Patent ID: 8008558

Claim:
A stringed instrument with a hollow body, the body being formed by body sides, a body bottom, and a body top, the instrument comprising: a vibrationally-responsive soundboard forming at least a part of the body top, the soundboard having an interaction region where string vibrational interactions occur directly through a bridge; the interaction region being isolated from string vibrational interactions other than through the bridge; the bridge contacting the soundboard at the interaction region and defining the interaction region beneath the bridge; a neck having a head including a nut and a tail including a tailpiece, where the tailpiece extends from the tail outwards through the soundboard via a tailpiece hole so that the tailpiece is wholly spaced apart from the soundboard; the neck comprising an elongated component, the elongated component being lengthwise-continuous along the entire neck from the nut throughout the tail to the tailpiece; the neck being fixed to the body only medial the head and the tail so that the head extends outward from the body and so that the tail extends into the body; the tail being spaced apart from the soundboard; a string being connected at the head and the tail and being stretched between the nut and the tailpiece; the string pressing the bridge into the soundboard so that as the string vibrates the string vibrational interactions through the bridge occur directly at the interaction region; the string, between the bridge and the tail, bypassing the soundboard so that string vibrational interactions transmitted through the soundboard to the interaction region are minimized; and a tail adjuster, the tail adjuster in use selectively positioning the tail with respect to the bridge, and the tail adjuster being mounted to the instrument and being spaced apart from the soundboard.