Electronic musical instrument

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention has various aspects which are defined in the appended claims, to which reference should be made.
A preferred embodiment of the invention takes the form of a guitar-like electronic musical instrument for use with a synthesiser having a body and a neck.
The neck carries six pitch strings, which the player depresses onto conductive frets to determine the selected note.
The body carries six trigger strings which can be plucked or strummed to initiate or trigger the desired notes.
Alternatively they can be triggered by six keys.
The trigger strings and pitch strings are at an angle to each other.
The three lower strings and the three higher strings can be triggered together by group trigger keys and all six strings triggered by a master trigger key.
If an appropriate switch is actuated, notes will be triggered automatically as soon as the pitch string is depressed onto the fret.
Touching of the string is detected by an d.
c.
waveform superposed on a d.
c.
potential.
Hall effect devices are used to sense triggering by the trigger strings or keys.
Each fret has eleven conductive sections so that sideways bending can be detected, and bend detection coils are embedded in the fingerboard for the same purpose.
A vibrato arm using a Hall effect device can be used to introduce a vibrato effect.
A console enables resetting of the notes of each string, storing various set values for each string, transposition of the instrument as a whole, and a `Capo` effect to be obtained.
A pedal unit allows some functions to be selectively operated during playing, such as variation in the decay rate, or sustaining of notes played while a hold pedal is depressed.