Music – Instruments – Stringed
Patent
1992-07-06
1996-08-06
Gellner, Michael L.
Music
Instruments
Stringed
84294, 84267, G10D 300, G10D 108
Patent
active
055423299
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to improvement of sound in stringed instruments such as guitars or other instruments which have hollow bodied resonating means and is more particularly concerned with tone color, response, and range effected by said means or the sound box. Generally, the sound box comprises a sidewall structure and a set of at least mildly arched sound boards that vibrate and stir the surrounding air to create and propel sound waves through a hole or "F" holes in top board of the instrument.
These conventional instruments such as guitars have well established designs and the sound box is rather vacuous in construction with bracings inside forcing and forming a mildly arched back plate and a somewhat less arched top board. The later also serves as an anchor base for the string bridge that receives and propagates vibratory movements from the energized (plucked or bowed) strings starting from the bridge base at the center of said board toward the sidewall structure, and continuously to the back plate, in ripple manner and involving time lapes in the process. One design (U.S. Pat. No. 360,317) incorporates multiple push rods connected to the sidewall structure forming a non distance-variable construction. Another design (U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,940) includes a sound transmitting assembly that utilizes one-piece straddle bridge with conductor means to energize the central area of the back plate in a permanently engaged mode.
These designs all fail to provide a distinctly superior tone production means for the instruments to fully satisfy modern day virtuosi's demand because: 1, the ripple manner of vibratory propagation, due to said time lapes, allows the phases to overlap or one phase to disturb the other resulting in muddy sounds. 2, said time lapes also contributes to "dragging" of notes played and hinders musicians from performing more rapid riffs or achieving clear contrapuntal lines. 3, the multiple rod design forming a non distance-variable, therefore rigid, sidewall structure merely constrains the sound boards and affects the production of desirable sounds. 4, the one-piece straddle bridge design has merit in causing the central area of the back plate to vibrate in synchronous phase with the same area of the top but, due to the non-articulated or nonlateral driving nature of the bridge member, it leaves the remaining large area of the sound box panels to lag behind phasewise, preventing a full potential in clarity of sound production from being realized. 5, said permanently engaged assembly, lacking in tone selection control, provides only a limited tonal range to no wider than that of the traditional design and its lack of treble enhancing means further prevents production of brilliant sounds.
The invention as claimed is to remedy these shortcomings. It solves the problems in designing acoustic stringed instruments with improved clarity in tone that can only be achieved by generating synchronously phased vibratory movements over the sound box panels with practically no time lapes in said movements. The improvement allows productions of quick responding, non-dragging and non-overlapping notes (when so desired) from the instruments and it is achieved by providing within the sound box an articulated straddle bridge which mainly functions as a laterally directed drive means that energizes and drives the peripheral areas of the back plate sideways, that is, it stretches the plate toward both sides during the energizing phase of a vibratory cycle. The energized drive simultaneously causes the entire sound box to flatten or the mildly arched both sound boards to flap in unison, bypassing the ripple factor, thereby phase distinct vibratory movement of the sound box realized.
The invention also extends the tonal range to beyond the limit of that of conventional acoustic stringed instruments through enhancing treble tone in general and by incorporating tone selector means that allows musicians to instantly disengage, engage, or manipulate the tensions of the new acoustic driver assembly for selecting dark, med
REFERENCES:
patent: 1275351 (1918-08-01), Yeakey
patent: 4026181 (1977-05-01), Barcus et al.
Gellner Michael L.
Spyrou Cassandra
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