GB2259396A

GB2259396A - Sliding mount for a drum

Info

Publication number: GB2259396A
Application number: GB9119667A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Paul Hackett; John Thomas Brown
Original assignee: Premier Percussion Ltd
Current assignee: Premier Percussion Ltd
Priority date: 1991-09-06
Filing date: 1991-09-06
Publication date: 1993-03-10
Anticipated expiration: 2011-09-06
Also published as: GB9119667D0; GB2259396B

Abstract

A musical drum, over the open ends of which respective drum heads 4, 6 are tensioned, has an outer cage to which top and bottom counterhoops 12, 14 are connected. The cage includes a plurality of spaced pillars 18 to one or more of which a support bracket 22 is adjustably mounted. The support bracket mounting has one or more split sleeve members (36 Figs 2, 3) each slidably located on a respective pillar 18. Lever 34 operated locking means 28 lock the or each split sleeve member 36 to the associated pillar 18 at a selected position. <IMAGE>

Description

Title - Sliding Mount The invention relates to a sliding mount for a musical drum and in particular to a bass drum or a hanging tom drum.

A musical drum consists of a cylindrical drum shell over the open ends of which respective drum heads are tensioned. Each drum head consists of a circular "skin" having a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the drum shell, a flesh hoop being secured to the periphery of the skin. The skin rests against an annular bearing edge of the drum shell which the flesh hoop lying alongside the outer surface of the drum shell.

In order to tension the skin, pressure is applied to the flesh hoop in a direction away from the bearing edge. Pressure may by applied to the drum shell in a variety of ways. Many of the ways involve the provision of fittings such as brackets secured to the drum shell and against which a skin tensioning device may bear or be secured. A disadvantage of this type of arrangement is that the inner cylindrical surface of the drum shell is disturbed, for example by securing bolts for the brackets, thus removing the drum shell's clean inner surface and so causing a deterioration in the sound quality produced.

A further problem associated with this type of construction is that the mechanical strength of the drum shell is weakened and the shell tends to become damaged under excess tension or even the tensions normally applied to bass and tom drums.

In other types of drum, the drum shell is located within a cage, the skin tensioning devices being secured to the cage rather than the drum shell. This type of construction enables the drum shell's inner surface to remain clean and at the same time enables at least some of the mechanical stress resulting from tensioning of the drum heads to be carried by the cage rather than the drum shell per se.

In a known construction of this type, according to United States patent no 4,448,105, a drum construction is provided with a bottom ring having a plurality of projections extending outwardly therefrom at equally spaced locations about the circumference thereof for supporting tubes of a length corresponding to the depth of the drum shell. A drum shell is clamped between the bottom ring and the top hoop and is completely free of holes and does not have any hardware attaching thereto thereby providing only a minimum dampening effect. Auxiliary support brackets may be clamped to adjacent tubes in spaced relation to the shell so not to affect adversely the tonal characteristics of the shell.

It is a further requirement of a musical drum that it should be possible, in a simple and convenient manner, to be able to adjust the position of the drum so as to provide a comfortable playing position without undue pressure being placed on the drum shell.

It is, however, a disadvantage of the drum described in United States patent no 4,448,105, that it is difficult and inconvenient to adjust the position of the drum, by means of the auxiliary support brackets , to provide a comfortable position for ease of playing.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a musical drum in which the above disadvantages are reduced or substantially obviated.

The invention provides a musical drum which comprises a drum shell over the open ends of which respective drum heads are tensioned and having an outer cage to which a top and a bottom counterhoop are connected, the cage comprising a plurality of spaced pillars having internal threads which accept the tension screws for the respective drum heads and at least one support bracket for mounting the drum on a support characterised in that the support bracket is adjustable and is attached to at least one pillar by means of a split sleeve member located on said pillar or each of said pillars and able to slide along said pillar or pillars and, associated with said split sleeve member or each of said split sleeve members, lever operable locking means for locking said split sleeve member or members in any position along the length of said pillar or pillars.

The support bracket is preferably attached to two adjacent spaced pillars, a split sleeve member and associated locking member being located on each of the two adjacent pillars.

The split sleeve member preferably comprises a split nylon bush.

An embodiment of a musical drum according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a view of a musical drum of the tom tom type fitted with an adjustable support bracket; Figure 2 is a view of an embodiment of the split sleeve member with associated lever operated locking means in a released position; Figure 3 is a section on line III-III of Figure 2 but with the lever in a clamped position, and Figure 4 is a view of a musical drum of the bass drum type fitted with an adjustable support bracket.

Referring to Figure 1, a drum assembly 10 comprises a cylindrical drum shell 2 to the open ends of which respective top and bottom drumheads 4, 6 are applied, the bottom head 6 and the top head 4 being stretched over intermediate hoops 8, 9 located by flanges (not shown) onto the drum shell 2. Top and bottom counterhoops 12, 14 are placed over each drum head and caused to engage the respective flesh hoops which are secured to a peripheral edge of each head.

The lower head 6 is tensioned by a plurality of spaced tensioning bolt assemblies 16 which extend between the intermediate hoop 8 and the bottom counterhoop 14 and each of which is housed in a pillar 18 of hexagonal cross-section. The upper head 4 is similarly tensioned by a plurality of spaced tensioning bolts 20 which extend between the intermediate hoop 8 and the top counterhoop 12.

A support bracket 22 is attached to a pair of adjacent pillars 18 by means of two clamp assemblies 24, 26. The two clamp assemblies 24, 26 are mounted on opposite ends of the support bracket 22, with the length of the support bracket 22 being selected so that the spacing between the two clamp assemblies 24, 26 corresponds to the spacing between adjacent pillars 18 of the drum assembly 10. Each of the two clamp assemblies 24, 26 comprises a pair of co-operating jaws 28 which engage each other by rotation of a threaded bolt 30 with associated fixed nut 32.

A lever 34 is provided to displace rectilinearly the bolt 30.

A split sleeve member 36 with internal hexagonal cross-section is located within the mouth of each of the jaws 28, the split being designated 38.

The dimensions of the internal section of the split sleeve 36 are selected so that the sleeve is a sliding fit on the pillar 18 of the drum assembly 10 when the lever 34 is in a released position (Figure 2).

In operation, the support bracket 22 is mounted on a pair of adjacent pillars 18, with one split sleeve member 36 located on each of the pair of pillars 18.

To secure the support brackets 22 at the desired position along the length of the pillars 18, the clamp assemblies 24, 26 are released, the support bracket 22 moved to the desired position and the clamp assemblies 24, 26 are then tightened and clamped by rotation of the lever 34 in the direction of the arrow A shown in Figure 2. This action draws the bolt 30 to the right as viewed in Figure 3 thereby to close or partly close the split 38 to an extent sufficient for the sleeve 36 to grip firmly and lock the sleeve onto the pillar 18.

The support bracket can be used either for the adjustment of the vertical position of, for example, a tom tom drum as shown in Figure 1 or the horizontal position of, for example, a bass drum as shown in Figure 4.

Referring to Figure 4 it will be seen that the sliding mount can carry additional drum kit components. Thus, in the mount illustrated in figure 4 a part 40 is carried in a clamp 42 fixed to the sliding mount. Two further clamps are used to carry further musical instruments such as drums or cymbals. Additional details of the clamp 42 and its associated coupling device can be found in the applicants copending patent applications numbers 9114110.1 and 9114111.9.

Claims

Claims

1A musical drum comprises a drum shell 2 over the open ends of which respective drum heads 4, 6 are tensioned and having an outer cage to which a top and a bottom counterhoop 12, 14 are connected, the cage comprising a plurality of spaced pillars 18 having internal threads which accept the tension screws for the respective drum heads and at least one support bracket 22 for mounting the drum on a support characterised in that the support bracket 22 is adjust and is attached to at least one pillar 18 by means of a split sleeve member 36 located on said pillar 18 or each of said pillars 18 and able to slide along said pillar or pillars 18 and associated with said split sleeve member 36 or each of said split sleeve members 36, lever operable locking means 24,

26 for locking said split sleeve member or members 36 in any position along the length of said pillar or pillars 18.
2 A musical drum according to claim 1 characterised in that the support bracket 22 is attached to two adjacent spaced pillars 18, a split sleeve member 36 and associated lever operated locking means 24, 26 being located on each of said two pillars 18.
3 A musical drum according to claim 1 or claim 2 characterised in that the split sleeve member 36 comprises a split nylon bush.
4 A musical drum according to any of claims 1 to 3 characterised in that the pillar 18 has a hexagonal cross section.
5 A musical drum according to any of claims 1 to 4 characterised in that the support bracket 22 carries a clamp 42 on which is removably mounted a part 40 which mounts one or more additional clamps 44, one or each of which carries a musical instrument.
6 A musical drum substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.