Patents by Inventor Keith Lance Chapman

Keith Lance Chapman has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6723908
    Abstract: A musical string instrument (12) has a body (21) with a resonate cavity covered by a soundboard (22). A pick guard (34) has a flat surface for mounting to the soundboard of the instrument. Electronic control components (36) are mounted within a housing of the pick guard. The musician can control a preamplifier within the resonate cavity of the body with knobs (58) and push buttons (60) located on the pick guard. A thin, flat, multi-conductor ribbon cable (38) is connected to the electronic control components and routed along a surface of the soundboard and through a sound hole (24) in the soundboard into the resonate cavity of the body. The ribbon cable entering the resonating cavity through the sound hole does not adversely effect the natural response, performance, sound quality, and tonal property of the string instrument and does not require any additional holes be drilled in the soundboard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Keith Lance Chapman, Charles Clifford Adams, Shawn Robert Greene
  • Publication number: 20040003703
    Abstract: A musical string instrument (12) has a body (21) with a resonate cavity covered by a soundboard (22). A pick guard (34) has a flat surface for mounting to the soundboard of the instrument. Electronic control components (36) are mounted within a housing of the pick guard. The musician can control a preamplifier within the resonate cavity of the body with knobs (58) and push buttons (60) located on the pick guard. A thin, flat, multi-conductor ribbon cable (38) is connected to the electronic control components and routed along a surface of the soundboard and through a sound hole (24) in the soundboard into the resonate cavity of the body. The ribbon cable entering the resonating cavity through the sound hole does not adversely effect the natural response, performance, sound quality, and tonal property of the string instrument and does not require any additional holes be drilled in the soundboard.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 3, 2002
    Publication date: January 8, 2004
    Inventors: Keith Lance Chapman, Charles Clifford Adams, Shawn Robert Greene
  • Patent number: 6222110
    Abstract: A combination of limited data, 3D linear interpolation, and a unique simulation circuit are combined to provide a programmable tone control that can simulate any desired tone stack. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, it has been found that a reduced number of data points plus interpolation provides sufficiently accurate coefficients for simulation. The data points are obtained from measurements of the actual operation of the analog tone stacks to be simulated. A second aspect of the invention is the simulation circuit controlled by the coefficients to accurately reproduce the operation of any given tone stack. The simulation circuit uses two programmable filters and three variable gain amplifiers to simulate a tone stack. The cut-off frequency of each filter and the gain of each amplifier are determined by coefficients extracted by interpolation from stored data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2001
    Assignee: Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
    Inventors: Dale Vernon Curtis, Keith Lance Chapman, Charles Clifford Adams