Music – Instruments – Automatic
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-27
2003-06-17
Hsieh, Shih-Yung (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Automatic
C084S199000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06580021
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vibratory strings or music wire for musical instruments such as pianos, guitars, violins, violas and the like, and, in particular, to improved string materials for producing vibratory strings having improved harmonic, tonal and stability characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Few musical experiences are more beautiful and fulfilling than listening to live music performed on an acoustic instrument such as a grand piano, guitar or violin. The tonal quality, tenor and intricate harmonics of traditional acoustic instruments have been unsurpassed even by the recent advent of modem digital/electronic sampling and reproduction techniques. However, as improvements and advancements in digital-electronic sound reproduction continue, more and more musicians and music hobbyists/enthusiasts are choosing to purchase and play digital electronic keyboard instruments and the like, rather than their acoustical (i.e., stringed) counterparts.
This shift in consumer preferences can be attributed largely to the relative low cost of such electronic instruments, the diversity of sound reproduction and amplification achieved and the ready portability of such instruments. However, another important consideration is that digital-electronic instruments, unlike their acoustic counterparts, generally do not require periodic tuning and maintenance.
Anyone who has owned or played an acoustic piano knows that it must be periodically tuned by a skilled technician in order to keep it in optimal playing condition. Acoustic pianos used for concert tour performances must be constantly tuned and retuned in order to keep the instruments in proper pitch and tune under a variety of ambient conditions. Even then, the pitch of the instrument is sometimes liable to drift if ambient conditions should change abruptly or if the instrument is not allowed adequate time to become acclimated to a new ambient environment. As a result of these inherent sensitivities to changing ambient conditions, and because of the large number of strings and other mechanisms involved, maintaining a concert grand piano in optimal pitch prior to and during a concert performance can be a vexing and time-consuming task.
A typical concert grand piano includes a plurality of longitudinally arranged vibratory strings or wires of varying length overlying a plurality of hammers. The number of strings per note will vary, depending upon the desired pitch of the note, i.e., typically one string per note in the lower octaves and two or three strings per note in the mid and upper octaves. Each string is vibrationally fixed or grounded at one end by a hitch pin located on the bowed portion of the piano harp and, at the other end, by an adjustable tuning pin frictionally and rotatably retained in a tuning (“pin”) block. The strings are placed under tension by turning or adjusting the tuning pin. The tensioned strings are thus capable of sustained vibration.
A sound board, typically formed from laminated or glued strips of a light hardwood such as spruce, is disposed underneath the tensioned strings for the purpose of acoustically amplifying the vibrations of the activated string or strings into audible sound. The sound board includes one or more bridges, typically of hard rock maple, on which each string bears down. The distance between the bridge and the tuning pin defines the active length of the string. The sound board is typically crowned such that it bows upward pressing the bridge (or bridges) into the taught strings. This improves the acoustic qualities of the piano and helps the sound board support the immense downward pressure brought to bear against it by the tensioned strings.
In operation, when a string (or strings) is struck by an associated hammer the string is set into mechanical vibration whereby a sound having a particular desired pitch is produced. The pitch depends largely upon the active length of the string, its weight or mass and the amount of tension applied. Thus, the shorter, smaller diameter strings located at the treble end of a piano typically produce a relatively high pitched sound whereas the longer, larger diameter strings disposed at the bass end of the piano produce a lower pitched sound. The tonal quality of the sound produced depends on a number of additional factors, such as the particular mechanical properties of the material or materials comprising the string, its ductility, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, resistance to bending and density per unit length. Each of these properties can effect the tonal quality, tenor and dwell of a particular note, as well as the occurrence or selected amplification or attenuation of various harmonic partials.
For purposes of the present disclosure, a “partial” is defined as a component of a sound sensation which may be distinguished as a simple sound that cannot be further analyzed by the ear and which contributes to the overall character of the complex tone or complex sound comprising the note. The fundamental frequency of the string is the frequency of the first partial, or that frequency caused by the piano string vibrating in the first mode, or the lowest natural frequency of free vibration of the string. A harmonic is a partial whose frequency is usually an integer multiple (e.g., n=1, 2, 3 . . . ) of the frequency of the first partial or fundamental frequency of the string.
Due to the nature of strings being strung and then tuned., strings for musical instruments are required to keep strong tension and a high degree of stability for a long period of time. Strings which plastically deform or stretch by bowing, plucking or striking are typically not used on musical instruments because they typically lack sufficient elastic compliance to sustain vibratory motion for any useful period of time and can also deform or permanently stretch if struck or plucked to hard.
Conventional vibratory strings used for pianos, electric guitars and similar musical instruments are typically made of materials having relatively high elastic modulus (greater than about 180 GPa), such as carbon steel wire, stainless steel wire, phosphor bronze wire and the like. Often a carbon steel wire core having a diameter of about 0.090 inches will be wound with annealed copper wire or other precious or semi-precious metals in order to change the density per unit length of the string and to enable optimal adjustment of sound quality, attenuation rate and selection of the basic vibration frequency. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,775 to Ito describes a vibratory string for use on musical instruments comprising a core wire composed of long filaments of steel wire, sheathed with a thick mantle of a precious metal such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,797 to Fukuda describes an improved string for a stringed instrument comprising carbon steel wire electrically heat treated under tensile stress to reduce residual stress in the string and thereby minimize tonal variation over long periods of time after the string has been strung in the instrument. For classical acoustic guitars, violins, violas, acoustic bases and similar instruments, a more compliant material may be chosen, such as cat gut, sheep gut or synthetic resins in order to achieve the desired tonal and acoustic qualities.
Notwithstanding the significant improvements made in vibratory string technology over the years, acoustic instruments remain quite sensitive to even small changes in temperature, humidity and other ambient conditions. Even a very small change in the stretch or amount of tension on a conventional vibratory string can result in significant detuning of the string. Such changes may result from, among other things, environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and the like, which may cause portions of the sound board, bridge and/or harp to expand or contract and thereby alter the string length/tension. These changes can cause the piano or other string instrument to produce a less than optimu
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