GUITARS OF THE FUTURE ARE HERE NOW!
Faster response time, is the key to Hoag Optical Pickup guitars mono and hex pickups.
Magnetic pickups, that started the MIDI guitar evaluation, have given Hoag the challenge of improving the MIDI response time. Other mechanical pickups have been used, but they have difficulty in the lower frequency of the vibrating strings. Response time—the time for the MIDI trigger circuits to latch onto the fundamental of each string—that is critical for any MIDI interface. This has been limited by many factors within each pickup. The midi trigger circuit, relies on the input signal as being the fundamental frequency. If not, it has to filter out the string harmonics. The Hoag Optical Pickup generates the fundamental first, and the harmonics follow.
The first signal that comes from the Hoag Optical Pickup is pure fundamental. For that instant in time the signal has not had time to reach the bridge. It is only after the fundamental reaches the bridge, that it has time to create the harmonics and reflect back to the finger position or nut. All string harmonics are developed by this reflection of the fundamental signal. The harmonics travel up and down the string, sometimes interfering with other harmonics, this accounts for the tonal difference between instruments and string composition.
Hoag Optical Pickups also expands the frequency of the pickup. The Hoag Optical Pickup is responsive from a few Hertz to well over human hearing.
