Optical
Optical pickups are a fairly recent development that work by sensing the interruption of a light beam by a vibrating string. The light source is usually a LED, and the detector is a photodiode or phototransistor. These pickups are completely resistant to magnetic or electric interference and also have a very broad and flat frequency response, unlike magnetic pickups.
Optical pickup guitars were first shown at the 1969 NAMM in Chicago, by Ron Hoag.
In 2000, Christopher Willcox, founder of LightWave Systems, unveiled a new beta technology for an optical pickup system using infrared light. In May 2001, LightWave Systems released their second generation pickup, dubbed the "S2." The S2 featured LightWave Systems' monolithic bridge, six-channel motherboard, and a host of other improvements, making the technology more practical for use in both live and recording studio settings.
LightWave Systems began producing their own guitars in the late 2000's. Currently the company features the Saber bass and the Atlantis ElectroAcoustic guitar. These models are the only guitars that come come with the LightWave Systems optical pickup installed.
Read more about this topic: Guitar Pickups
Famous quotes containing the word optical:
“The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)