Claims
- 1. A tuner apparatus for stringed musical instruments, which instruments have a body being one of hollow and solid, with a front and back surface and a side surface extending between the front and back surfaces, playing strings mounted on a front surface, a pickup coupled to said strings for converting sound vibrations of said strings to electrical signals, the tuner apparatus comprising:(a) a tuner circuit having an input couplable to an output of said pickup and said tuner circuit operative to produce a tuner circuit output; and (b) a multi-segment digital display coupled to said tuner circuit output, a first portion of said digital display being operative to automatically represent alphabetically, without reference to a corresponding mark or position, a reference note closest in frequency to a measured tone for all notes capable of being played on said stringed musical instrument, and a second portion of which is operative to represent a graphically intuitive indication of whether said measured tone has the same frequency as said reference note, whether the frequency of said measured tone is one of above and below said reference note, and a relative frequency difference between said measured tone and said reference note, said graphically intutive indicuation including:(a) a top segment in the top half of said second portion of said multi-segment display, which top segment has an arrow pointing towards a top of said display and flashes at a rate proportional to a difference between said measured tone and said reference note when said measured tone is one of lower and higher in frequency than said reference note; and (b) a bottom segment in the bottom half of said second portion of said multi-segment display having an arrow pointing to an upper portion of said display, which bottom segment flashes at a rate proportional to the difference between said measured tone and said reference note when said measured tone is another of lower and higher in frequency than said reference note.
- 2. A tuner apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said graphically intuitive indication further includes:a median segment in the middle of said second portion of said multi-segment display, which median segment is oriented perpendicularly to said top and bottom segment and lights when said measured tone is equal in frequency to said reference note.
- 3. A tuner apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said digital display is mounted on said guitar on one of a front surface and side surface closest a player.
- 4. A tuner apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said digital displaying mounted within, and substantially flush to, said side surface on a side closest to a player, said digital display facing the player when said instrument is in a playing position.
- 5. A tuner apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said tuner circuit includes:(a) a filter and AC decoupler operative to filter signals from said transducer to produce a filtered signal; (b) an inverter and follower circuit operative to invert said filtered signal; (c) a one shot circuit coupled to an output of said inverter and follower circuit triggerable in response to a second half of said filtered signal and operative to produce a square wave output in response to being triggered; (d) a processor coupled to said square wave output signal, said processor operative to: (i) detect a fundamental frequency of said square wave signal and compare it to reference frequency values corresponding to notes of a musical scale; (ii) determine a reference note having a frequency closest to said fundamental frequency of said square wave signal; (iii) digitally determine a relative difference between said fundamental frequency of said square wave signal and said reference note; and (iv) output digital output signals to operate said digital display, including a first signal operative to carry information to alpha-numerically display said reference note and a second signal operative to carry information to graphically display said relative difference between said fundamental frequency of said square wave signal and said reference note.
- 6. A tuner apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the fundamental frequency of said square wave signal is determined by measuring the period of each of said square wave signals and then averaging the periods so determined to provide an average period.
- 7. A tuner apparatus according to claim 6, including storing said average period in processor volatile memory and then examining a look up table in said processor non-volatile memory and selecting a frequency value therein corresponding to a frequency of a closest note to the note being played for digital display on said digital display.
- 8. A tuner apparatus according to claim 5, including a digital record and playback apparatus coupled to output signals of said processor operative to record said output signals and to play them back for recordal on said digital display.
- 9. A tuner apparatus according to claim 8, including an audio output coupled to an output of said record and playback apparatus operative to provide an audio output for said tuner circuit.
- 10. A tuner apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said audio output includes an amplifier coupled to an output of said digital record and playback apparatus, and a jack coupled to an external headphone.
- 11. A tuner apparatus according to claim 5, including a controls signal circuit coupled to said processor, a memory coupled to said tuner circuit output operative to store notes being played by a stringed instrument and detected by said tuner circuit, a single/timed input switch coupled to said controls signal circuit operative, in one position, to cause recorded notes stored in said memory to be displayed on said digital display one at a time in sequence with the order in which they were recorded and, in a timed position, to cause the entire contents of said memory to be displayed in the sequence in which they were recorded using a timebase in which they were recorded.
- 12. A tuner apparatus for stringed musical instrument, which instruments have a body being one of hollow and solid, with a front and back surface and a side surface extending between the front and back surface, which tuner apparatus comprises:(a) a pickup for converting sound vibrations of said strings to electrical signals, which transducer is one of: (i) a part of said stringed instrument; and (ii) an external device coupled to said stringed instrument; (b) a tuner circuit mountable in an interior of said body, said tuner circuit having an input couplable to a pickup output and said tuner circuit operative to produce a tuner circuit output; and (c) a digital display pivotally mounted on said front surface of said body and spring biased so as to be facing a player, making said digital display easily readable when said instrument is in a playing position, said digital display further comprising: (i) a catch to hold said digital display substantially flush to said front surface when not in use; and (ii) a combination power and release mechanism which mechanism is operable, when pressure is applied to said digital display, to release said catch, allowing said digital display to open and face said player, and simultaneously to power said tuner apparatus; said digital display being coupled to said tuner circuit output, andsaid digital display including one of a segment display and a dot matrix display, a first portion of which is operative to represent alphabetically, without reference to a corresponding mark or position, a reference note closest in frequency to a measured tone, and a second portion of which is operative to represent a graphically intuitive indication of whether said measured tone has the same frequency as said reference note, whether the frequency of said measured tone is one of above and below said reference note, and a relative frequency difference between said measured tone and said reference note.
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/821,788, filed Mar. 21, 1997 U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,444.
US Referenced Citations (10)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
WO 9520213 |
Jul 1995 |
WO |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/821788 |
Mar 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/258906 |
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US |