Sensor Circuits and Switching for Stringed Instruments

Drawing on the author's U.S. non-provisional patent applications, this book proposes new approaches to designing electronics for guitars. It builds series-parallel circuit topologies in a systematic way and counts how many distinct configurations exist, covering standard single-coil pickups, humbucking pickups, and humbucking pairings made from matched single-coils. The aim is to help designers avoid redundant circuits that clutter pickup switching systems.

The author argues that electromechanical switches cannot deliver the full range of tones once more than two or three pickups are involved. In their place, the book presents a micro-controller and cross-point switch architecture that reaches the maximum number of tones. It then extends humbucking designs to odd numbers of matched single-coil pickups, a method that works for any count above one and relies on a simple set of switching rules. Some tones are deliberately dropped in exchange for all-humbucking sounds and tones not available elsewhere, regardless of the switch position.

Both mechanical and digital switching versions are described. Using humbucking basis vectors, the author also develops variable-gain circuits that reproduce every switched humbucking tone and fill the gaps between them with continuous gradations. Analog and digitally controlled implementations are both presented. The overall goal is a system that lets a guitarist or pianist move smoothly from bright to warm tones and back, without needing to know which pickups are combined to produce them.