Electric Bowed String Instrument Structure for Feedback Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric bowed string instruments suffer from feedback issues, significant differences in sound characteristics compared to acoustic instruments, and inadequate structural design that affects attack and sustain, leading to unsatisfactory sound quality and electronic adjustments.
Innovation Solution
An electric bowed string instrument structure with a longitudinally elongated frame featuring a soundboard offset from the bottom, a convex soundboard design, and a piezoelectric pickup positioned below the soundboard to intercept vibrations, eliminating resonating air volumes and optimizing vibration balance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a heavy and full structure is used to reduce feedback, then feedback is reduced, but the attack becomes sharp and short and the sustain becomes too long and persistent
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the structure by using a light rather than heavy construction. This parameter change allows the instrument to achieve reduced feedback while maintaining proper attack and sustain characteristics, resolving the contradiction between feedback reduction and temporal sound characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a multi-functional structure that simultaneously achieves feedback reduction and proper attack-sustain characteristics without requiring separate heavy damping components. The light structure design serves multiple functions: reducing feedback, maintaining natural attack, and providing appropriate sustain, thereby resolving the contradiction through universal design.
2Use of energy by moving object
If external amplification is used to amplify sound, then sound volume is increased, but Larsen effect or acoustic feedback is generated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the amplification function from external electronic systems and integrates it into the instrument's structural design. By incorporating pickup systems and amplification elements directly into the instrument body, the design eliminates the feedback loop between external amplifiers and the instrument, resolving the contradiction between sound volume and Larsen effect.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary elements such as pickup systems and damping structures that mediate between the sound production and amplification processes. These intermediaries capture sound vibrations directly at the source and transfer them to amplification systems in a controlled manner, preventing the re-entry resonances that cause Larsen effect while maintaining adequate sound volume.
3Duration of action of moving object
If a light structure is used to achieve soft attack curve, then attack becomes soft and gradual, but feedback increases due to light soundboard and bottom
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite material construction that combines lightweight materials with damping properties. This composite approach maintains the soft attack characteristics of light structures while incorporating feedback-reducing properties, resolving the contradiction between achieving soft gradual attack and preventing feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality enhancements by strategically placing damping materials and structural reinforcements in specific areas of the instrument body. This allows the overall structure to remain light for soft attack while localized regions provide feedback reduction, resolving the contradiction between global lightness and local feedback control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The structure achieves a dynamic response similar to acoustic instruments, reduces feedback, and maintains optimal attack and sustain characteristics while providing a lightweight and resistant design.
Implementation Method 1
a piezoelectric pickup positioned below the soundboard to intercept vibrations
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 4~5
AI summary
An electric bowed string instrument structure comprises a longitudinally elongated frame (2) having a front end portion (3) provided with a neck (4) and a rear end portion (6), the frame (2) having a central recess (8) provided with a bottom (9), a fingerboard (5) anchored to the neck (4), a tailpiece (7) anchored to the rear end portion (6) of the frame (2), a plurality of strings (13) extending between the fingerboard (5) and the tailpiece (7), a bridge (12) which extends transversely with respect to the frame (2) and is adapted to support the strings (13), a pick-up (14) adapted to intercept the vibrations produced by the strings (13) and to be connected to sound amplifying means, a soundboard (11) interlocked in the recess (8) in a transversely offset position with respect to the bottom (9), the soundboard (11) being convex with a convexity facing towards the strings (11), the pick-up (14) being arranged below the soundboard (11).