NZ603274B - Portable stringed musical instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

603274 Disclosed is a method for constructing hollow bodied stringed musical instruments which decreases flex in the body of the instrument between the points of string attachment, improves sustain, strength and tonality of the instrument. The stringed musical instrument includes: a neck (2) with first and second ends; a hollow body (1) with a first and a second end; and an aperture (14) in the hollow body (1) at the second end, which during assembly, allows the first end of the neck (2) to be inserted into the hollow body (1). The first end of the neck (2) is adapted to attach to the first end of the body; and the second end of the neck (2) extends from the aperture (14) at the second end of the body (1), wherein the neck (2) and hollow body (1) are removabaly detachable. irst and second ends; a hollow body (1) with a first and a second end; and an aperture (14) in the hollow body (1) at the second end, which during assembly, allows the first end of the neck (2) to be inserted into the hollow body (1). The first end of the neck (2) is adapted to attach to the first end of the body; and the second end of the neck (2) extends from the aperture (14) at the second end of the body (1), wherein the neck (2) and hollow body (1) are removabaly detachable.

Description

Patents Form No. 5 Our Ref: Patent 1 Complete Patent application No: 603274 Filed: 29 Oct 2012 New Zealand Patents Act 1953 Complete Specification Portable stringed musical instrument I, Sheldon Currington a New Zealand citizen of 15/16 Jamaica Dr, Grenada North, Wellington 5028, New Zealand, hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: Portable stringed musical instrument Field of the Invention This invention relates to a stringed instrument. More particularly, the invention relates to a hollow body stringed instrument which includes a neck that extends the length of the hollow body and beyond to provide a neck section.

Background Stringed musical instruments have been known for thousands of years and includes pianos, harps, violins, guitars and banjos and the like. When the string of a stringed instrument is interacted with, it vibrates and the energy generated by the vibrating string is transmitted to the adjacent air and other parts of the stringed instrument. A recent development in stringed musical instruments is the electronic pickup which may operate by various means to create an electrical and/or electronic signal for amplification and processing. In modern music, electric guitars are one of the instruments of choice due to the dynamic range, portability, and artistic expression available through them. However, guitars are not the only stringed instruments which have been subject to electronic amplification so that a wide variety of tuned, musically aligned, or coordinated stringed musical instruments are now available to the musical artist.

Virtually all of stringed musical instruments, acoustic or electric, include a main body section, to which a plurality of strings is usually attached. A neck is typically attached to the main body section. The strings extend from an attachment on the body section until they reach the longitudinal outer end of the neck where they are fixed near the distal end of the neck, usually to some sort of tuning apparatus, in order to selectively apply tension to the strings. Alternatively, the tuning apparatus can be found at either end of the string. The strings are usually laid over a bridge or nut section (an intermediate support) near each end of the stringed instrument to transfer kinetic vibration into the body of the stringed instrument and also to create a point of intonation. Sounds are produced with the musical instrument by plucking, strumming, beating or bowing the strings which have been stretched between their points of attachment. The nature of the sound produced by the instrument depends on many different variables. The variables can include; the material the instrument is made of, the method of construction and the characteristics of the strings, all of which combine to control the tonal related qualities of the instrument. The characteristics are further influenced by the material of which the strings are made, the manner in which the strings are constructed, the length of the strings from their point of attachment on the main body part to their point of attachment at the distal end of the neck including whether there is any intermediate support between those two points of attachment, the amount of tension applied to the strings, the nature of the attachment of the strings to the body of the musical instrument and other factors.

Inventors over the years have made efforts to improve the mounted arrangement of strings on stringed musical instrument to improve the sound quality, string vibration sustain and strength of the instrument and to enable the musician to generate new sounds and combination of sounds.

One particular issue which can alter the quality of the sound is an unintentional flexure/deflexion in the path of the strings. This flex results in a change in the tension of the strings and, thus a temporary change in the tone and tuning of the instrument. Most stringed instruments that have an extending neck incorporate a body to neck connection via means of bolts, or screws, or bonded glue joint (or combination of these) which can still have an unwanted degree of flex and reduce the strings vibration sustain. This has been an issue which has been addressed in part by the so called “neck through” guitars. Neck through guitars include a neck section which extends the length of the instrument. However, the strings are still usually mounted onto solid body sections which are bonded to the lateral edges of the neck. Thus the issue remains that there are still connection points which impair the strings vibration energy path into all areas of the body and slow down/inhibit the natural vibration of the string in use. Further, there are still intersections which allow the path length of the strings to unintentionally flex. In addition, “neck through” systems are not suitable for construction of acoustic type instruments, rather they are only suitable as electrically amplified instruments. Wooden acoustic hollow bodied stringed instruments typically do not have a neck through design and rely on the strength of internal bracing of the body and a small connection area between the neck and body of the instrument, which is usually bonded or bolted. This area being small in size also has little opportunity to transfer vibration energy into the body of the instrument. Therefore a system needs to be developed to ensure increased rigidity in the path length of a stringed instrument as well as maintaining natural acoustic, tonal properties.

Object of the Invention It is an object of the invention to provide a method for constructing hollow bodied stringed musical instruments which decreases flex in the body of the instrument between the points of string attachment, improves sustain, strength and tonality of the instrument. It is an altenate object of the invention to at least ameliorate or overcome one or more disadvantages of the prior art, or alternatively to at least provide the public with a useful choice.

Further objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.

Summary of Invention Accordingly in one aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a stringed musical instrument which includes: a neck with first and second ends; a hollow body with a first and a second end; and an aperture in the hollow body at the second end, which during assembly, allows the first end of the neck to be inserted into the hollow body; wherein the first end of the neck is adapted to attach to the first end of the body; and the second end of the neck extends from the aperture at the second end of the body, wherein the neck and hollow body are removabaly detachable.

Preferably the stringed musical instrument further includes one or more intermediate supports, wherein the intermediate supports are connected to the neck.

Preferably the stringed musical instrument includes strings which terminate via a connection to the neck.

Preferably the neck includes a fingering board which extends over the edges of the aperture into which the neck is inserted.

Preferably the neck includes at least one neck reinforcement.

Preferably the neck is attached to the body by one or more fasteners.

Preferably an upper surface of the neck is routed to directly correspond to at least one aperture in a front face of the stringed instrument.

Alternatively, the front face of the stringed instrument does not contain any apertures for inset electronic pickup or a sound hole for acoustic amplification.

Preferably the stringed instrument is in the style of a guitar.

Preferably the guitar is an acoustic guitar.

Preferably the guitar is an electric guitar.

Alternatively, the invention can be said to consist in a solar powered calculator.

Any other invention as herein before described.

Further aspects of the invention, which should be considered in all its novel aspects, will become apparent from the following description.

Drawing Description A number of embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1a is a top view of a first embodiment of a stringed musical instrument according to the invention.

Figure 1b is a right hand side view of the stringed instrument of figure 1.

Figure 1c is a bottom view of the stringed instrument of figure 1.

Figure 1e is a left hand side view of the stringed instrument of figure 1.

Figure 2 shows an exploded perspective view of the stringed instrument of figure 1.

Figure 3a shows a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane A-A shown in figure 3b.

Figure 3b shows the top view of the position of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane A-A shown.

Figure 4a shows a perspective view of the bridge mounting plate.

Figure 4b shows a perspective view of the electronics mounting plate.

Figure 5a shows the top view of the position of a cut-away section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through region D as shown.

Figure 5b shows the detailed top view of a cut-away section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the region D.

Figure 6a shows the top view of at the position of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane E-E.

Figure 6b shows a side view of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane E-E shown in figure 6a.

Figure 7a shows the top view of the position of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane B-B.

Figure 7b shows a side view of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane B-B shown in figure 7a.

Figure 8a shows the side view of the position of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane C-C shown.

Figure 8b shows the top view of a cross section of the stringed instrument of figure 1 through the plane C-C.

Detailed Description The present inventor has found that instead of manufacturing a stringed instrument with a neck that originates from a top section of a musical instrument, optimal sound characteristics can be obtained by creating a neck that extends the full length of the instrument in conjunction with a hollow body. The construction of this instrument, without wishing to be bound by theory, maintains a ridged path which links the mounting points of each end of the strings attached proximate to each end of the stringed instrument. When the neck extending the length of the body is combined with the hollow body, the natural sounds created by the resonance of the strings provides a superior sound because the amount of unwanted flex in the instrument is reduced, string sustain is increased, and the hollow body increases resonance.

The term portable stringed instrument includes, but is not limited to any instrument, which includes a body section and an extending neck, this includes instruments such as a double bass, cello, viola, violin, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, banjo or a mandolin.

It will be appreciated by the skilled person that any suitable material may be used in the construction of the instrument. The hollow body of the portable stringed instrument may be made from a variety of material depending on the desirable acoustic, structural or other properties desired by the skilled person. These materials may be selected from, but are not limited to; wood, composite material, plastic or the group consisting of metal such as steel, copper, brass, titanium, aluminium.

Likewise, it will be appreciated that the neck may be made from a variety of materials, generally made of wood, plastic, composite material, metal. The person skilled in the art will understand that preferably the neck is made from wood, and then preferably tone woods such as, maple, spruce, ebony, basswood, mahogany or the like.

The body can be made into a variety of shapes, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

This may include traditionally shaped instruments, flat top, arch-top, or the styles made popular by instrument manufacturers such as Yamaha, Fender or Gibson.

As it will be appreciated, the body of the instrument is a common place to mount various inputs, outputs or other controls associated with acoustic or electronic stringed musical instruments.

Such inputs may include a volume control dial or slider, a pickup selection switch or dial, a electronic control for tone, or frequency adjustment. Outputs may include one or more for an electrical signal to be passed from the portable stringed instrument to an external processing or amplification device. The skilled person will also appreciate that the body or neck may be used for mounting components such as lights, battery mounts, pickup and mount, sustainer or other electrical devices. Ornamentation may also be mounted to the body or neck of the portable stringed instrument, in accordance with the practice of the skilled person. It will be appreciated that the shape of the portable stringed instrument body may be alterered depending of the preference of the skilled person.

It will be appreciated that the portable stringed instrument will likely contain various Intermediate support to provide a clear path for the string. Typically these will include a bridge and/or nut, however, the skilled person will clearly understand that there are other means to achieve this effect.

The body of the stringed musical instrument usually includes at least one means of sound amplification. This may be achieved in numerous simultaneous and different ways. It will be appreciated that the hollow body of the instrument creates resonance which leads to sound amplification. In one aspect of the present invention sound amplification means, for example a magnetic pickup, are mounted to the neck of the instrument in the section corresponding to the body. In the case of electric instruments a magnetic pickup or piezo transducer may be utilised to convert the physical movement of the string into electrical energy. It will be appreciated that there are many different means for achieving this effect and those skilled in the art, using their ordinary skill can utilise these means in the instrument of the present invention. Historically, the cavity within the body section of the instrument provides the means of amplification of the sound via acoustic resonance, as well as imparting tone and depth characteristics to the sound. The present invention, in an alternate embodiment, can also include one or more sound holes for acoustic resonance, tone and depth charasteristics. A further feature which the hollow body construction lends to the present invention is that the internal cavity into which the neck is inserted also provides room for electrical/acoustic components to be inserted, mounted or contained.

Examples of the stinged musical instrument achieve the desired tone and strength are shown in Figures 1 to 8b. Throughout the description like reference numerals will be used to refer to like features in different embodiments.

Referring first to figure 1a which provides a stringed musical instrument with a body section (1) and a neck section (2).

As can be seen in Figures 2, 7b and 8b the neck (2) extends the length of the stringed instrument. The neck includes, located at one end, a head (3) which may include tuning apparatus (4) and at the opposing end a retaining means to affix the opposing end to a bottom wall of the stringed instrument (5). The upper surface of the neck may include a fingering board or fret board (6) located anterior to and adjacent to the head of the stringed instrument. The neck of the portable stringed instrument may also include routed sections to retain/house inset pickups (7) or as shown in Figure 2 create a sound hole into the portable stringed instrument (8).

The body may also optionally contain any number of controls, such as dials (9) and/or switches (10). The side edge of the portable stringed instrument may also contain means of attachment for a straps or other holding means (5). A bridge may be affixed to the portable stringed instruments front surface at (12) to provide means for a clear path for strings. The strings may be affixed to the bridge or transverse the bridge mount on a string mounting point (13) or affix to (5) at one end of each string and mounted directly, or indirectly to the neck at the other end.

Figure 1b shows the stringed musical instrument of figure 1 from a side view.

Figure 2 shows the stringed instrument in an exploded form illustrating an apeture (14) in one end of the instrument body adapted to receive the neck of the instrument (2) which will extend the length of the body with a portion of the neck, fingering board or fret board (6) and head (3) extending beyond the apeture (14). The fingering board of the stringed instrument may contain a flared section (15), shown in Figure 5b, which can extend beyond the width of the remainder of the neck section (2). As seen in Figure 5b the flared section (15) is at the most anterior end of the fingering board which extends over and abuts the apeture (14) into which the neck (2) is inserted. The fingering board, as shown in Figure 6b may also contain a lip (16) which creates a cleft between said lip and the remainder of the neck. When the neck (2) is inserted into the body of the instrument, the cleft helps to provide a positive connection.

A further important aspect of the invention, which will be appreciated by one skilled in the art is the termination of the strings may or may not be co-located with the point of intonation of the strings. It has been found that it may be desirable to include an adaptor (18) which is directly attached to the neck of the portable stringed instrument as shown in Figures 5a and 5b to which the bridge (12) and tailpiece (13) may be mounted. It will be appreaciated that the bridge may or may not be collocated with the point of attachment for a terminal end of the strings. For example, the strings may be affixed to a mount which attaches to the termial end of the guitar body and subsequent terminal end of the neck, alternatively, the strings may be mounted by means such as string through body attachment string/bridge termination. Other means of attachment are possible using techniques know to those skilled in the art.

It will also be understood by the skilled person that while the intention to increase the ridgidity of the neck is an important characteristic, other means of strengthening may also be employed.

For example, Figure 2 shows a strip of reinforcing material embedded or associated with the sides of the neck. This may also be achieved, for example, by boring a hole longitudinally down the length of the neck and inserting strengthing material such as a metal rod. Given this teaching the skilled artisan will be able to enact a plurality of means of strengthing the neck of the instrument.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description, the words “comprise”, “comprising”, and the like, are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense, that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to”.

Although this invention has been described by way of example and with reference to possible embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that modifications or improvements may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features. Furthermore, where reference has been made to specific components or integers of the invention having known equivalents, then such equivalents are herein incorporated as if individually set forth.

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

Claims

Claims (12)

I claim:

1. A stringed musical instrument which includes: a neck with first and second ends; a hollow body with a first and a second end; and an aperture in the hollow body at the second end, which during asembly, allows the first end of the neck to be inserted into the hollow body; wherein the first end of the neck is adapted to attach to the first end of the body; and the second end of the neck extends from the aperture at the second end of the body, wherein the neck and hollow body are removabaly detachable.

2. The stringed musical instrument according to claim 1 including one or more intermediate supports, wherein the intermediate supports are connected to the neck.

3. The stringed musical instrument according to claim 1 or 2 wherein strings terminate via a connection to the neck.

4. The stringed instrument according to any one of the previous claims wherein the neck includes a fingering board which extends over the edges of the aperture into which the neck is inserted.

5. The stringed instrument according to any one of the previous claims wherein the neck includes at least one neck reinforcment.

6. The stringed instrument according to any one of the previous claims wherein the neck is attached to the body by one or more fasteners.

7. The stringed musical instrument according to any one of the previous claims wherein an upper surface of the neck is routed to directly correspond to at least one aperture in a front face of the stringed instrument.

8. The stringed musical instrument according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein, the front face of the stringed instrument does not contain any apertures for inset electronic pickup or a sound hole for acoustic amplification.

9. The stringed instrument according to any one of the previous claims wherein the stringed instrument is a guitar.

10. The stringed instrument according to claim 9 wherein the guitar is an acoustic guitar.

11. The stringed instrument according to claim 9 wherein the guitar is an electric guitar.

12. The stringed musical instrument according to any of claims 1 to 11 with reference to