Supports – Stand – Plural leg
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-05
2002-07-23
Stodola, Daniel P. (Department: 3634)
Supports
Stand
Plural leg
C211S085600, C084S327000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06422522
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED MATERIAL
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to musical instrument stands, specifically to a musical instrument stand for enabling the instrument to remain in an upright position when not in use and which is retained on the instrument when the instrument is in use.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Musicians are often faced with the challenge of temporarily supporting their instrument when it is not being played. Instruments such as guitars are subject to potential damage if simply laid flat on the floor, so it is common practice to lean the neck or head of the instrument against a piece of furniture or a wall.
Leaning the neck of such an instrument against a piece of furniture or the like often results in the upper part of the instrument sliding laterally, causing the entire instrument to fall to the floor, again resulting in damage to the instrument. Leaning the head of such an instrument against a wall or a piece of furniture has the added disadvantage of potentially putting the instrument out of tune due to the tuners in the head coming in contact with the wall or furniture.
Conventional stands for musical instruments have been free standing devices which rest on the floor, into which the instrument is placed when not in use. While some of these stands are collapsible to some degree, they still represent an additional piece of equipment the musician must deal with, requiring time, effort and space to transport, store, deploy and use.
Two types of stands which are retained on the musical instrument in a collapsed configuration while the instrument is being played, and which can then be deployed as a stand when the instrument is not in use have been proposed. Both require a degree of manual manipulation to either deploy or to store. In addition, neither addresses the fact that many guitars and other like instruments have back surfaces which are bowed rather than flat.
One such device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,701 by Olson is a mechanically complex device. While it does include spring loaded legs which are automatically released when the bottom end of the guitar is placed on the floor, it requires that the same legs be manually forced back into their housing, against the pressure of the springs, before the musical instrument can be used. In the case of the guitar or other similar instrument, there is no practical way to hold the instrument to apply an opposing force necessary to accomplish this act. These instruments can easily be held by their neck, but this would be difficult due to the leverage provided by the length of the neck. it is not easy to adequately grip such an instrument in the midst of it's body, where the opposing force is required.
In addition to the disadvantage of this difficulty in returning the collapsible legs to their stored position, the device suffers from an overly complex mechanical design, causing a number of other disadvantages:
(a) The tooling, manufacture and assembly for the device would be expensive. The design requires numerous custom made parts which need to adhere to close tolerances in order for the device to function properly. The labor required to assemble the numerous parts would be relatively costly.
(b) The mechanical complexity of the device would render it subject to potential breakdowns requiring repair or replacement.
(c) Several sliding and pivoting parts could require periodic lubrication. Lubricants attract and retain dust and dirt, and this dust and dirt would be easily transferred to the clothing of the user, especially when playing the instrument, at which time the device is in actual contact with the user's clothing.
(d) The mechanical complexity of the device contributes to an overall bulky and obtrusive appearance. This has both an aesthetic and a practical impact: Aesthetic since the device is visually obtrusive, and practical since the bulkiness of the device causes interference against the user's body when the instrument is being played.
(e) The straight legs and housing would not accommodate the curvature of a bowed-back instrument, rendering the device useless on said instruments.
The other device, U.S. Pat. No 4,693,161 by Uhrig, is a simpler device, but suffers from several major disadvantages:
(a) The device is attached to the musical instrument by the means of the screws which hold the neck of the instrument to the instrument body. Loosening these screws in order to mount the device can cause misalignment of the neck and body of the instrument, resulting in a number of functional problems in the instrument.
(b) The supporting leg(s) is not spring mounted, thus manual manipulation is required for both deployment and collapsing of the device. while this solves one of the problems of the device previously cited, it adds another level of inconvenience to the user.
(c) Because the device is attached by screws at a predetermined point on the instrument, and the length of it's supporting leg is not adjustable, the device would be compatible only with those instruments where the distance from the neck-to-body attaching screws to the bottom of the instrument happens to match the length of the device's leg.
(d) The requirement of attaching the device at the point where the neck meets the body of the instrument requires the device span the entire length of the instrument body, resulting in a device that is both bulky and obtrusive.
(e) The straight legs would not accommodate the curvature of a bowed-back instrument, rendering the device useless on said instruments.
(f) The requirement to attach the device by means of the screws which attach the neck to the body of the instrument would prevent the device from being used on those instruments, such as hollow-body acoustic guitars and the like, which do not incorporate screws as a means of attachment of the neck to the body of the instrument.
(g) The attachment by means of screws to any location on an instrument other than where screws already exist would result in the defacing of the instrument.
SUMMARY
The present invention pertains to a stand for supporting a musical instrument, such as a guitar, in an upright position when the instrument is not being used. The stand remains attached to the instrument when it is being played. The device is both deployed and collapsed without direct manipulation by the user. The stand comprises a mounting base having a surface adjacent to and secured to the rear surface of the instrument by non-invasive means such as by suction cups. A support member extends down from an upper portion of the mounting base to engage a supporting surface, such as a floor. The bottom of the support member includes foot portions which together with the bottom portion of the musical instrument define a plane for supporting the instrument in the upright position. The lower portion of the support member may optionally be canted relative to the upper portion in order to accommodate instruments having a bowed back such that despite a slight bow in the back surface of the instrument, the foot portions of the support member still rest proximate to the rear surface of the instrument when in closed position.
The support member is pivotally connected to the mounting base to permit it to be moved between a storage position where the foot portions are adjacent to the musical instrument, and a deployed position spaced away from the musical instrument where the bottom of the instrument and the foot portions form a tripod-like support. When in the storage position, one or more of the foot portions extend slightly beyond the bottom edge of the instrument, thus allowing touch free deployment of the device by holding the instrument by the neck, lowering the upright instrument to the floor until the foot portion comes in contact with the floor, where friction fixes the position of the foot portion relative to the floor. By then pivoting the instrument on the point where the support member is pivotally joined to the mounting base, the bottom of the instrument is moved away from the foot portion until
Novosad Jennifer E.
Stodola Daniel P.
LandOfFree
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