Bill's Patents
US7227076B2 (2007) - Bill's SCN Design for Fender
An electromagnetic pickup for a stringed musical instrument incorporating a magnetic structure placed between two elongated collinear coils of opposing polarity. The magnetic structure includes a number of ferromagnetic polepieces that extend through the collinear coils and two ferromagnetic moderator bars adjacent to and on opposite sides of the polepieces (within the area between the two coils) that are charged with one polarity by high coercive permanent magnets attached to the outer surface of the moderator bars.
US5789691A (1998) — Patent for the original “Multi-sound” Keystone
Multi-functional coil system for stringed instruments
A multi-function coil for use in a magnetic pickup apparatus for transducing the mechanical motion of the stings of an instrument wound on a single coilform structured to separate the single continuous coil into first and second collinear segments in each of two winding spaces, each coil having a predetermined number of turns and being uniformly spaced one from the other, for substantially eliminating distortion and harsh sounding overtones by the reduction of the mutual inductance of the first and second segments of the single continuous coil.
US5376754A (1994)
Pickup apparatus, having a winding with an adjacent closed circuit, for stringed musical instruments
A pickup apparatus for a stringed musical instrument includes an electromagnetic string vibration sensor, preferably including at least one winding, and a feature associated therewith, preferably a conductive closed circuit around the winding, to suppress resonant peaks and thereby equalize the harmonic reproduction. The apparatus preferably includes two such windings and circuits connected in a hum-canceling manner. A second hum-canceling pair of windings having a lower inductance to reproduce clean highs without phase cancellation can be added along with a resistive-capacitive network so that the combination can reproduce a wide variety of different sounds, all at a consistent high output level.
USD279380S (1985)
Acoustic pickup for stringed instrument
US4364295A (1982) — Bill’s legendary L500
Musical instrument sound pickup and method of assembly thereof
A sound pickup for a stringed musical instrument has a hollow open-topped housing with a base plate matingly fitting in the housing; the housing is formed of ABS plastic coated with copper nickel-chrome layers. The base plate is formed of ABS with its outer surface being nickel plated; two parallel slots in the base plate frictionally receive lower edges of parallel elongated coil core blades. An elongated magnet is positioned between the core blades and first and second coil assemblies including elongated slotted plastic bobbins are fitted over the core blades to overlie the magnet with lugs on the bobbins facing opposite ends of the magnet to hold it in position. A cable is connected to the coil members and extended outwardly through the housing with the base plate, coil and blade assembly being positioned in the housing and filled with potting material so that the upper ends of the bobbins and blade members extend outwardly above the housing with the remaining components being held by the potting material upon solidification and additional retention being provided by screw members extending through the bottom of the housing into the base plate.
US4151776A (1979)
Electronic pickup system for stringed musical instrument
This invention relates to an electronic pickup system for a stringed musical instrument. The system includes three pickup coils positioned under the instrument strings and oriented one behind the other along the length of the strings. Each of the coils is wound around a coil form in a predetermined direction and has a selectively poled magnet passing through its center. The coils are selectively electrically connected, at least two at a time, to each other and to the system output. The manner in which the coils may be connected include connecting any two of the coils in a maner such that signals induced in the coils as a result of string vibration are in phase, at at least selected frequencies, and thus additive. The coils normally are also connected in a manner such that noise signals induced in the coils are out of phase and therefore cancel. It is also possible to connect both of the outer coils to the center coil so that signals induced in each pair of coils as a result of string vibration are additive and noise signals induced in each pair of coils cancel. When the coils are connected in this manner, the outputs from both of the outer coils may be connected to the same output or, if a stereo output is desired, the outputs from each of the coils may be connected to a separate output channel. The spacing of the coils which are connected together may be selected so that signals induced in the coils as a result of string vibration are in phase and thus additive for selecting frequencies and are out of phase and are thus cancelled for other selected frequencies. The frequencies at which the signals are in phase and the frequencies at which the signals are out of phase may be altered by altering the spacing between the coils. The magnitude of the signal induced in one or more of the coils may also be modified by raising or lowering the coil or by other suitable means.
US3916751A (1975)
Electrical pickup for a stringed musical instrument
An electrical pickup for a stringed musical instrument, such as a guitar, comprises a pair of axially spaced coils, a ferromagnetic pole piece spanning the space between the coils and extending into each coil and having a portion between the coils which extends toward a string, magnet means having a pole face directed toward the pole piece and directing a magnetic field into the pole piece of a single magnetic polarity, the magnet means preferably comprising two permanent magnets disposed at opposite sides of the coils and directing magnetic fields into the pole piece from opposite sides thereof of the same magnetic polarity.
US3915048A (1975)
An electric guitar circuit includes two hum-bucking pickups connected to a selector switch by which various combinations of connections and phasings may be used to select the type of sound desired. In addition, the selected signal is further subject to a volume control, a high-frequency tone control, and a mid-range frequency tone control, the circuit being physically embodied in the guitar. By way of example, in one position of the selector switch, the two pickups are connected in series with each other. The mid-range frequency tone control is used to suppress the harshness found in that frequency range in transistorized audio amplifiers.
US3902394A (1975)
Electrical pickup for a stringed musical instrument
An electrical pickup for a stringed musical instrument includes a permanent magnet having one field polarity intersected by the string, a pair of coils, and each coil having a pole piece so arranged that the pole pieces are magnetically neutral and are thus not loaded magnetically but serve merely as inductors.
US3711619A (1973)
Natural performance extended range pick-up device
A pick-up device for electrical guitars and like instruments includes pick-up coil formed by first and second windings wound in parallel on the same coil bobbin one on top of the other. The impedance of first, inner winding is less than that of the second winding, a turns ratio of one to four being typical, and the resultant output characteristic of the composite coil provides high quality reproduction of both treble and bass.
