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Prototyping
Metis assists individuals and companies trying to create a new process or product. Metis is particularly adept at such efforts because Metis has a broad range of engineering and shop capabilities. Unfortunately from an advertising standpoint, these efforts are cloaked in confidentiality agreements. However, the following notable example is in the public domain:
Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars and I were researching patents for his String Suspension Means patent when we discovered a string attachment patent by Kluson. Kluson had designed an automatic string fastening device for acoustic guitars and Paul wanted one for the steel strings of electric guitars. Eric Pritchard, the founder of Metis, reasoned that a Kluson device would shear the strings or bind up. Consequently, he designed the cam style that is in use today and has been in production throughout the existence of PRS Guitars. Perhaps 50,000 sets have been made.
Self locking String Tuners
The most complex prototyping effort was the research and development of the artistic audio concepts for Pritchard Amps. This work required repeated design and construction efforts because the engineering texts do not discuss artistic audio concepts and because the artistic descriptions of the phenomenon do not use words common to engineers: warm, fat, full-bodied, resilient, and alive. It was an engineering enigma wrapped in a linguistic mystery. The resulting efforts have made Pritchard the leading inventor in this niche discipline. The patents (foreign and domestic, issued and pending) cover most elements of the better-than-tubes solid state circuitry, the structure of the cabinet, the design of the cabinet, and the structure of the speaker.
Contact
Us:
Located Just Outside of Maryland, Virginia & Pennsylvania at
290 Pritchard Lane, Berkeley Springs, WV 25411;
Telephone: 304-258-4799 Fax: 304-258-4763
Eric Pritchard and everyone at Metis respects and honors the intellectual property of our clients and potential clients. Unfortunately, this limits our ability to provide examples and information of prior experience, particularly on more recent projects.
Copyright © 2001-2004