US2955503A - Tuning peg adjusting mechanism - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 11, 1960 P. o. BRAVERMAN 2,955,503

TUNING PEG ADJUSTING MECHANISM Filed May 1, 1958 INV ENT OR. P101 /P D. BRAYERH/IM ZWJZWW United States Patent Ofiice 2,955,503 Patented Oct. 11, 1960 TUNING PEG ADJUSTlN G MECHANISM Philip D. Braverman, 416 S. Walnut St., Muncie, 1nd.

3 Filed May 1, 1958, Ser. No. 732,246

4 Claims. 01. 84-306) This invention relates generally to a mechanism for adjusting the tuning pegs of musical instruments, and in particular to such a mechanism wherein the adjusting movement of the pegs is produced by a push-button action.

The heads of conventional stringed instruments, such as guitars, are provided with tuning pegs extending from the upper face of the head and having instrument strings attached thereto. Pegs similar in form are utilized for tensioning or tuning percussion instruments such as drums or the like. The adjusting rotary motion of the pegs, necessary to properly tune the instrument, is provided by means of sidewardly extending members having fiattened heads or knobs thereon. Conventionally, a worm gear rotated by the sidewardly-extending members meshes with a wheel or gear which is keyed to the tuning peg. The worm and wheel combination thus serves to transfer the rotary motion of the sidewardly-extending members to the tuning pegs which extend at right angles thereto. In the conventional tuning process for a stringed instrument, such as a guitar, the instrument is held in playing position and the rotary tuning adjustment of the tuning knobs is carried out with the left hand, leaving the right hand free for the required fingering of the strings. While the rotary adjusting motion may be conveniently imparted to the upper row of knobs with the left hand, it will be evident that in adjusting the lower row of knobs considerable difficulty may be encountered in providing the required adjusting motion of the lower knobs with the left hand.

It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a tuning peg adjusting mechanism whereby the required rotary, string tension adjusting motion of the tuning peg is provided by a push-button action.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a tuning peg adjusting mechanism which can be manu factured at low cost and which may be adapted for use on any stringed musical instrument.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a push-button type adjusting mechanism for tuning pegs wherein the push-button member is spring biased to return to its deactuated position without disturbing the adjustment made to the tuning peg by the push-button member as it is moved to actuated position.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims:

Fig. l is a side, plan view of an adjusting mechanism incorporating the present invention, showing the mechanism mounted within a suitable housing.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view.

Fig. 4 is a top, plan view of a guitar head incorporating the tuning peg adjusting mechanism of the present invention.

Referring initially to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the components of the invention are mounted-within a suitable rectangular housing 10 having side walls 11 and an end wall 12. Extending rotatably through an appropriate aperture in the end wall 12 is a conventional metallic tuning peg 13 having spaced openings 14 therein. The standard peg is used on instruments having various head thicknesses and, when installed on an instrument the accessible one of the spaced openings is used as an anchor point for the instrument string which is Wound about the peg as the tuning adjustment is made.

Within the housing, the inner end of the tuning peg has locked for rotation therewith a toothed worm wheel 16. Tabs or bearing members 17, extending outwardly from the inner face of the housing end wall, serve to rotatably journal a worm gear 18 which meshes with the worm wheel. Outwardly of one of the bearing members the worm gear carries a pinion gear 19.

Two of the opposing side walls 11 of the housing have aligned apertures therein which slidably accommodate a push-button actuator taking the form of a shaft 21. As may best be seen in Fig. 3, an intermediate portion of the shaft is toothed so as to provide a rack 22. Coextensive with the rack portion and immediately adjacent thereto the shaft 21 has formed therein an inset land surface 23. As will be evident from Fig. 3, the rack is adapted to engage and rotate the pinion gear, depending upon the rotational position of the shaft. One end of the shaft, extending beyond the housing, is provided with a knurled finger knob 24, or other suitable finger operable member. The shaft is biased into its position of Fig. l by means of a compression spring 26 which bottoms against the knob 24 and at its other end may be suitably anchored to the housing as indicated at 27 in Fig. 1. The endmost coil or coils of the spring adjacent the knob 24 are anchored to the shaft 21 by any suitable means such as by deforming the endmost coil to grip a flattened area of the shaft or by soldering the coil to the shaft. The anchoring of both ends of the spring thereby provides a torsion effect which biases the shaft into its position of Fig. 1 wherein the land surface overlies the pinion gear.

Referring now to Fig. 4, it may be seen that the apparatus of the present invention may be suitably mounted on the underface of an instrument head, such as a guitar head, indicated at 28. When so mounted, the shaft 21 and the knob 24 carried thereby extend sidewa-rdly from the head, and the tuning peg 13 extends upwardly from the face of the head and accommodates the instrument string, such as indicated at 29 in Fig. 4. Since a six-stringed guitar is here illustrated, six of the shafts and attached knobs are shown, it being understood that the number of tuning peg adjusting mechanism used on a particular instrument is unimportant in the description of the present invention.

In operation, an instrument incorporating the adjusting mechanismof the present invention may be used by holding it in playing position and manually providing the knobs 24 with the proper adjusting motion. This adjusting motion consists of a slight clockwise (as viewed in Fig. 2) rotation of the knob to place the rack in contact with the pinion 19, and then providing the shaft with an inward, linear motion. The inward motion of the shaft serves to rotate the pinion and the worm gear, thereby rotating the associated tuning peg. The inward motion given to the shaft is proportioned to the tuning rotational movement required of the tuning peg, and when the tension of the instrument string has reached the correct value, the button 24 is released, whereupon the spring 26 rotates the shaft to its angular position of Fig. 1 and moves it to its outer or de-actuated position of Fig. 1. During this outward travel of the shaft, the land surface 23 overlies the pinion and the adjusted position of the tuning peg is therefore not disturbed as the shaft returns to its outer or de-actuated position.

It will be apparent that the operation of the mechanism herein described does not depend upon the compression,

spring 26 being located exteriorly of the housing as shown. It could be located within the housing and its return movement function yet be properly accomplished. Further, the spring could be unattached to the housing and the shaft whereby it could act solely as a compression spring rather than as a combined compression and torsion spring, as herein described. When so arranged, it will be evident that the slight angular movement of the shaft required to engage and disengage the rack would have to be manually accomplished at the corresponding ends of the actuating stroke of the shaft. While, the mechanism of the present invention has been shown and described herein as mounted within a single unitary housing, it will be evident that the mechanisms might be arranged in a single housing which might be suitably mounted on an instrument head. For certain types of installations it would also be possible to assemble the components on suitable bearing surfaces without utilizing a complete housing per se.

While the invention has been disclosed and described in some detail in the drawings and foregoing description, they are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, as other modifications may readily suggest themselves to persons skilled in this art and Within the broad scope of the invention, reference being had to the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. A mechanism for adjusting a stringed musical instrument tuning peg comprising a housing, a toothed wheel mounted for rotation within said housing and adapted to rotate a tuning peg associated therewith, a worm gear rotatably supported within said housing and meshing with said wheel, a pinion gear coaxially mounted and rotatable with said worm gear, and means for adjustably rotating said pinion, said means comprising a shaft mounted for linear and rotational movement within said housing and having a push-button actuator accessible exteriorly of said housing, said shaft being formed to provide a rack meshing with said pinion and having an inset land surface co-extensive with said rack and adjacent thereto, a coiled torsion spring acting between said shaft and said housing to urge said shaft to one limit of its linear motion with saidland surface overlying said pinion whereby movement of said push-button actuator against the force exerted by said spring rotatably positions said tuning peg, release of said actuator permitting said actuator to return to said one limit of travel without altering the adjusted position of said peg.

2. A mechanism for adjusting a stringed musical instrument tuning peg comprising a housing, a toothed Wheel mounted for rotation Within said housing and adapted to rotate a tuning peg associated therewith, a Worm gear rotatably supported within said housing and meshing with said wheel, a pinion gear coaxially mounted and rotatable with said worm gear, and means for adjustably rotating said pinion, said means comprising a shaft mounted for linear and rotational movement within said housing and having a push-button actuator accessible exteriorly of said housing, said shaft being formed to provide a rack meshing with said pinion and having an inset land surface co-extensive with said rack and adjacent thereto, a spring acting between said shaft and said housing to urge said shaft to one limit of its linear motion, whereby said push-button actuator may be angularly moved to engage said rack with said wheel and linearly moved to provide anadjusting movement of said tuning P 3. A mechanism for adjusting a stringed musical instrument tuning peg comprising a housing, a toothed wheel mounted for rotation within said housing and adapted to rotate a tuning peg associated therewith, a worm gear rotatably supported within said housing and meshing with said wheel, a pinion gear coaxially mounted and rotatable with said Worm gear, and means for adjustably rotating said pinion, said means comprising a shaft mounted for linear and rotational movement within said housing and having a push-button actuator accessible exteriorly of said housing, said shaft being formed to provide a rack meshing with said pinion and having an inset land surface co-extensive with said rack and adjacent thereto, whereby linear movement of said push-button actuator through an actuating stroke rotatably positions said tuning peg, said land surface permitting said rack to clear said wheel on the return stroke leaving unaltered the adjusted position of said peg.

4. A mechanism for adjusting a musical instrument tuning peg comprising, a toothed wheel mounted for rotation adjacent a tuning peg and adapted to rotate said peg, a worm gear rotatably supported adjacent said wheel and meshing therewith, a pinion gear coaxially mounted and rotatable with said worm gear, and means for adjustably rotating said pinion, said means comprising a shaft mounted for linear and rotational movement transverse to the axis of said worm gear and having a push-buttonv References Cited in the file of thispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,557,877 Kluson June 19, 1951 2,806,689 Miller Sept. 17, 1957 2,859,628 Arko Nov. 11, 1958

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