Electronic stringed musical instrument with plural resonators and pickup

Claim 2

An electronic stringed musical instrument comprising a bridge, a plurality of vibratory musical strings tensioned against said bridge, a plurality of resonant beams to which vibrations of said strings are transmitted through said bridge, a pickup spanner mounted transversely across said resonant beams and into which the vibrations of said beams are coupled therefrom, and an electromechanical transducer for converting the vibrations coupled into said spanner into electrical signals.

Claim 3

An electronic stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 in which said resonant beams are wooden beams which are pretuned to resonate at semitones of the musical scale.

Claim 4

An electronic stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 in which said transducer is resiliently mounted on and entirely supported by said pickup spanner, thereby being acoustically insulated from all other members of said musical instrument.

Claim 5

An electronic stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 having a wooden spanner bar which is transversely mounted across said resonant beams and on which said bridge is mounted.

Claim 6

An electronic stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 in which said pickup spanner is ferromagnetic and in which said transducer includes a pickup coil and a permanent magnet magnetically coupled to said coil to form a magnetic circuit in which vibrations coupled to said pickup spanner from said beamS generate electric signals.

Claim 7

An electronic stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 1 in which a resilient coupling member is mounted on said pickup spanner, and said transducer includes a piezoelectric cartridge supported on said resilient coupling member, vibrations in said spanner being transmitted to the sensing element of said cartridge from said pickup spanner through said resilient coupling member.

Claim 8

A bowed electronic stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings adapted to be bowed; a two-legged bridge against which said plurality of strings bear; a plurality of pretuned resonant wooden beams and a wooden spanner bar transversely mounted along the central longitudinal portion thereof and carrying said bridge, from which bridge vibrations of said strings are transmitted to said resonant wooden beams, said beams being disposed in a substantially parallel manner in a common plane and extending from a common line of origin; a pickup spanner mounted transversely across all of said pretuned beams near the common line of origin thereof and into which the vibrations of said beams are coupled; a resilient coupling member mounted on said pickup spanner; an electromechanical transducer having a sensing element which is coupled to said pickup spanner through said resilient coupling; an amplifier for accepting the electrical output of said transducer and amplifying it; and means for converting said amplified signal into sound.

Claim 9

A bowed electronic stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings adapted to be bowed; a two-legged bridge against which said plurality of strings bear; a plurality of pretuned resonant wooden beams and a wooden spanner bar transversely mounted along the central longitudinal portion thereof and carrying said bridge, from which bridge vibrations of said strings are transmitted to said resonant wooden beams, said beams being disposed in a substantially parallel manner in a common plane and extending from a common line of origin; a pickup spanner mounted transversely across all of said pretuned beams near the common line of origin thereof and into which the vibrations of said beams are coupled; a resilient coupling member mounted on said pickup spanner; an electromechanical transducer having a sensing element which is coupled to said pickup spanner through said resilient coupling; an amplifier for accepting the electrical output of said transducer and amplifying it; and means for converting said amplified signal into sound.