Patent Application
20200365129
The entirety of this application, specification, claims, abstract, drawings, tables, formulae etc., is protected by copyright: ©2018-2020 Donald L. Baker dba android originals LLC. The (copyright or mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all (copyright or mask work) rights whatsoever.
None requested
This application is related to the use of matched single-coil electromagnetic pickups, as related in the applications cited above, and Non-Provisional Patent Application 16/812,870, filed 9 Mar. 2020; Non-Provisional Patent Application 16/752,670, filed 26 Jan. 2020; and Non-Provisional Patent Application 15/917,389, dated Jul. 14, 2018, by this inventor, Donald L. Baker dba android originals LC, Tulsa Okla. USA.
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This application is a restatement of Non-Provisional Patent Application 16/156,509, falsely declared abandoned by Patent Examiner Daniel Swerdlow, on Jan. 17, 2020, after having been falsely and speciously rejected by Examiner Swerdlow on May 22, 2019. It is currently subject to a lawsuit making its way through the Federal Court system, charging violations of Federal Law and regulation outside the Patent Code, including 18 USC 242, 18 USC 1001 and Federal Civil Service Regulations. Mr. Baker filed Case No. 19-CV-289-CVE-FHM in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma on May 28, 2019, regarding NP patent application Ser. No. 15/197,389. Mr. Baker added Mr. Swerdlow to the Complaint as a Defendant in a Motion filed Jul 26, 2019, after his Advisory Action of Jun. 25, 2019. The U.S. District Court dismissed the complaint on Oct. 22, 2019. Mr. Baker appealed this dismissal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in a filing of Nov. 17, 2019, which the Tenth Circuit dismissed on Jun. 17, 2020. Mr. Baker is currently writing a Petition for a Writ of Certeriorari to the Supreme Court of the United States, appealing both dismissals as failing to properly advise him on or consider the violations of law outside the Patent Code. If necessary, Mr. Baker will correct any errors in procedure that the District Court cited, and refile the case.
In the meantime, Mr. Baker has filed descriptions of NP patent application Ser. No. 16/156,509 in his Project pages on ResearchGate.net, https://www.researchgate.net/project/US-patent-application-16-156-509-Obtaining-humbucking-tones-with-variable-gains, and in 2020 Springer-Nature published his book, Sensor Circuits and Switching for Stringed Instruments; Humbucking Pairs, Triples, Quads and Beyond, ISBN 978-3-030-23123-1, currently being sold by Springer and Amazon.com. Chapter 11 of this work discusses NP patent application Ser. No. 16/156,509 in depth. Mr. Baker regards using a specious examination to force an application to the added time and expense of a PTAB appeal, as deliberate extortion for more money, especially including the Office Communication of Jun. 24, 2020 which demands yet another $1000 on top of the $200 (02 Feb. 2020) already paid for a petition on Ser. No. 16/156,509.
This application rewrites the Claims of Ser. No. 16/156,509 to address any non-specious concerns that Mr. Swerdlow expressed, and which Mr. Swerdlow flatly refused to consider or correct in his haste to spike the application. It also adds as small amount of new material, which justifies a new application. Any attempt to deny Mr. Baker his legitimate rights to protect his intellectual property will result in an immediate lawsuit charging violations of US Code, Civil Service Regulations and ethics outside of the Patent Code. There is no excuse for this kind of abusive and illegal behavior at the USPTO, which would result in charges of Federal felonies for any of us outside the Government. Mr. Baker, who has been a GS-rating in several U.S. Departments, thinks that in an honest Agency or Department it would be a firing offense to cheat customers in these manners—at the very least, “conduct unbecoming the Service”.
Mr. Baker never “abandoned” NP patent application Ser. No. 16/156,509; he simply chose to prosecute it by other means, through the Federal Court system. The USPTO had demonstrated conclusively in NP patent application Ser. No. 15/917,389 that it neither could nor would hold its patent examiners responsible for honest and ethical treatment of applicants. It allowed that patent examiner to falsify prior art, inventing claim language for prior which does not exist, in order to arbitrarily and capriciously reject Mr. Baker's Claims in Ser. No. 15/917,389. Then it whitewashed the fraud by subverting the 181 complaint system, effectively absolving the falsification of prior art as being within Office procedure. Thus, it admitted that it regularly falsifies examinations and its own complaint processes, which violates Federal law and regulations outside the Patent Code, and cheats customers. Given this level of arbitrary and capricious corruption embedded so deeply in the Patent Office culture, one might be forgiven for doubting the honesty and integrity of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, made up of former patent examiners.
The patent examiner assigned to 16/156,509 refused to help Mr. Baker refine his Claims on rather complex and innovative material, as required by the MPEP, and concocted objections to Mr. Baker's claim language, based not on the engineering definitions or the intent of the Claims, but upon specious and picayune interpretations of “appropriate” language. Therefore, Mr. Baker could only conclude that this examiner was following the previous examiner's policy of spiking Mr. Baker's applications by any means necessary, quite possibly in retaliation for previous complaints against a previous examiner. Which prompted the filing of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, charging violations of law and regulation outside the Patent Code, especially the felony falsification of Federal paperwork and the felony deprivation of civil liberties under the color of law.
This is the result not of Mr. Baker failing to prosecute his application, but of the USPTO making a habit of cheating its own paying customers. Should the USPTO now claim that Mr. Baker cannot file this application because he legitimately disclosed the invention in public while the USPTO was deliberately sabotaging it, as it did a previous application, the USPTO compounds its own felonious misbehavior. So shall Mr. Baker charge in any next Federal lawsuit which may result from continued obstruction, plus a request that any Court ruling in his favor Order: 1) the USPTO official and agents involved to pay Mr. Baker damages for all the extra and unnecessary fees he has and will pay; and 2) that any such officials and agents be investigated for indictment under the RICO Act.
Your paying customers generally want no more that what they have earned by their own hard work. And most are quite willing to learn how to do better. But when you deliberately deny and destroy a person's best work in years on sheer malicious whims, you deserve to be called out in public.
This invention primarily describes humbucking circuits of vibration sensors primarily using variable gains in active circuits instead of electromechanical or analog-digital switching. It works for sensors which have matched impedances and responses to external interfering signals, known as hum. The sensors may also and preferably have diametrically reversed or reversible phase responses to vibration signals. It is directed primarily at musical instruments, such as electric guitars and pianos, which have vibrating ferro-magnetic strings and electromagnetic pickups with magnets, coils and poles, but can apply to any vibration sensor which meets the functional requirements, on any other instrument in any other application. Other examples might be piezoelectric sensors on wind and percussion instruments, or differential combinations of vibration sensors used in geology, civil engineering, architecture or art.
Early electromagnetic pickups, such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,915,858 (Miessner, 1933) could have any number of coils, or one coil, as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,455,575 (Fender & Kaufmann, 1948). The first modern and lasting single-coil pickup design, with a pole for each string surrounded by a single coil, seems to be U.S. Pat. No. 2,557,754 (Morrison, 1951), followed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,968,204 (Fender, 1961). This has been followed by many improvements and variations. In all those designs, starting with Morrison's, the magnetic pole presented to the strings is fixed.
Dual-coil humbucking pickups generally have coils of equal matched turns around magnetic pole pieces presenting opposite magnetic polarities towards the strings. Lesti, U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,841, 1936, perhaps the first humbucking pickup, had multiple poles, each with a separate coil. Lover, U.S. Pat. No. 2,896,491, 1959, had a single magnet providing the fields for two sets of poles, one for each string, with a coil around each set, the pickup design which most modern humbuckers use. These have been followed by a great many improvements and variations, including: Fender, U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,755, 1961; Stich, U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,751, 1975; Blucher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,185, 1985; and Knapp, U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,998, 1994;
Nunan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,421, 1983, patented a reversible pickup that could present either pole to the strings. But the patent only mentions rotating the middle pickup of three to produce two humbucking pairs with the neck and bridge pickups, using a 5-way switching system. It does not present a humbucking pair made with the neck and bridge pickups. Fender, U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,975, 1986, may be the first to use the term “humbucking pairs” (column 2, line 31), stating in column 2, line 19, “Thus, it is common for electrical musical instruments to have two, four or six pick-ups.” Yet, in the 3-coil arrangement of his patent, with the middle pickup presenting North poles to the strings and the neck and bridge pickups presenting South poles to the strings, he did not combine the signals from those pickups to form humbucking pairs. Instead, he added dummy pickups between them, underneath the pick guard (FIG. 2), without magnetic poles, for provide the hum signals for cancellation.
Commonly manufactured single-coil pickups are not necessarily matched. Different numbers of turns, different sizes of wires, and different sizes and types of poles and magnets produce differences in both the hum signal and in the relative phases of string signals. On one 3-coil Fender Stratocaster™, for example, the middle and neck coils were reasonably similar in construction and could be balanced. But the bridge coil was hotter, having a slightly different structure to provide a stronger signal from the smaller vibration of the strings near the bridge. Thus in one experiment, even balancing the turns as closely as possible produced a signal with phase differences to the other two pickups, due to differences in coil impedance.
The standard 5-way switch (Gagon & Cox, U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,278, 1985) on an electric guitar with 3 single-coil pickups typically provides to the output: the neck coil, the neck and middle coils in parallel, the middle coil, the middle and bridge coils in parallel, and the bridge coil. Typically, the middle pickup has the opposite pole up from the other two, making the parallel connections at least partially humbucking. But while the middle and neck coils have roughly equal numbers of turns, and the bridge coil has more turns than the other two to produce a roughly equal signal from the smaller physical vibrations of the strings nearer the bridge. The standard 3-way switch on a dual-humbucker guitar typically produces the neck, neck∥bridge and bridge pickups at the output, all of which are humbucking. These two switches are “standards” because the vast majority of electric guitars on the market use them.
Ball, et al. (US2012/0024129A1; U.S. Pat. No. 9,196,235, 2015; U.S. Pat. No. 9,640,162, 2017) describe a “Microprocessor” controlling a “digitally controlled analog switching matrix”, presumably one or more solid-state cross-point switches, though that is not explicitly stated, with a wide number of pickups, preamps and controls hung onto those two boxes without much specification as to how the individual parts are connected together to function. According to the Specification, everything, pickups, controls, outputs and displays (if any), passes through the “switching matrix”. If this is comprised of just one cross-point switching chip, this may present the problem of inputs and outputs being interrupted by queries to the controls. In the Specification, the patent cites the ability to make “any combination of combinations” without describing or providing a figure any specific one, or even providing a table or scheme describing the set. It states, “On board controls are similar to or exactly the same as conventional guitar/bass controls.” But there is not enough information in the patent for someone “with ordinary skill in the art” to either construct or fully evaluate the invention.
The Ball patents make no mention or claim of any connections to produce humbucking combinations. The flow chart, as presented, could just as well be describing analog-digital controls for a radio, or record player or MPEG device. In later marketing (https://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/the-game-changer), the company has claimed “over 250,000 pickup combinations” without demonstration or proof, implying that it could be done with 5 coils (from 2 dual-coil humbuckers and 1 single-coil pickup).
Bro and Super, U.S. Pat. No. 7,276,657B2, 2007, uses a micro-controller to drive a switch matrix of electro-mechanical relay switches, in preference to solid-state switches. The specification describes 7 switch states for each of 2 dual-coil humbuckers, the coils designated as 1 and 2: 1, 2, 1+2 (meaning connected in series), 1-2 (in series, out-of-phase), 1∥2 (parallel, in-phase), 1∥(−2) (parallel, out-of-phase), 0 (no connection, null output). In Table 1, the same switch states are applied to 2 humbuckers, designated neck and bridge. That is three 7-way switches, for a total number of combinations of 73=343, some of which are duplicates and null outputs.
Table 1 in Bro and Super cites 157 combinations, of which one is labeled a null output. For 4 coils, the table labeled Math 12b in Baker, U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,450 (2019), identifies 620 different combinations of 4 coils, from 69 distinct circuit topologies containing 1, 2, 3 and 4 coils, including variations due to the reversals of coil terminals and the placement of coils in different positions in a circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,401,134B2, filed 2014 Jul. 23, granted 2016 Jul. 26, Acoustic-electric stringed instrument with improved body, electric pickup placement, pickup switching and electronic circuit
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 provides 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.
PPA Ser. No. 62/355,852, 2016 Jun. 28, Switching System for Paired Sensors with Differential Outputs, Especially Matched Single Coil Electromagnetic Pickups in Stringed Instruments
The PPA Ser. No. 62/355,852 looked at what would happen to humbucking pair choices with different distributions of four matched pickups between the neck and bridge. U.S. Pat. No. 9,401,134 used a (N,N,S,S) configuration from neck to bridge (
PPA Ser. No. 62/370,197, 2016 Aug. 02, A Switching and Tone Control System for a Stringed Instrument with Two or More Dual-Coil Humbucking Pickups, and Four or More Matched Single-Coil Pickups
The PPA Ser. No. 62/370,197 considered a 6-way 4P6T switching system for two humbuckers, with gain resistors for each switch position. Adding series-parallel switching for the humbucker internal coils increased the number of switching states to 24, of which 4 produced duplicate circuits. Concatenated switches were considered to extend 6-way switching to any number of pickups. The PPA also considered digitally-controlled analog cross-point switches driven by a manual shift control and ROM sequencer, with gain adjustments to a differential preamp. Then a micro-controller to drive the ROM sequencer, with swipe and tap controls, a user display. It included an A/D converter to take samples from the output of the preamp, run Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) on the outputs, and use statistical measures of the spectra to set gain in the preamp and the order of switching, to equalize the outputs and order the order of switching from warm to bright and back. The PPA predicted large numbers of possible circuits for humbucking pairs and quads, and anticipated the limitations of mechanical switches.
NPPA Ser. No. 15/616,396, 2017-06-07, Humbucking switching arrangements and methods for stringed instrument pickups, granted as U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,450, 2019 Feb. 26
This invention develops the math and topology necessary to determine the potential number of tonally distinct connections of sensors, musical vibration sensors in particular. It claims the methods and sensor topological circuit combinations, including phase reversals from inverting sensor connections, up to any arbitrary number of sensors, excepting those already patented or in use. It distinguishes which of those sensor topological circuit combinations are humbucking for electromagnetic pickups. It presents a micro-controller system driving a crosspoint switch, with a simplified human interface, which allows a shift from bright to warm tones and back, particularly for humbucking outputs, without the user needing to know which pickups are used in what combinations. It suggests the limits of mechanical switches and develops a pickup switching system for dual-coil humbucking pickups.
PPA Ser. No. 62/555,487, 2017 Jun. 20, Single-Coil Pickup with Reversible Magnet & Pole Sensor
Previous patent applications from this inventor addressed the development of switching systems for humbucking pairs (especially of electromagnetic guitar pickups), quads, hexes, octets and up, as well as a system for placing pickups in any position, height and orientation between the bridge and neck of a stringed instrument. NPPA Ser. No. 15/616,396 makes clear that any electronic switching system for electromagnetic sensors must know which pole is up on each pickup in order to achieve humbucking results. For such pickups, changing the poles and order of poles between the neck and bridge provides another means of changing the available tones, such that for K number of matched single-coil pickups (or similar sensors) there are 2K−1 possible orders of poles between the neck and bridge. This PPA presents a kind of electromagnetic pickup that facilitates changing the physical order of poles and informing any micro-controller switching system of such changes, offering a much wider range of customizable tones.
PPA Ser. No. 62/569,563, 2017-Oct.-08, Method for Wiring Odd Numbers of Matched Single-Coil Guitar Pickups into Humbucking Triples, Quintets and up
The NPPA Ser. No. 15/616396, Baker, 07 Jun. 2017, describes and claims a method for wiring three single-coil electromagnetic pickups, matched to have equal coil electrical parameters and outputs from external hum, into a humbucking triple. This expands that concept to show how many triples, quintets and up any K=Kn+Ks number of matched pickups can produce, with Kn number of pickups with North poles up, or left (right) if lipstick type, and Ks number of pickups with South poles up, or right (left) if lipstick type. Depending upon the sizes of Kn and Ks, a number of combinatorial possibilities exist for both in-phase and out-of-phase or contra-phase signals. The principles and methods with also apply to Hall-effect sensors which use magnets or coils to generate magnetic fields. This PPA meshes with PPA Ser. No. 62/522,487, Baker, 20 Jun. 2017, Single-Coil Pickup with Reversible Magnet & Pole Sensor. It adds humbucking circuits with odd numbers of sensors to the number of humbucking circuits with even numbers of sensors claimed in NPPA Ser. No. 15/616396
In October of 2017, Baker continued reworking the circuits and concepts for humbucking triples and quints, working with circuit equations for humbucking pairs added in series and parallel to humbucking triples. On October 10th he asked himself, “Is there a 5×5 matrix of vectors from which all humbucking circuits can be predicted w/ linear matrix operations?” Including cases where humbucking pairs were added in series and parallel to get humbucking quads, it soon became apparent that for four pickups, the equations to specify the portions of the signals from each pickup at the output could be expressed with no more than three vectors and scalars. Or for K number of pickups, K−1 vectors and scalars. Thus was born the concept of Humbucking Basis Vectors, from which circuits could be constructed that would produce a continuous range of humbucking tones from matched single-coil pickups using only variable gains, with little, if any, mechanical switching.
Because variable gains depend upon active amplifiers, the tonal difference between series and parallel circuits goes away. Individual pickups, eventually including paired pickups, are connected to preamps with high input impedances, and the only tonal difference between series and parallel connections of two pickups depends upon the load impedance presented to them. The lower the relative load impedance, or the higher the relative pickup circuit impedance, the lower the resonant or roll-off frequency caused by adding a tone capacitor to the load. Putting tone capacitors on series or parallel connections of low-impedance preamp outputs has no practical effect on tone. So all those distinctions, and numbers of pickup circuits, are lost in favor of having a continuous range of tones in between the remaining in-phase and contra-phase combinations of pickups with preamps.
PPA Ser. No. 62/574,705, 2017 Oct. 19, Using Humbucking Basis Vectors for Generating Humbucking Tones from Two or More Matched Guitar Pickups
Humbucking circuits for any number of matched single-coil guitar pickups, and some other sensors, can be generated from humbucking basis vectors developed from humbucking pairs of pickups. The linear combinations of these basis vectors have been shown to produce the description of more complicated humbucking pickup circuits. This offers the conjecture that any more complicated humbucking circuit can be simulated by the linear combination of pickups signals according to these basis vectors. Fourier transforms and their inverses are linear. This means that the complex Fourier spectra of single sensors can be multiplied by scalars and added linearly according to the same basis vectors to obtain the spectra for any humbucking pickup circuit, or any linear combination in between. These spectra can then be used to order the results according to tone, using their moments of spectral density functions. Which can be used in turn to set the order of linear combinations of pickup signals proceeding from bright to warm or back, without using complicated switching systems. Thus a gradation in unique tones can be achieved by simple linear signal multiplication and addition of single pickup signals, preserving the analog nature of the signals. The granularity of the gradation of tones depends only upon the granularity of the scalars used to multiply the basis vectors to obtain the changes in gain for each pickup signal. The use of humbucking basis vectors can also be simulated by analog circuits, which are scalable to any number of pickups.
PPA Ser. No. 62/599,452, 2017 Dec. 15, Means and Methods of Controlling Musical Instrument Vibration Pickup Tone and Volume in SUV-Space
The PPA Ser. No. 62/599,452 recognized that in SUV-space the multiplying scalars are a vector, and that the length of the vector changes only the amplitude not the tone. So equal-length vectors can be expressed as s2+t2+u2+. . . =1. This equation also means the for K number of pickups with K−1 number of controlling SUV scalars, only K−2 of those scalars need to be changed to change the tone, or angle in SUV-space. Using the trig identities such as [sin2θ+cos2θ=1] and [(sin2θ+cos2θ)sin2ϕ+cos2θ=1], sine and cosine pots can be used to express the variable gains in the circuits of PPA Ser. No. 62/574,705, and ganged to produce K−2 controls. So for a 3-coil guitar, only K−2=3−2=1 control is needed, and this system in scalable to any number of matched pickups. But there's a catch; contra-phase tones tend to have much less amplitude than in-phase tones. Even if the SUV-vector stays constant, that doesn't mean the output level does. This gets addressed in a later submission.
NPPA Ser. No. 15/917,389, 2018 Jul. 14, Single-Coil Pickup with Reversible Magnet & Pole Sensor
This invention offers several variations of embodiments, with both vertical and horizontal magnetic fields and coils, of single-coil electromagnetic vibration pickups, with magnetic cores that can be reversed in field direction, so that humbucking pair circuits can produce, from K number of single-coil pickups, 2K−1 unique pole position configurations, each configuration producing a different set of K*(K−1) circuit combinations of pairs, phases and series-parallel configurations out of the possible 2*K*(K−1) of such combinations. This invention also offers a method using simulated annealing and electromagnetic field simulation to systematically design, manufacture and test possible pickup designs, especially of the physical and magnetic properties of the magnetic cores.
PPA Ser. No. 62/711,519, 2018 Jul. 28, Means and Methods of Switching Matched Single-Coil and Dual-Coil Humbucking Pickup Circuits by Order of Tone
A very simple guitar pickup switching system with just 2 rules can produce humbucking circuits from every switching combination of pickup coils matched for response to external hum: 1) all the negative terminals (in terms of phase) of the pickups with one polarity of magnetic pole up (towards the strings) are connected to all the positive terminals of the pickups with the opposite pole up; and 2) at least one terminal of one pickup must be connected to the high terminal of the switching system output, and at least one terminal of another pickups must be connected to the low output terminal. The common pickup connection is grounded if the switching output is to be connected as a differential output, and ungrounded if the either terminal of the switching output is grounded as a single-ended output. So for 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 matched pickup coils, this switching system can respectively produce 1, 6, 25, 90, 301, 966, 3025, 9330 and 28,541 unique humbucking circuits, rising as the function of an exponential of the number of pickup coils. All of the circuits will have the same signal output as 2 coils in series, modified considerably by phase cancellations. This works for either matched single-coil pickups, or matched dual-coil humbuckers, or any combination of both, so long as all the pickup coils involved have the same response to external hum. FFT analysis of the signals of all strings strummed at once allows the tones to be ordered in the switching system from bright to warm or vice versa. The switching system can be electromechanical switches, but this limits utilization of all the possible tones, and an efficient digitally-controlled analog switching system is presented.
NPPA Ser. No. 16/139,027, 2018-Sep.-22, Means and Methods for Switching Odd and Even Numbers of Matched Pickups to Produce all Humbucking Tones, Granted as U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986, 2019 Aug. 13
This invention discloses a switching system for any odd or even number of two or more matched vibrations sensors, such that all possible circuits of such sensors that can be produced by the system are humbucking, rejecting external interferences signals. The sensors must be matched, especially with respect to response to external hum and internal impedance, and be capable of being made or arranged so that the responses of individual sensors to vibration can be inverted, compared to another matched sensor, placed in the same physical position, while the interference signal is not. Such that for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 sensors, there exist 1, 6, 25, 90, 301, 966 and 3025 unique humbucking circuits, respectively, with signal outputs that can be either single-ended or differential. Embodiments of switching systems include electro-mechanical switches, programmable switches, solid-state digital-analog switches, and micro-controller driven solid state switches using time-series to spectral-series transforms to pick the order of tones from bright to warm and back.
NPPA Ser. No. 16/156,509, 2018 Oct. 10, Means and Methods for Obtaining Humbucking Tones with Variable Gains
This invention discloses a basic humbucking pair circuit of 2 matched coils or other sensors, which is connected in a particular way to other humbucking pair circuits, to be combined with variable gains in a way that physically simulates the construction of a linear vector of humbucking pair tones. With this physical embodiment, every possible switched humbucking circuit of J>1 number of matched vibration sensors can be constructed, connected by all the continuous variation of humbucking tones in between. It effectively does away with most electro-mechanical switching of guitar pickups, and the inherent limitations of that approach, including duplicate circuits, in return for a continuous range of tones.
PPA Ser. No. 62/835,797, 2019 Apr. 18, More Embodiments for Common-Point Pickup Circuits in Musical Instruments
This invention uses the common-point connection principles of NPPA Ser. No. 16/139,027 (prior to the granting of U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986) applied to a circuit with 3 matched single-coil pickups and another embodiment with 3 matched dual-coil humbucking pickups. In the 3-coil circuit, the common point is intentionally grounded to obtain all the pickup tone signals previously available from a standard 5-way Stratocaster (™Fender) electric guitar, plus all the humbucking pair and triple tone signals when the common point is not grounded, for a total of 12 switched circuits, with 9 to 10 distinct tones. In the 3-humbucker, 6-coil circuit, additional mode switches are added to use the magnetic North and South coils individually, so as to simulate pickups with reversible magnets. This circuit offer at least 18 different tone circuits, which the later NPPA found increased.
This invention follows NPPA Ser. No. 15/917,389, showing how the entire pickup core, coil form, coil, magnet and coil contacts, can be made to be removed from its housing, flipped so as to reverse the magnetic field and the vibration signal, and reinserted without changing the humbucking effect of the circuit.
NPPA Ser. No. 16/812,870, 2020 Mar. 09, Modular Single-Coil Pickup, Currently Waiting for Examination
This invention follows NPPA Ser. No. 16/752,670, the construction of which required that the guitar body be lowered to permit access to the pickup core. This invention redesigns the removable and reversible pickup core so that mounting under a pickguard is restored.
NPPA Ser. No. 16/840,644, 2020 Apr. 06, More Embodiments for Common-Point Pickup Circuits in Musical Instruments, Currently Allowed & Waiting for Payment of the Issue Fee
This NPPA follows PPA Ser. No. 61/835,797, this time finding that the 3-humbucker circuit presents 66 different circuits out of 108 different switch combinations. As previous experiments have shown, it shows in
Most mass-market guitars with two dual-coil humbuckers use a 3-way switch, and most 3-coil guitars use a 5-way switch. Even when pickup switching systems are invented which offer hundreds to thousands of unique pickup circuits, mechanical switches have had to be replaced with digital-analog cross-point switches, driven by micro-controllers. Which is not a bad thing, but requires additional resources in battery power and software programming.
The most pervasive and persistent technical problem comes from the limitations of electro-mechanical switches. Those which are cheap and small enough to be used under the pick guards of electric guitars in regular mass production only have from 3 to 66 choices of pickup circuits, and those limited to certain types of circuits. In those circuits, only a few, if any, of the circuits which can be achieved can be ordered in any semblance of bright to warm tones. The rest are effectively random, and most of the tones tend to bunch at the warm end. The more tones available, the closer they tend to bunch together, even if the range of tones is extended. So some confusion in using them can be expected.
To this inventor's knowledge, to date the only pickup signal selection systems which generate a continuous range of tones are limited to simple potentiometer-controlled signal splitters, or faders, which mix the signals of two or more pickups. One such system appears in FIG. 36 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,401,134B2 (Baker, 2016). Until NPPA Ser. No. 16/156,509 and this NPPA, no continuous tone system, expandable to any number of pickups of any kind, has been presented which can span the tones of the tens to thousands of pickup circuits possible from the full range of series-parallel and all-humbucking circuits, which have been presented in NPPA Ser. Nos. 15/616,396, 16/139,027 and 16/840,644.
In this system, only the pickups in the humbucking pair of the basic circuit need to be matched to each other to cancel hum. This system allows different types of sensors to be included in it, so long as they come in matched pairs and those matched pairs are used together in individual basic circuits. Thus electro-magnetic sensors and piezo-electric sensors and even strain-gage sensors can be mixed in the system. It also allows, as did the previous humbucking systems disclosed by this Inventor, for expanding the range of tones by reversing the magnets of electro-magnetic coil-based sensors.
Excepting the previous prior art of this Inventor, this invention discloses the hitherto unknown, non-obvious, beneficial and eminently usable means and methods to produce a wide range of switched humbucking pickup circuits with variable-gain analog amplifiers and summers, as well as providing all the continuous tones in between. The pickups used here are matched to have the same internal impedance and to produce the same response to external hum. While primarily intended for matched single-coil electromagnetic guitar pickups and dual-coil humbucking pickups, the principles can apply to any other sensor or type of sensor which meets the same functional requirements. They may, for example, apply to capacitive vibration sensors in pianos and drums, or piezoelectric sensors in wind instruments. Furthermore, sensors of different types and sensitivities may be mixed in the total circuit, so long as the two in each basic circuit are matched to each other with respect to hum. But they will lose versatility because they cannot be interconnected at the sensor level.
From the electronic circuit equations of pickup circuits, these circuits and methods express the output voltages of humbucking pickup circuits as a sum of the humbucking basis vectors, each multiplied by a scalar representing a variable gain. The scalars can be positive or negative within their ranges to simulate the phase reversals, and partial phase reversals, of individual humbucking pairs, as well as the linear mixing of signals. The scalars can also combine humbucking pairs into humbucking triples, quads, quintets, hextets, and up. This approach will also accommodate pickups with reversible magnetic poles, with different pole-position configurations, while maintaining humbucking outputs.
In a circuit with J number of pickups, all of the same type, there are J−1 humbucking pairs. If all of the humbucking pairs are comprised of different types and sensitivities of pickups outside of each pair, there are J/2 humbucking pairs that can produce signals for the output. If there a J1 number of matched pickups of one type, and J2 number of matched pickups of a different type, then there are J1−1 plus J2−1 different humbucking pair signals that can be mixed together in the circuit output. It is also possible to create even more humbucking tones with electro-magnetic coil vibration sensors simply by reversing the orientation of each magnet.
Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs), allow a micro-controller or micro-computer to transform digitized samples of selected outputs into frequency spectra and to predict the responses over the whole continuous range of basis vector scalars. This can be used to create maps of relative output signal amplitude, mean frequencies and moments of the spectra, by which to adjust and equalize system signal output, and to order system scalar selections by measures of tone. Inverse FFTs, can then be used to convert predicted outputs back into audio signals, fed though a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter to the system audio output, to allow the user to choose favorites or a desired sequence of tones. Using such information the programmable digital controller can adjust the basis vector scalars, simulated by means of digital potentiometers, to control amplitude and tone.
This system can provide the user with a simple interface to shift continuously through the tones, from bright to warm and back, without ever having to know which pickups and basis vector scalars are used to produce the amplitudes and tones. This invention does not provide the software programming for such functions, but does disclose the digital-analog system architecture necessary to achieve those functions. A great deal of study remains to explore the mapping and control of relative amplitudes and tones, especially when using matched pickups with reversible magnetic poles, which produce different combinations of in-phase and contra-phase signals.
Matched single-coil electromagnetic guitar pickups are defined as those which have the same volume and phase response to external electromagnetic fields over the entire useful frequency range. As noted in previous PPAs, these principles are not limited to electromagnetic coil sensors, but can also be extended to hall-effect sensors responding to electromagnetic fields, and to capacitive, resistive strain and piezoelectric sensors responding to external electric fields. For example, if two piezo sensors are placed on a vibrating surface so that they react to two different bending modes on the instrument, and mounted so that the grounded electrodes are facing the same hum signal source, then the interference is both shielded, and cancelled as a common-mode voltage in the differential amplifier, and the paired signal output is the difference of the two bending modes.
Let A and B denote the signals of two matched single-coil pickups, A and B, which both have their north poles up, toward the strings (N-up). To produce a humbucking signal, they must be connected contra-phase, with an output of A−B. It could be B−A, but the human ear cannot generally detect the difference in phase without another reference signal. Conversely, if A and B denote two matched pickups where A is N-up and the underscore on B denotes S-up, or south pole up, then the only humbucking signal possible is A+B. Any gain or scalar multiplier, s, times either signal, A−B or A+B, can only affect the volume, not the tone.
But as soon as a third pickup is added, the tone can be changed. Let N, M and B denote the signals of matched pickups N, M & B a 3-coil electric guitar. Let N be the N-up neck pickup, M be the S-up middle pickup, and B be the N-up bridge pickup. A typical guitar with a 5-way switch has the outputs, N, (N+M)/2, M, (M+B)/2 and B, where the summed connections are in parallel. Math 1a&b show two possible forms of humbucking basis vectors, used to combine the signals N, M & B with the scalar variables s and u.
Math 1a uses the basis vectors [1,1,0] and [1,0,−1], and Math 1b uses the basis vectors [1,1,0] and [0,1,1]. Note that two basis vector sets are linearly dependent, that [1,1,0]−[1,0, −1]=[0,1,1]. The scalar vectors [s1,u1] and [s2,u2], contain the scalar multipliers, s1 & u1 and s2 & u2, which can be considered rectangular coordinates in SUV-space, where the S, U & V denote the successive humbucking pair scalars, s, u, v, et cetera. Note that the SUV-space with coordinates [s1,u1] maps into the SUV-space with coordinates [s2,u2] with the linear transformation in Math 2. So the two spaces cover all the same humbucking tones.
s
2=s1+u1, u2=−u1 Math 2.
Constructing Tables of Relative Amplitudes and Moments for all Circuits from the Simultaneous FFT Spectra of a Few
The Fast Fourier Transform, or FFT, is linear. If X(f) and Y(f) are the respective complex Fourier transforms of x(t) and y(t), and exist, then Math 3 holds true.
a*x(t)+b*y(t)⇔a*X(f)+b*Y(f) Math 3.
Likewise, the Fourier transforms of the signals in Math 1 are linear. For example, the circuit produced by this switching system is N1oN2S2, in the notation used here, and the signals from the coils in that circuit are n1(t), n2(t) and s2(t), with Fourier transforms N1(f), N2(f) and S2(f), then Math 4 holds true via Math 1 and Math 3.
n1(t)−[n2(t)−s2(t)]/2=n1(t)+[s2(t)−n2(t)]/2⇔N1(ƒ)+[S2(ƒ)−N2(ƒ)]/2 Math 4.
There are at least 3 forms of the frequency components of the Fourier transform; a cosine paired with a sine; a magnitude paired with a phase; and a real part paired with an imaginary part. From the form with real and imaginary parts of a frequency component Z(fj)=X(fj)+iY(fj), the magnitude and phase can be easily constructed, as shown in Math 5.
This means that however the strings can be excited to provide signals from each and every matched pickup coil being used, the simultaneous signals from each coil can be sampled and individually transformed into complex Fourier series. Often, the signals are sampled and digitized at high rates in sequence, so there is a finite time delay between samples for different coils. Equation (3-20) in Brigham (1974) shows how to compensate for this, as shown in Math 6, where to is the time delay between samples.
x(t−t0)⇔X(ƒ)*e−j2πƒt
As a practical matter, sampling and digitizing rates can be 48 k-Samples/s or higher. To obtain a frequency spectrum for 0 to 4 kHz, one must sample and digitize at 8 kS/s, which leaves room for sampling 6 signals in sequence at 48 kS/s. If an acceptable phase error is 1 degree, or 0.1745 radian at 4 kHz, then the clock measuring to must be accurate to 1/(360*4000 Hz)=0.694 uS. Since it takes a few clock cycles of a microcontroller or microprocessor to mark a time, this suggests the need for a system clock of that many clock cycles times 1.44 MHz, or greater.
The complex series for the coils can be added, subtracted, multiplied and divided according to equation via Math 2 for each and every circuit combination this switching system (or any other switching system) can produce. Then, for every frequency component of every given complex Fourier transform for every circuit, the magnitude of that component can be obtained via Math 6 and substituted into Math 1 to obtain the relative signal amplitude and frequency moments for that circuit and excitation.
That means it is not necessary to run an FFT process for every single point in SUV-space. It can all be done by computation from the FFTs either for each pickup coil or for each humbucking pair. Baker (2017) determined that for J number of matched pickup coils, there could only be J−1 number of independent basis vectors for humbucking pairs. This means that in order to obtain the individual signals of individual coils from humbucking pairs, triples, etc., at least one of the coil signals must be independently measured. It does not matter which coil is measured independently, so long as it is placed alone across whatever output feeds into the sampling input, with a proper ground reference. This could be as simple as a switch shorting out one of the coils in a humbucking pair. This would require the use of SW1 in
This approach can be extended to any number of matched pickups.
If the pickup at A is N-up, and designated Na, then its vibration signal has a positive sign, +Na. If it is S-up, and designate Sa, then its vibration signal has a negative sigh, −Sa. Tables 1 and 2 show the maximum possible number of different pole/position configurations for
Or to look at it another way, there are two difference tones, Δ1 and Δ2, and two sum tones, Σ1 and Σ2, with the additions −Σ1 and −93 2, which are inverse duplicates. Any of the minus signs can be replaced by changing the sign of one or both scalars, s and u. Note that using N,S,S in the second row, instead of its inverse duplicate, S,N,N, would replace (−Σ1,Δ2) with (Σ1,−Δ2), which will produce exactly the same output tones of Vo=s(A−B)+u(B−C), merely be reversing the signs of s and u. The only true differences are the combinations of in-phase (Σ) and contra-phase (Δ) tones, (Δ,Δ), (Δ,Σ), (Σ,Δ) and (Σ,Σ). Each combination navigates a different tonal/amplitude space with values s and u.
In Table 2, the same principles apply. From NPPA Ser. No. 15/917,389, we have that for K number of matched and reversible magnetic sensors, there are 2K−1 possible unique magnetic pole reversals, assuming a linear signal system and the Rule of Inverted Duplicates. For four pickups, there are 24−1=23=8 pole configurations. As we see here, this metric also holds true for the number of configurations of in-phase (Σ) and contra-phase (Δ) tones associated with the humbucking basis vector scalars, s, u and v. If Δ is taken for a binary 0 and Σ is taken for a binary 1, the results of the 8 pole configurations can be ordered from (Δ,Δ,Δ) or (0,0,0) to (Σ,Σ,Σ) or (1,1,1).
The only difference in warmness or brightness of tone between serial and parallel circuits comes from the load impendence on the output of the circuit, and the load impedance of a solid-state differential amplifier, as shown in
Math 7a shows the circuit equation and output solution for
Letting A, B and C stand in for the voltages, VA, VB and VC, Math 9 expresses the humbucking basis vectors and output basis equation which will apply to both circuits in
Note that if the pots Ps and Pu in
But for any two points in SU-space, (s1,u1) and (s2,u2), where s2=−s1 and u2=−u1, one output, Vo, will merely be the opposite sign, −Vo, of the other. These will be indistinguishable in a linear signal system. So half of SU-space is not needed. Instead of being very expensive 360-degree rotation pots, Ps and Pu can be more ordinary pots with a half-cycle of cosine and sine each, still expensive, but less so.
(. . . ((((cos2θ1+sin2θ1)cos2θ2+sin2θ2)cos2θ3+sin2θ3) . . . )cos2θj+sin2θj)=1 Math 10a.
cos2θ1+sin2θ1)cos2θ3+(cos2θ2+sin2θ2)sin2θ3=1 Math 10b.
The trig identity in Math 10a can be used to extend
In
There is another advantage to doing it this way. Using the trig identity removes one degree of freedom from the equations. So for J number of matched single-coil pickups, there are J−1 humbucking pair signals and J−2 controls, s, u, v, . . . This means that for a 3-coil guitar, only one rotary control needs to be used to set the tone (but not the volume) over the entire range from bright to warm. For a 4-coil guitar, or 2 dual-coil humbuckers used as 4 matched coils, just 2 rotary controls can move the tone over the entire half-sphere of tonal changes. But it is not usually possible for such a manual control to move monotonically from “bright” to “warm”, as those terms are very subjective in human hearing, and the phase cancellations providing “bright” tones can happen in the middle of the pot rotation range. Getting a continuous range from “bright” to “warm” will require more research both to provide measurable and acceptable scientific definitions of those terms, which can be calcualted, sorted and controlled by digital processors.
Unfortunately, sine-cosine pots tend to be either large or expensive or both. But sine and cosine are not the only functions for which (s(x)2+u(x)2)=1, where 0≤x≤1 is the decimal fractional rotation of a single-turn pot with multiple gangs, having tapers s(x) and u(x). One of these functions can be simulated with a 3-gang linear pot.
Math 11 shows the solutions to the circuit equations for RB, Pga, Pgb, Vs, V1 and Vw. In order for the simulation of the scalar, s, to have a range from 0 to 1, the gain, of Buff1 must be as shown. As noted in
1−(s2(x)+u2(x))≤+ϵ Math 12.
For this example, we will assume digital pot with 256 resistance taps. In this case, x as a decimal fractional rotation number from 0 to 1 has no meaning. The numbers 0 and 255 correspond to the ends of the pot, zero resistance to full resistance on the wiper. The internal resistor is divided into 255 nominally equal elements, and an 8-bit binary number, from 00000000 to 11111111 binary, or from 0 to 255 decimal, determines which tap is set. The pot either has a register which holds the number, or an up-down counter which moves the wiper up and down one position. The convention used here makes s=cos(θ) and u=sin(θ) for −π/2≤θ≤π/2, with 0≤s≤1 and −1≤u≤1. So s maps onto 023 Ns≤255, and u maps onto 0≤Nu≤255. This breaks each of s=cos(θ) and u=sin(θ) into 256 discrete values, from 0 to 1 for s and from −1 to 1 for u. So the resulting sin and cosine plots are non-continuous. The number that is fed to the pot to set it must be an integer from 0 to 255. Math 13 shows how this number is set, given that the uC has sine and cosine math functions. The value of 0.5 is added before converting to an integer to properly round up or down. The resulting error in Math 12 tends to be ± 1/255.
Int(y)=integer≤y
Ns=Int(255s+0.5)=Int(255cos(θ)+0.5) Math 13.
Nu=Int(127.5*(1+u)+0.5)=Int(127.5*(1+sin(θ))+0.5)
Unfortunately, not all micro-controllers come with trig functions in their math processing units. One very low power uC, which runs at about 100 uA (micro-amps) per MHz of clock rate, has 32-bit floating point arithmetic functions, including square root, but no trig functions or constant of Pi. This requires two different orthogonal functions which can satisfy Math 12, but not necessary those in Embodiment 3. Math 14 shows a set of functions, s(x) and u(x), which meet Math 12 with no error, and are orthogonal to each other.
Math 15 shows an even better function, plotted in
The functions in Math 14 & 15 suggest the candidates in Math 16 & 17 to be substituted for sine and cosine in an FFT algorithm, when the uC has a floating point square root function, but no Pi constant or trig functions. In these cases, the variable of rotation is not 0≤θ<2π, but 0≤x<1; the frequency argument of cosine changes from (2πft) to simply (ft), and the FFT algorithm must be adjusted to scale accordingly.
where b1=0.2629467, b2=0.7071068, b3=78.62807 are optimized to reduce some measure of error between Sxm−corr and Sine
Math 17 shows an added correction to Sxm, prior to calculating Cxm, which reduces the error to less than ±1.5e-6 for Sxm, and less than ±1.4e-5 for Cxm. The precision of the coefficients is consistent with IEEE 754 32-bit floating point arithmetic. Listing 1 shows a Fortran-like subroutine to calculate the sine- and cosine-approximation return variables SXM and CXM from X and NORD. For NORD=0, a re-scaled Match 14 is calculated, for NORD=1, Math 16 is calculated, and for NORD=2, the correction in Math 17 is added before calculating CXM.
The cosine pot, PDCOS, feeds into the unitary gain buffer, BUFF1, which with summing resistor RS, and similar signals from other sections (BUFF2, RS, . . . ) sum together the humbucking pair signals, conditioned by the digital pots simulating the scalar coordinates, s, u, v, . . . . The feedback circuit on U3, resistor RF and digital pot PDF, provides a gain of −(RF+PDF(set))/RS, as set by the uC with the 3 lines controlling PDF. The output of U3 then feeds the ANALOG SIGNAL COND section in
The uC shows 4 internal functions, one FFT section, two analog-to-digital converters, ADC, and one digital-to-analog converter, D/A. The FFT section can be a software program in the uC. Or an inboard or outboard Digital Signal Processor (DSP) can be used to calculate FFTs, or any other functional device that serves the same purpose. The D/A output feeds inverted FFTs to the ANALOG SIGNAL CONDitioning section either as audio composites of the result of the simulation of the humbucking basis vector equation, or as a test function of various signal combinations. It allows the user to understand what the system is doing, and how. It can be embodied by a similar solid-state switch to SW1 or SW2, switching the input of the ANALOG SIGNAL COND block between the outputs of the SUM AMP and the D/A.
Ideally, the uC samples time-synced signals from all the humbucking pair signals simultaneously, performs an FFT on each one, and calculates average signal amplitudes, spectral moments and other indicia, some of which are shown in Math 20. It then uses this data to equalize the entire range of possible output signals, and to arrange the tones generated into an ordered continuum of bright to warm and back. The MANUAL SHIFT CONTROL is a control input that can be embodied as anything from an up-down switch to a mouse-like roller ball, intended for shifting from bright to warm tones and back without the user knowing which pickups are used in what combination or humbucking basis vector sum.
For example, Math 18 shows a humbucking basis vector equation, for pickup A S-up and pickups B, C and D N-up, as could happen for
So after the uC takes the FFTs of all the unmodified humbucking pair signals, via
An ordinary electro-mechanical switching system does one thing which this system cannot do without another sub-component. It connects the tone pot and capacitor directly to the pickup circuits and allows the pickups to resonate with the tone capacitor for certain tone settings.
This also comes with shifts in phase, which the player does not normally hear, because the standard tone pot and capacitor are normally connected in parallel with the output volume pot. But a tone pot and capacitor on the output of
This application claims the precedence of various elements in: U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,986, granted Aug. 13, 2109, and U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,450, granted Feb. 26, 2019, and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 16/156,509, filed Oct. 10, 2018, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/599,452, filed 2017 Dec. 15, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/574,705, filed 2017 Oct. 19, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,401,134 B2, filed 2014 Jul. 23, granted 2016 Jul. 26, by this inventor, Donald L. Baker dba android originals LC, Tulsa Okla. USA.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16156509 | Oct 2018 | US |
| Child | 15616396 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15139027 | Apr 2016 | US |
| Child | 16985863 | US | |
| Parent | 15616396 | Jun 2017 | US |
| Child | 15139027 | US | |
| Parent | 14338373 | Jul 2014 | US |
| Child | 16156509 | US |
