Patent ID: 8093486

Claim:
A synthetic guitar comprising, in combination: a body having a forward surface; a neck extending from the body and having a forward facing fret board; at least one touch sensor at the neck for indicating finger position of a user along the fret board; a commercially available, off-the-shelf tablet computer removably secured to the body with a forward surface of the tablet computer generally flush with the forward surface of the body and having a general purpose processor and a touch screen for indicating finger position of the user; at least one latch removably securing the tablet computer to the body; and an electric circuit in the body including an electrical connector for removably mating with the tablet computer to electrically connect the at least one touch sensor with the tablet computer so that the processor receives input signals from the at least one touch sensor and the touch screen and produces a musical output signal based at least partially on the input signals from the at least one touch sensor and the touch screen.