STRING INSTRUMENT WITH SOUND ENHANCING CHANNEL EXTENDING IN THE NECK
DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to string instruments and more preferably to a bowed stringed musical instrument such as a viol, a violin, a cello and the like, wherein the instrument comprises at least one sound enhancing channel in a lower or inner side of a neck of the instrument, with the channel being capable of providing the musical instrument with a better, brighter and more colorful sound whether the instrument is of acoustic or electric type.
To the purpose of the present specification the term string instrument must be understood as comprising any instrument including a neck and finger board, with strings or cords, and generating sound from the vibration of the strings, with or without resonance or acoustic boxes, for studying, practicing or playing purposes.
Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that a string instrument is comprised of a neck with a finger board on top of it, and a resonance or acoustic box, or soundboard, with a plurality of strings or cords extending along the neck and over the soundboard. The strings are generally kept spaced apart from the neck and a top wall of the soundboard by a bridge that is supported against the top wall. If the instrument is an acoustic one sound holes, also known as f-holes, are also provided and, when it is an electrical instrument, such holes may be not necessary. More particularly, the bowed stringed instruments are those operated by a bow, by rubbing the bow onto the strings to produce sound. This sound is generated by the vibrations from the rubbed strings and the reflection of the vibrations in the soundboard or acoustic box.
Historically and at the beginning of the classical music the sound level from the bowed stringed instruments was limited in the acoustic volume depending from the materials and design of their soundboards or resonance boxes. To overcome these limitations special concert rooms, such as auditoriums and theaters, had been designed. These rooms were designed to have acoustical qualities to amplify, for example, the volume of the natural sound from the acoustic instruments.
On the other side, the instruments manufacturers, also called the "luthieres", used to increase the sound volume of these instruments by employing woods from different qualities, as well as by varying the dimensions of the soundboards or boxes, the curved panels of the top and back walls of the resonance boxes and the shapes of the sound holes. While such designs and variations increased the volume of the sound reproduction, the design and manufacturing processes were extremely expensive and time consuming. The musicians had to await for months or even years until the artisan had a basic instrument manufactured, tested and adjusted, by varying the wood types, dimensions, etc. and terminated with the desired sound, tones, etc.
In addition to the types of materials and designs employed in the stringed musical instruments to improve sonority, modern techniques have been employed involving electric and electronic solutions. More particularly, in "electrical" instruments the volume is generally increased by placing one or more electric microphones in or within the soundboard or resonant box. While the volume is effectively increased because of the use of electrical amplifiers, the sound quality becomes spoiled and the sound markedly differs from the natural one, namely the pure sound corresponding to the acoustic instrument.
One breakthrough relating to the use of microphones was the employment of piezoelectric microphones which are placed, in a violin for example, just under the bridge, that is between the bridge and the front wall of the soundboard. In this arrangement the piezoelectric microphone directly receives and picks up the vibrations provided only
by the rubbed strings. The vibrations, reverberances and/ or reflections from the soundboard, however, are hardly captured. Additional microphones are placed to capture the sound from the resonant cavity. While these piezoelectric microphones importantly improved the volume and sound quality, as compared to the simple microphones placed into the sound boxes, this solution has been imposed only for some amplified instruments and for some music styles such as jazz, rock, etc., however these microphones have not been accepted yet for use in other special music genders such as classic music concerts. Since the sound from these microphones differs from the one of acoustic string instruments, and considering that the conventional microphones within the sound boxes produced a feedback effect, resulting in the well known "sound couplings", the microphones, either the conventional and piezoelectric ones, have not been accepted.
In connection to the violins, the acoustic sound thereof depends from the materials from which the violin is made. Thus, the sound from a violin made from a given type of wood differs from another violin made of plastic materials, resins, polymeric materials and even of wood of a different type. The sound is also different depending from the soundboard construction, that is if the soundboard is solid or hollow.
For electric violins, like for other similar instruments, the sound quality and volume depends strongly from the electronics, namely the amplifiers, microphones and equipment, and not from the instrument design and materials. As to the use of the piezoelectric microphones, the sound quality achieved by them are related to important increased costs of the equipment because these equipment must be of excellent quality, therefore too much money must be invested in these equipment just for a small increase in the quality of the sound without even reaching the quality of the pure and natural sound from an acoustic instrument.
Unfortunately there has been no successful proposals yet for an instrument, preferably a string instrument, and more preferably a bowed stringed musical instrument, with the capacity of providing an excellent quality sound, almost identical to the sound of an acoustic
instrument and even at a desired volume, with the possibility of modulating the sound by simple and effective means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a bowed stringed musical instrument with a superior sound quality or enhanced sonority, the instrument comprising a stringed neck or mast having an upper side and a lower side, a plurality of strings and a sound enhancing channel extending in said lower side of the neck and along at least part of neck length.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a string instrument, such as a viol, violin, cello and the like, the instrument comprising a stringed neck having a distal end, a proximal end, an upper side, a lower side and a plurality of strings, a fingerboard in the upper side of the neck, with the strings extending over and spaced apart from the fingerboard, and at least one vibrating channel extending along at least part of said lower side of the neck.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bowed stringed musical instrument comprising a stringed neck having a distal end, a proximal end, an upper side, a lower side and a plurality of strings, pegs at the distal end of the neck, a bridge at the proximal end of the neck, the bridge keeping the strings spaced apart from the finger surface of the neck and being supported against the finger surface, a finger surface in the upper side of the neck, with the strings extending over and spaced apart from the finger surface, and at least one vibrating channel extending along at least part of said lower side of the neck.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a string musical instrument comprising a stringed neck having a distal end, a proximal end, an upper side, a lower side and a plurality of strings, pegs at the distal end of the neck, a bridge at the proximal end of the neck, and a sound box having a symmetrical configuration around the neck, the box comprising, in a direction from the distal end towards the proximal end of the neck, a pair of proximal triangular panels having largest sides
thereof connected to the neck, a pair of intermediate triangular panels, each intermediate panel having a vertex connected to the neck and a side connected to one of the proximal triangular panels, and a distal panel having a side connected to the proximal end of the neck, the distal panel radially extending from the neck to define a flared bell-like panel for acoustically reflecting sound vibrations.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention is illustrated by way of example in the following drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 shows a top perspective view of a string instrument according to a first embodiment of the invention wherein the instrument consists of a stringed neck without any soundboard being necessary;
FIG. 2 shows a bottom perspective partial view of the stringed neck of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows a front view from the proximal end of the neck of FIGS. 1 and 2;
FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of the instrument of FIGS. 1-3 with arrows indicating vibrations, reflections and/ or reverberances;
FIG. 5 shows a top perspective view of a string instrument according to another embodiment of the invention wherein the instrument comprises a stringed neck and a soundboard or resonant box which may be a solid or a hollow one and made of any appropriate material;
FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view taken along line VI -VI of FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 shows perspective view of the neck according to still another embodiment of the invention, without strings, bridge and pegs being shown for clarity purposes;
FIG. 8 shows a longitudinal cross section of the instrument according to another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 9 is bottom plan view of the instrument of FIG. 8, and
FIG. 10 shows a cross section of another embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Now referring in detail to the drawings it may be seen from FIGS. 1-3 a first embodiment of the invention comprising a string instrument, preferably a bowed stringed musical instrument, more particularly a violin and more preferably an electric violin provided with the characteristics of the electric and the acoustic violins for giving a superior quality sound.
The inventive violin, indicated by general reference 1, comprises a stringed neck or mast 2 that is preferably made of hard and light wood and that has a distal end 3, a proximal end 4, an upper or front side 5 defining a fingerboard, a lower or back side 6 and a plurality of strings 7, a pegs assembly at the distal end of the neck and a bridge 9 at the proximal end of the neck. The bridge keeps the strings spaced apart from the fingerboard of the neck and is supported against the front side of the neck by any appropriate means or by the compressive force of the strings that extend over and spaced apart from the neck upper surface.
Finally, the strings are tensed by a string holder located at the proximal end of the violin.
According to the invention, at least one vibrating channel, preferably two channels 10, extends along at least part of the neck in lower side 6. Preferably, channel 10 is open at the proximal end of the neck and has a cross section that varies along the neck and, more particularly the at least one channel has a dimension increasing from the distal end towards the proximal end. As it may be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, the channel has a conical section with the thinnest section at distal end 3 and the largest section at proximal end 4.
Preferably, the at least one channel comprises two channels, already
indicated by same reference 10, extending side by side along the neck. Both channels 10 define an inner separating wall or rib 11 that may extend along of a center line CL of the neck, as illustrated in FIG. 3, or may extend out of the center line of the neck. Additionally, rib 11 may have one or more thickened portions 12 at or near the proximal end of the neck. Rib 11 not only provides a different transmission, handling and/ or distribution of the sound vibrations along and out of the neck but it also provides the necessary structural resistance for the neck. In like manner, thickening 12 not only improves the sound transmission but also provides additional resistance for anchoring a string holder 18 or even supporting the bridge.
According to another embodiment shown in FIG. 4, central wall or rib 11 may be shorter than the one illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, thus a central short rib 13 is provided and practically only one channel is defined along neck 2. Like in Figures 1-3, one or more thickenings 12 may be provided not only at the portion the bridge is mounted but also at any other section for modulating the sound.
In both of the above disclosed embodiments, two side vibrating walls or wings 14 for reflecting and/ or reverberating sound are defined. The vibrations or sound generated by the rubbing strings 7 with a bow, as its is known, is transmitted through bridge 9 and emitted, according to the invention, from side walls or wings 14, as shown by the arrows in FIG. 4. The vibration of side walls 14 is illustrated in this Figure by the phantom lines. With the provision of the at least one channel 10 and according to the particular configuration thereof, preferably a truncated cone shape, the sound vibrations moves out and/ or along the neck in a manner that the sound produced by the instrument is richer and more colorful similar to the sound of a conventional violin and its quality is also higher. Because this so advantageous the instrument can be played without the need of any resonant box or soundboard as it is well known and necessary in all the conventional bowed stringed instruments. As shown by the white arrows in FIG. 2 the sound vibrations preferably run along the length of the neck in a sense and direction extending from distal end 3 towards proximal end 4. While
this configuration has provided optimum results, the channel also may have a constant U-shape cross section with enhanced performance as compared to conventional instruments. This section may be also variable according to a variety of sound effects that may be desired.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the string instrument is an electric violin comprising at least one piezoelectric microphone 15 retained between bridge 9 and front side 5 to receive vibrations from strings 7 and neck channel 10. Microphones 15 are located at the thinnest part of upper side 5 in order to operate efficiently for receiving the sound vibrations, such as the vibrations coming directly from the strings and such other vibrations from the neck indicated by arrows 16. Piezoelectric microphones 15 are connected to the sound equipment, amplifier, etc. in a well known manner. In FIG. 4, arrows 17 indicate how the sound vibrations move out of the neck either in an acoustic or in an electric violin of the invention.
While the invention has been described for a stringed instrument consisting of a neck without a soundboard, as shown in FIGS. 1-4, a soundboard 18 may be assembled to neck 2 as shown in FIG. 5. The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 may operate either like an acoustic or an electric violin. Also, while the invention has been applied efficiently in an electric violin, the same is also applicable to an acoustic violin including soundboard 18, therefore, the teachings of the invention are applicable to both acoustic and electric stringed musical instruments. Even more, with the application of this invention, a string musical instrument that could not be used electrically it can be now electrically operated because the amplified musical sound thereof not only is unaffected but it is enriched by the invention.
Soundboard 18, according to the invention, may have any desired configuration, may be solid or hollow, prismatic or not, with curved or rectilinear walls or plates. Soundboard, if solid, is preferably made of balsa wood and, if hollow would be made of any wood type to define a resonance cavity. This variety of possibilities in the desired design of the soundboard is possible because while the incidence of the soundboard
is important in the final emitted sound the sound enriching effect provided by the at least one channel 10 plays a more important role in the obtaining of the final musical sound. The characteristics of the soundboard, such as the employed materials, configuration, design, dimensions, etc. will, in any event, be used for managing the desired features of the sound in a more or less extent to tune the instrument according to the player's finest wishes. Soundboard may be also provided with sound holes such as the conventional F-holes. The quality of the sound may be adjusted by properly combining these features of the soundboard with those ones of the channel.
According to another object of the invention, sound box 18 comprises, as it is better shown in Figures 5, 6, a box having a symmetrical configuration around neck 2, and comprising, regarding a direction from the distal end towards the proximal end of the neck, a pair of proximal triangular panels 30 wherin each proximal panel 30 has a largest side 31 connected to the neck. A pair of intermediate triangular panels 32 is also connected to the neck wherein each intermediate panel has a vertex 33 connected to the neck and a side 34 connected to one, namely an adjacent one, of the proximal triangular panels 30, and finally a distal panel 35 is connected to the neck and the adjacent terminal panels 32, wherein distal end panel 35 has a side 36 connected to proximal end 4 of the neck. Distal panel 35 radially extends from the neck to define or form a flared bell-like panel for acoustically reflecting sound waves or vibrations. Panel 35 may be only one panel or may be formed of a plurality of polygonal or curved portions. Panels 30, 32 and 35 may be arranged to be contained in only one plane or, preferably, may be contained in different planes forming angles between each other.
The box is formed by the panels 30, 32 and 35 and a peripheral panel 37 in order to join the panel at the front side of the box and the panels, not shown in Figure 5, at the rear side of the box. Generally, the configuration of the box is prismatic and defines a bell-like configuration and operates like a bell, wherein the bridge and neck defines a vibration or sound waves emitter and the box defines a bell
capable of radially reflecting the vibrations or waves from the emitter. The sound waves or vibrations may be emitted and reflected as it is shown by the radial arrows in Figure 5 and the arrows in Figure 6 reference to which is made below. Box 18 may be used with a conventional neck without channel or channels 10 and 28, Figures 8, 9, or assembled to a neck containing one or more channels according to the invention.
FIG. 6 illustrates a cross section taken along line VI-VI in FIG. 5, wherein the several reflections, vibrations and/ or reverberances are shown by arrows. Like in FIG. 4, arrows 16 indicated the sound vibrations from side wings 14 that are emitted in channel 10 and received by microphones 15 through the material of neck 2, and arrows 17 are those vibrations emitted out of channel 10. Arrows 19 are the vibrations emitted by side wings 14 out of the neck and arrows 20 are those vibrations, reflections or reverberances from the soundboard walls that will be also received by microphones 15 thus improving and enhancing not only the sound volume but also the quality of the sound in general terms.
According to even an additional embodiment of the invention, FIG. 7 shows a stringed instrument consisting of a neck 21, similar to the one shown in FIGS. 1-3, but with the addition an upper resonant cavity 22 in upper side 5 and open to the upper side to provide an additional enhancing and improving of the sound quality. This cavity may be well used in just the neck without any soundboard or it may be combined also with a soundboard like the one indicated by reference 18 in FIGS.
5, 6.
Either the embodiments of Figures 1-4 and those of Figure 5-7, as well as for acoustic (with sound box) or for electric (with or without sound box) instruments, channel or channels 10 may be open at the proximal end, a shown in Figures 1-3, or may be closed at the proximal end, not shown. Thus the sound vibrations will move out of the channel transversely, that is the channel will operate like a bell, open at the rear or lower side 6. In addition, the depth of channel 10 may vary along the
channel length with thicker and thinner sections of the wall defining upper side 5. Thus, a thicker section not only may serve to enhance the resistance of the wall, for mounting the bridge and the string holder, for example, but also to vary the channel section to better modulate the emitted sound. Figure 4 shows a thickening 23 in upper wall or side 5 of the channel. The provision of one or more thickenings 23 along channel 10 permit to refine, modulate or tune the sound as desired by the players. In like manner, thickenings in any of the walls of the channel may be provided along or across the channel or channels, thus varying, as mentioned above, the channel section.
For example, the above comments as to the different sections of the channel are applied to the embodiment shown in Figures 8 and 9. As it may be seen from the longitudinal section of Figure 8 and from the bottom view of Figure 9, center wall or rib, herein indicated by reference 24, may extend only along a portion of the length of the channel, now indicated by reference 28. Channel 28 is defined by a pair of side walls 29 equivalent to walls 14 of the remaining Figures and actuating to reflect the sound and acoustically as described in connection to Figures 4 and 6. Proximal end 25 of the instrument may be closed or open or, as illustrated, may end in a curve to accompany the sound wave emission. Differing from the embodiments of the remaining Figures, bottom or lower side of the violin, identified with reference 6 in the remaining Figures, may be curved as shown in Figure 8 and the finger board 26 may extend beyond step 27, providing a new assembly with excellent sound characteristics. The thicker part of rib 24 will serve not only for structural and resistance purposes but also for sound quality purposes. The section of channel 28 may varied as desired and as above disclosed in connection to the other embodiments. While not illustrated in these Figures, a sound box like the ones illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, preferably sound box 18, may also be employed together with the instrument of Figures 8 and 9.
Even according to another embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figure 10, a pair of side wing walls 38 are provided at the sides of neck 2. The side wing walls enhance the sound generated by the instrument
by reflecting and amplifying the same with an effect that causes the sound to be very similar, if not the same, to the sound of an acoustic instrument. The arrows in this Figure illustrate the way the sound waves and/ or vibrations are emitted and reflected in this assembly.
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.