Music – Instruments – Stringed
Patent
1999-03-01
2000-05-30
Martin, David S.
Music
Instruments
Stringed
84293, 84314R, G10D 108
Patent
active
060693061
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to musical instruments and methods and apparatus for producing notes of a musical scale with real strings. More particularly, it relates to the division by frets, of the fingerboard, or neck, of a fretted stringed musical instrument, to obtain a desired musical scale with a specific set of strings. One embodiment of the invention is described in which the 12-tone equal-tempered scale is accurately produced on a guitar with steel strings having sufficient bending stiffness to cause audible intonation errors inherent in steel-stringed guitars of prior art. According to another embodiment of the invention, the musical scale is additionally tempered to approximate the 12-tone, equal-tempered scale while minimizing audible beats that occur when playing intervals and chords due to inharmonic frequency components inherent in tones generated by vibrating guitar strings. Manufacturing methods with respect to wound strings, and with respect to boundary conditions, are also explained. The calculation of fret distances from the bridge are done individually for each combination of fret and string. These calculations include a compensation for the tension increase resulting from fretting the string. As a result, the choice of action profile and the choice of string properties are decoupled from tuning and intonation, and a guitar can be built to play in tune with a given action profile with an independently given set of strings.
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Allen John S.
Isvan Osman K.
Gibson Guitar Corp.
Hsieh Shih-yung
Martin David S.
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