Modular Acoustic-Electric Guitar with 5-DOF Pickup Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stringed instruments lack the ability to be easily modified in terms of shape, appearance, and sound properties, limiting musicians' options for customizing their instruments without purchasing new ones, and existing pickup systems offer limited adjustability and acoustic output.
Innovation Solution
A modular stringed instrument design with a skeletonized body, adjustable soundboard, and moveable pickups in five degrees of freedom, allowing for customizable appearance, feel, and sound through interchangeable pickups and electronic components, including a thin removable soundboard-top for artwork and adjustable electronics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If pickups are made fixed in position at manufacture, then manufacturing precision is improved, but adaptability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The pickup system is designed with movable mounting mechanisms that allow the pickups to be repositioned along the body in five degrees of freedom (forward/backward, up/down, left/right, rotational, and angular adjustments). This dynamic positioning capability enables musicians to optimize pickup placement for different playing styles and musical genres while maintaining precise positioning through controlled adjustment mechanisms.
2Strength
If the body is made solid and fixed in shape, then structural strength is improved, but ease of manufacture deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The instrument body is divided into modular components including a solid core structure for strength, with separate removable soundboard, interchangeable pickups, and detachable electronic components. This segmentation allows the solid body to maintain structural integrity while enabling easy manufacturing, assembly, and customization of individual modules without requiring complex machining of the entire body.
3Power
If traditional acoustic soundboard is used, then acoustic output is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The soundboard is designed as a thin, removable component with adjustable positioning mechanisms that allow it to be tilted and positioned at optimal angles for acoustic projection. The adjustability enables musicians to optimize acoustic output for different playing environments, while the modular design keeps the adjustment mechanism simple and accessible without requiring complex internal structures.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple pickup types are integrated, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The pickup system incorporates multiple pickup types (single-coil and humbucking) with universal mounting interfaces and a centralized switching mechanism that can select between various pickup configurations. The switching system provides multiple positions for different pickup combinations and orientations, enabling a single instrument to function as multiple instruments while keeping the control interface simple and intuitive through standardized switches and selectors.
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
Enables musicians to customize the instrument's appearance, sound, and feel piecemeal, providing a wide range of tonal options and acoustic output, from quiet practice without amplification to harsh electronic tones, using a combination of single-coil and humbucking pickups with on-board amplification and distortion control.
Implementation Method 1
electromagnetic transducers (84/276, 84/723, 84/726, 84/727)
Implementation Method 2
construction of sound boards on stringed instruments and control of their artistic and acoustic properties
Data Source
AI summary
An electric-acoustic stringed instrument has a removable, adjustable and acoustic artwork top with a decorative bridge and tailpiece; a mounting system for electric string vibration pickups that allows five degrees of freedom in placement and orientation of each pickup anyplace between the neck and bridge; a pickup switching system that provides K*(K−1)/2 series-connected and K*(K−1)/2 parallel-connected humbucking circuits for K matched single-coil pickups; and an on-board preamplifier and distortion circuit, running for over 100 hours on two AA cells, that provides control over second-and third-harmonic distortion. The switched pickups, and up to M=12 switched tone capacitors provide up to M*K*(K−1) tonal options, plus a linear combination of linear, near second-harmonic and near-third harmonic signals, preamp settings, and possible additional vibration sensors in or on the acoustic top.