Suspension bridge pickup for guitar

An improved electric pickup for a stringed musical instrument of the type having a sounding board, an array of strings, means for adjusting the tension of the strings, and a switching circuit for receiving electric signals from said pickup and selecting and mixing said electric signals so as to produce a sound of diverse harmonic complexity, and for transmitting electric signals from said pickup to an external amplifier, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an elongated, generally cylindrical resonating bridge for asymmetrically engaging said strings and converting the vibrations therefrom into vibrations of different relative harmonic content along said bridge,
• a plurality of acoustic taps extending in spaced apart relation from the underside of the said resonating bridge for tapping the different ratios of harmonic frequencies at the respective points tapped on said bridge and including end taps for supporting said bridge on said instrument;
• a metal plate resonator having an upper face thereof in contact with one of said acoustic taps and arranged below the middle of said string array which is supported by said resonator bridge, a metal plate resonator having an upper surface thereof in contact with an acoustic tap located on the bass string side of said centrally disposed metal plate resonator, said centrally disposed metal plate resonator having a thinner lateral cross section and a greater total surface area on its upper and lower faces than those of said metal plate resonator located on the bass string side for receiving and maximizing the respective harmonic content of, and transmitting vibrations from the respective points of said bridge tapped of different amplitudes and harmonic overtone ratios, and for preventing feedback from random vibration of said metal plate resonators, and a metal plate resonator located adjacent each and of said bridge and in contact with and supporting said end taps, said end metal plate resonators having a thicker lateral cross section than said metal plate resonator arranged below the middle of said string array each of said metal plate resonators having a lower face;
• a piezoelectric element mounted on each of the lower surfaces of said metal plate resonators, for converting the vibrations of said metal plate resonators into electric signals;
• means for perimetrically supporting each of said metal plate resonators for resonation with low damping effect, and means adjustably mounting said supporting means on said instrument for adjusting the height of said bridge relative to said instrument.