually and selectively displaceable into contact with the frets at locations between said opposite ends for enabling the electric musical instrument to play different notes;
- means for connecting a source of electrical supply to said strings;
- said frets each having a longitudinal direction transverse to said strings, and each fret having an upper surface extending in said longitudinal direction for contact by said strings;
- said upper surface comprising a plurality of alternating electrically conducting and electrically insulating surface sections, each electrically conducting section having a discrete length in said longitudinal direction;
- means for completing an electric circuit through at least a portion of each string when the respective string is displaced into contact with any said conducting section, the circuit comprising said connecting means, the displaced string, and the contacted conducting section;
- means, forming part of each fret, for changing the resistance of said electric circuit in dependence upon the linear position in said longitudinal direction at which the displaced string contacts the respective fret;
- said resistance changing means comprising at least one resistive element forming part of the respective fret, and
- means for responding to said resistance changing for changing a parameter of the note produced when any one of the strings is displaced in said longitudinal direction while in contact with any one of the frets.
7 more elements
An electric guitar, comprising:
- a body including a neck portion;
- a plurality of electrically conductive strings attached to said body and extending over and along said neck portion;
- a plurality of frets incorporated in said neck portion and extending in a direction transverse to said strings;
- each fret having a surface contactable by said strings when depressed thereagainst, at least a portion of said surface being capable of allowing passage of low voltage electricity;
- means for completing an electric circuit through any one of said strings and any said fret surface portion when said any one of said strings is brought into contact therewith;
- means for varying the electrical resistance of said circuit in dependence upon the location in said direction at which the respective string contacts the respective surface portion;
- said resistance varying means comprising at least one separate resistive element associated with each said fret, said resistive element forming part of the respective fret, being elongate, and extending longitudinally in said direction transverse to said strings;
- and
- means, responsive to said varying of the electrical resistance, for causing variation in pitch of a musical note being played on the guitar.
6 more elements
A fret for an electric guitar, comprising:
- a plurality of electrically conductive slices;
- a plurality of electrically insulating slices;
- said slices being sandwiched together with alternating electrically conductive and electrically insulating slices;
- an electrical resistive element electrically connected at spaced apart locations to said conductive slices;
- means for electrically connecting said resistive element to the electric guitar;
- and
- said resistive element having a resistance which varies as a function of the length thereof, the resistance of said resistive element between any electrically conductive slice and said connecting means depending upon the position of that conductive slice in the fret.
4 more elements
A fret for an electric guitar, comprising:
- an elongate fret body of electrically insulating material having a longitudinal direction and an upper surface;
- a plurality of electrically resistive pads mounted on said upper surface and insulatingly spaced apart in said direction along said surface, said pads each having a dimension extending in said direction and in use being contactable by strings of the guitar when depressed thereagainst;
- an electrical conductor electrically connected to each said pad at a predetermined location thereof and extending from the respective pad;
- and
- said pads each having an electrical resistance which is a function of the dimension of the pad in said direction, the resistance of each pad between any position thereon which is contacted by a string of the guitar and said location varying in dependence upon the distance said any position is spaced in said direction from said location.
2 more elements
An electric musical instrument system, comprising:
- an electric guitar having a body structure carrying elongate fret assemblies with strings extending over the fret assemblies transversely thereto;
- each fret assembly having a body of electrically insulating material and including means, comprising at least one resistive element associated with a string contact surface of that fret assembly, for enabling the effective resistance of said element to change in dependence upon transverse deflection of a respective string when depressed into contact with said surface for enabling note bending to be achieved;
- circuit means for completing a circuit through any string when depressed against the string contact surface of one of said fret assemblies, the circuit so completed including in series at least part of the respective resistive element;
- a computer unit disposed in said body structure and having an input keyboard mounted on said body structure;
- said computer unit having associated therewith means for scanning said strings and means for scanning said fret assemblies;
- a printed circuit board mounted in said body structure and having a plurality of conductive paths electrically connecting said fret assemblies to said fret assemblies scanning means;
- said string scanning means, said fret assemblies scanning means, and said printed circuit board forming part of said circuit means;
- a magnetic pickup head mounted on said body structure below said strings;
- a digital data conversion unit connected to said computer unit to receive output signals therefrom, and connected to said pickup head to receive audio signals therefrom;
- a synthesizer connected to said digital data conversion unit and an audio amplifier to drive said audio amplifier in relation to said output signals;
- and
- said digital data conversion unit also being connected to said audio amplifier to drive said audio amplifier independently in relation to said audio signals.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.