Low-Impedance Guitar Sustainer Pickups for Tonal Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current electromagnetic sustainers for electric stringed instruments lack flexibility in tonal options and often compromise desirable 'quack' or 'twangy' tones when switching between pickup configurations, and they do not allow for simultaneous operation of transducers as both pickups and drivers.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates multiple low-impedance electromagnetic transducers that function as both pickups and drivers, with a pickup-prioritized or driver-prioritized configuration, allowing for automatic selection of a transducer as a sustainer driver when the sustainer is activated, and enabling manipulation of resonance and damping components to achieve various tonal variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If conventional high-impedance passive pickups are used, then adequate output voltage is produced, but the sustainer cannot operate robustly with commonly-available batteries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the impedance parameter of the pickup from conventional high-impedance (several thousand ohms) to low-impedance (several hundred ohms). This parameter change enables the sustainer to operate robustly with commonly-available 9-volt batteries while maintaining adequate output voltage through the use of an active pickup design with operational amplifier circuitry.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the sustainer amplifier phase is reversed to force upper harmonic vibrations, then harmonic vibration modes are achieved, but the pickup output phase shifts as string vibration frequency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs feedback mechanisms in the active pickup circuitry that detect string vibration frequency and automatically adjust the phase response of the sustainer amplifier. This feedback system ensures that the pickup output phase remains consistent across different vibration frequencies, preventing unwanted phase shifts while maintaining the ability to force harmonic vibration modes when needed.
3Device complexity
If a single transducer is used for both pickup and driver functions, then device complexity is reduced, but the instrument lacks tonal flexibility for switching between different pickup configurations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs each low-impedance transducer to be universally functional, capable of operating in multiple modes: as a pickup transducer, as a driver transducer, or in combination with other transducers to create various pickup configurations. This multi-functionality is achieved through the active pickup design and control circuitry that can route signals flexibly, providing tonal flexibility equivalent to having multiple specialized transducers while using fewer physical components.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple conventional pickups are installed to provide tonal variety, then desirable pickup sounds are available, but the instrument requires multiple instruments to switch between different tonal characteristics during performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic switching and configuration capabilities within a single instrument, allowing the player to change pickup configurations, select different transducers as drivers, and adjust tonal characteristics in real-time during performance. The active pickup design with electronic control enables dynamic reconfiguration of the transducer network, providing the tonal variety of multiple instruments through a single adaptable system.
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
This configuration provides a wide range of desirable pickup sounds and maintains the 'quack' or 'twangy' tones, offering greater tonal flexibility and eliminating the need for multiple instruments to switch between different tonal characteristics during a performance.
Implementation Method 1
One or more high impedance passive or active pickups (electromagnetic transducers) for sensing the vibrations of the vibrating elements of the musical instrument and producing an output electrical signal representative of the vibrations
Implementation Method 2
A low-impedance electromagnetic driver transducer that accepts the amplified pickup signal at the sustainer amplifier output and provides a pulsating magnetic drive force in response to the amplified pickup signal
Data Source
AI summary
A sustaining device is described for prolonging the vibration of the strings of a stringed musical instrument, such as an electric guitar having two or three electromagnetic pickups. The pickups are all low impedance transducers that can function either as pickups or driver transducers, depending on whether they are connected to the input of the instrument pickup amplifier or to the output of the sustainer amplifier, respectively. When a transducer is being used as a sustainer driver, it cannot be simultaneously used as a pickup. Different methods of selecting transducers to function as pickups or drivers are described. The transducers, having only hundreds of wire turns instead of the usual thousands of turns for common pickups, have a flat audio frequency response that can be modified to produce a multitude of common pickup sounds by manipulating the transducer resonance frequency, bandwidth, and amplifier gain.