Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-02
2001-02-20
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S723000, C084S731000, C084S738000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06191350
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to musical stringed instruments, and more particularly the present invention relates to those able to play chords and more specifically guitars. This invention can also be associated with MIDI input devices and in addition relates to the methods of operating a guitar controller for an electronic music synthesizer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The fret board of a guitar, for example, is normally used as a some sort of switching device and the strings are used as triggers for initiating specific notes or groups of notes in accordance with the fingerboard switches. The instrument may have on board electronic micro processing unit/s, a scanning device for fingerboard switches and synthesizer and/or MIDI compatible output. Some devices include an internal amplifier and a speaker that allows one to play the instrument without an external audio system.
Other devices allow the player to create chords by simply plucking and strumming allocated string and pressing the fret as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,668, issued to Segan et al., Jun. 16, 1992. Such devices, although useful, cannot produce natural sounding chords, when played in the desired sequence of the strings, or strummed or finger picked.
In order to reduce the loudness of the sound of the strings when used as a triggering device, many of the existing designs employ mechanical means for string damping made in a form of soft rubberlike foams or gel contacting strings directly near the bridge. A typical arrangement is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,962, issued to Fields, May 18, 1976. These dampers can significantly reduce the audio output of the vibrating string. The disadvantage of such devices is that having mechanically damped the string, its normal oscillations are distorted and have to be recreated by the electronic means for producing appropriate pitches.
The wired fret concept for creating a switching fingerboard is also well known from the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,518, issued to Meno, Jan. 13, 1987, having segmented frets with resistors installed between the frets along the string with strings used as ground wires is disclosed. There also are designs employing resistive strings and frets scanned in a specific manner that allow the determination of an exact position of the finger on the fingerboard, and the operation of an electronic micro processor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,585, issued to Starr, Mar. 21, 1995, provides a guitar having a switch placed along the neck. In other cases, the switches are placed beneath the strings, so when the string is depressed the switch goes on such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,351, issued to Nomura, Jul. 23, 1991. Some switches change their resistance under the pressure of the finger in order to emulate different velocities of the MIDI signal or the variation of other parameters. These concepts are set forth in U.S. '585.
The use of switches creates difficulties in playing the guitar, especially applying bar chords. Further, these instruments cannot be played as a normal acoustic or electric guitar.
One of the earliest attempts to create a simple fingering device for chord creation was the Guitarola. This included a mechanical device attachable to a guitar neck above the strings. Using just one finger, the player could create a variety of chords predetermined by the design. This device was generally difficult to use and it offered a limited number of chords. In addition, the guitar required tuning on a regular basis.
There are also devices known from the prior art which provide an audio signal by means of internal speakers. In view of the limited space and weight considerations for these devices, speaker quality normally is severely compromised with concomitant degraded sound quality.
Also well known are electro-acoustic guitars which allow one to play in a normal acoustic mode or with an external amplifier-speaker system. These guitars do not offer electronic chord creation by fret depression means for reproducing a sound in the electronic mode.
The present invention addresses all of these issues and provides for a significantly improved device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a playable, high quality and self-contained acoustic guitar able to produce, in its electronic mode, a wide variety of chords by simply depressing frets by one or more fingers.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the guitar feels and looks like an ordinary acoustic or electric solid body guitar. It has a wooden body and strings, and, in fact, can be played normally by a guitar player. Advantageously, anyone without previous guitar playing experience or training, can play chords and melodies. The sounds have been sampled from some of the very finest instruments available and are reproduced with the latest sample playback technology.
Selecting one chord after another from a wide palette of choices is straight forward. A display along the fingerboard indicates chord roots, and a display in the sound hole indicates specific chords selected.
In terms of the sampled sounds, an acoustic 1977 LoPrinzi custom dreadnaught steel string flattop, an 1867 Martin New Yorker parlor guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, a Fender Telecaster, a 1937 Gibson Charlie, Christian, a Gibson Heritage Les Paul, and a Gibson ES 335 were sampled.
Advantageously, a low cost self-contained musical stringed instrument able to create chords, melody, or sequences of played back notes by pressing one or more fingers on the fingerboard is realized by the present invention.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a MIDI controller in the form of a stringed instrument, for example, a guitar.
It is still another object of the invention to eliminate need for a speaker inside the acoustic guitar body.
Another feature of the invention provides for an electronic musical instrument which will be visually and sonically undetectably similar to a high quality acoustic instrument in terms of its “forgiveness” to the player.
One object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a musical instrument, comprising:
an instrument body having strings mounted thereon;
string vibration sensing means for sensing vibration of the strings;
a central processing unit;
an elongate fingerboard having a finger position recognition system for recognizing finger position;
memory means for storing preprogrammed notes and chords;
output means for transmitting vibration information from the memory means; and circuit means connected to the output means, the string vibration sensing means, the central processing unit, the finger recognition system and the memory means for determining the envelope of vibration of the strings whereby note or chord intensity intended by a user is conveyed to the transducer means.
Additional features of the invention include a neck display which will indicate the position of a chord played or melody note, nut display which will indicate a string with the chord root and an additional display in the sound hole for the indication of the chord presently played and other information like current mode of use, status of the system, and the result of self-diagnostic tests.
As a convenience, the instrument according to the present invention has the capability of generating chord sequences using a chord table consisting of basic triad chords and a chord map modifying these chords into other guitar chords. Slash chords may be played by simply depressing a root chord and a bass note to be played.
The arrangement discussed herein allows play in several modes including the capo mode, melody mode, chord mode, melody and chord mode.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a guitar, comprising:
a guitar having a body and fret board;
a plurality of electro conductive frets mounted to the fret board;
a plurality of electro conductive strings;
a string vibration sensing means for sensing vibration of the strings;
a central processing unit and memory means
Fasano Ubaldo
Okulov Paul
Paradis Jean-Pierre
(Marks & Clerk)
Fletcher Marlon
Nappi Robert E.
Sharpe Paul S.
The Guitron Corporation
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