magnetic frets patented

[loogy1]

http://www.google.com/patents/US7358429

a patent for every possible way still yet to see it

[walterw]

the hell?

my understanding is that patents were granted in the 1800s for hot-air balloon-mounted death rays, too.

[line6man]

That sounds like a PROFOUNDLY bad idea.

Having a downward magnetic force exerted on the strings by a fret ensures full and consistent contact between a string and the fret when the string is pressed down against the fret.

And it also ensures you sound like crap, because the natural vibration of the string is influenced by a bunch of magnets in the neck.

[FunkMetalBass]

Pros: Capos are no longer necessary.

Cons: How do I unfret a note?

[Rodger Bryan]

If you embed coils throughout the fingerboard, you could hear every click, clack sympathetic vibration, buzz and every harmonic that would otherwise be dampened by the magnetic pull. Wire each coil in series, run it through a ring modulator, distortion & delay and you'll be making sounds that have never been heard before.

[loogy1]

Originally Posted by Rodger Bryan

If you embed coils throughout the fingerboard, you could hear every click, clack sympathetic vibration, buzz and every harmonic that would otherwise be dampened by the magnetic pull. Wire each coil in series, run it through a ring modulator, distortion & delay and you'll be making sounds that have never been heard before.

that'd be awesome

[skychief]

Originally Posted by FunkMetalBass

Cons: How do I unfret a note?

Kill the power to the fret field coils.

[loogy1]

How come i can find the patents but not a single trace of a instrument with this feature. I mean cmon. NOTHING not even a prototype or any talk about it except the forum I started.

[Exploiter8]

You could program it to play much like a player piano!

[elgecko]

Magnetic Frets

[Marial]

Originally Posted by Rodger Bryan

If you embed coils throughout the fingerboard, you could hear every click, clack sympathetic vibration, buzz and every harmonic that would otherwise be dampened by the magnetic pull. Wire each coil in series, run it through a ring modulator, distortion & delay and you'll be making sounds that have never been heard before.

I'd be interested!

[loogy1]

speaking of pianos, that brings back an older idea i had to put some sort of mallet system with springs on the end of the bridge. I thought that might produce a similar tone to a piano.

seems simple enough. have sum sort of stopper so the "mallets" aren't resting on the strings the entire time, and have enough force from the springs to allow the "mallet" to strike the string and be stopped by the "stopper" on the bounce back. that way you could play normally and use the "mallet system" whenever you wanted to spice it up or w/e

never followed through with a design or anything besides mental pictures.

[mjac28]

Originally Posted by FunkMetalBass

Pros: Capos are no longer necessary.

Cons: How do I unfret a note?

[JoeWPgh]

A separate coil for each fret? Yowsa. I imagine this would push the price of a Squier to Sadowsky territory

[maturanesa]

Did he realize the super magnetic strenght a fret would need to attract the string with the same preassure of a left hand finger?

[zhollywood]

I bet it'd be noisy as hell.

[JoeWPgh]

Why stop there? How about a separate set of frets for each string? Then you could just program the thing phone your gigs in. And the cost would be minimal - compared to a stealth bomber!

[FunkMetalBass]

Originally Posted by JoeWPgh

Why stop there? How about a separate set of frets for each string? Then you could just program the thing phone your gigs in. And the cost would be minimal - compared to a stealth bomber!

And if they're movable, you could change temperament and add microtonality! Endless possibilities.

[topcat2069]

Good idea for a fretless bass.....

[mflatau]

Reading this thread reminded me of this:

http://gizmodo.com/5985149/paul-vo-h...ome-instrument

It's an experimental physical synthesizer that controls the vibrations of the strings using magnets and intense real time processing.