Modeling of Magnetic Pickups for Electric Musical Instruments

In this paper, the modeling of the magnetic pickup of electric musical instruments, such as an electric guitar, an electric bass and an electromechanical keyboard instrument, is investigated. Focus is placed on the Rhodes electric piano, which gained popularity in 1960s and is still highly valued among jazz, soul and popular musicians. In most existing studies, the induced electromotive force (EMF) in the pickup of musical instrument is calculated using simplified methods in which the vibrator is modeled as a point without volume. In this study, detailed finite element analyses are performed to calculate the EMF in the pickup system as well as the estimation of the effect of the eddy current in the system. A solution procedure to obtain the EMF for a class of problems in which movement of the vibrator of the musical instrument is described by finite degrees of freedom is proposed. Sound generated based on the pickup model is evaluated as well. Simplified calculation methods of the existing studies are also reviewed and a modification is proposed to improve the accuracy.