Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Sound device making
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-03
2001-05-22
Hsieh, Shih-Yung (Department: 2837)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Sound device making
C084S291000, C084S292000, C084S290000, C084S267000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06233825
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to a hollow-metallic stringed musical instrument body and a method of making a metal stringed musical instrument body. For descriptive purposes the invention relates the construction of a guitar body but this is not intended to limit the scope of the invention for it can apply to any stringed musical instrument body such as violins, dulcimers, mandolins, basses, etc.
2. Related Art
Over the centuries designers of stringed musical instruments have experimented with the shape, size, and materials of construction for bodies for stringed musical instruments. This has led to the familiar sounds produced by violins, guitars, cellos and basses. The sound each of each being determined by the design characteristics.
Wood has been the material of choice to produce these instruments. The choicest of wood cuts encompassing all varieties of woods, (such as spruce, maple, basswood, rosewood, etc), have been used to obtain the highest quality of tone and pitch within each class of instrument. The manufacturers of these instruments are continually striving to produce the sound desired by the player and audience.
Unfortunately wood suffers from many distinct disadvantages which result in defects and undesirable tonal variations. These variations result from changes in the wood due to environmental conditions, the most prominent being temperature and humidity. These parameters can result in the swelling or shrinking of the wood resulting in unwanted tonal variations.
Fluctuations from wood lot to wood lot can also affect the final instrument body. These fluctuations include differing grain patterns and wood densities between trees. Differing techniques in cutting and drying procedures between mills also contribute to lot differences. Other shortcomings in wood are imperfections such as cracks and checks.
These disadvantages have led to the development of alternative materials of construction for stringed instrument bodies. These include U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,990, disclosing an invention for a graphite fiber/epoxy resin body and U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,219, describing a stringed musical instrument body constructed from polyurethane. These inventions resolve several of the problems associated with wood, but produce a sound unique to their construction which may or may not be desirable to the listening ear.
Although innovative, none of the above mentioned efforts to develop an alternative construction material for stringed instruments offer the sound and flexibility of the present invention. A metal body eliminates many of the problems associated with variation problems in wood lots and shortcomings of wood itself since metal stock is produced following strict quality control procedures.
The production method of this invention allows for near exact reproduction of the body. This ensures replication of the tonal qualities of the instrument body from instrument to instrument overcoming the tonal variations associated with wood.
The draw back to an all-metal guitar body is the weight of the metal. Excessive weight results in an undesirable product. This drawback has also been overcome with the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention describes a unique method of construction for an all-metal stringed instrument body. This invention overcomes the variation problems of wood through the use of metal. It also over comes the weight problem of metal through the use of lightweight alloys and by the incorporation of a hollow body.
The advent of modem day Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) Machining (includes milling, EDM, and Laser cutting) has allowed for the production of a machined metal hollow body for a stringed musical instrument. This body is produced from several plates of metal that have been cored out using CNC machining until a thin skin (0.005-0.050″ typical) is left as the body face. Thicker reinforcing ribs are left to provide support and add strength to the body. The components are laminated together to produce the desired lightweight hollow body.
Until recently such an approach would be economically unfeasible due to the exacting tolerances required. The advent of CNC (Computer numeric controlled) machining technology meets the exacting tolerances necessary to produce a body of acceptable sound and produce the body at a rate that will make it economically viable. The use of CNC machining technology allows for economic production of musical instrument bodies from a construction material of choice with unlimited design opportunities with exacting precision and accuracy, tolerances of less than 0.001″ are easily obtained.
Modern CNC technology allows for the production of high precision, muti-component metal parts which, when assembled, produce a nearly seamless body. This construction allows for the manufactured body to behave as a single vibrating component. This attribute allows for very clean tonal qualities.
One embodiment of the invention is a stringed musical instrument body having a first face and a second face. The body includes a first plate having a metal skin with an inner surface and an outer surface. The outer surface of the skin forms the first face of the instrument body. The first plate also has metal reinforcing ribs extending from the inner surface of the skin. The reinforcing ribs are integral with the skin and form a seamless unit with the skin. The instrument body also includes a second plate fastened to the first plate and facing the inner surface. The second plate forms the second face of the stringed musical instrument body.
The first plate of the stringed musical instrument body may have a specific gravity between 5.5 and 1.5. The plate may be an alloy of aluminum, magnesium or titanium.
The stringed musical instrument body may also include a ring plate extending along a periphery of the first and second plates, interposed between them. One of the ribs may extend around a periphery of the first plate and form an outer wall of the instrument body. Screws may connect the first and second plates.
The second plate may have a second metal skin with an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the outer surface of the second skin forms the second face of the stringed musical instrument body. In that case, the second plate has second metal reinforcing ribs extending from the inner surface of the metal second skin. Those reinforcing ribs are integral with the second skin and form a seamless unit with the skin. In this case, at least one of the reinforcing ribs of the first plate may be in contact with the reinforcing ribs of said second plate.
The metal skin of the first plate may have a thickness between 0.005 inches and 0.050 inches, and the reinforcing ribs of the first plate may extend about 0.715 inches from the inner surface. The instrument body may include a honeycomb material attached to the inner surface of the first plate The instrument body may also include a transducer mounted on one of the plates for electronic amplification.
In another embodiment of the invention, a stringed musical instrument body, having a metal skin with a reinforcing rib, is made by first providing a metal plate with first and second sides. A first pocket is machined from the second side of the metal plate, the pocket delineating a first section of the metal skin between a floor of the first pocket and the first side of the metal plate. A second pocket is then machined from the second side of the metal plate, the second pocket delineating a second section of the metal skin between a floor of the second pocket and the first side of the metal plate. The first and second pockets have adjacent sidewalls delineating the reinforcing rib therebetween.
The step of providing a metal plate may further include providing a metal plate of raw metal plate stock. Alternatively, that step may include providing a premolded metal plate. The machining steps may further include machining using a computer numeric controlled machine tool. The machining step may be done with a milling machine, an EDM machine
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