Music – Instruments – Stringed
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-20
2003-01-28
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Stringed
C084S293000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06512168
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to musical instruments, specifically to a tuning system for stringed musical instruments.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Stringed musical instruments commonly are configured having a relatively narrow neck structure. The neck structure usually has an end at which the instrument strings are attached in such a manner as to permit adjusting the tension of the strings, and has another end affixed to a body on which a bridge or saddle is provided to secure the opposite ends of these strings. The neck generally has a structural portion having an exposed surface below the strings, which is the fingerboard.
The fingerboard is classified in two types: fretted type and fretless type. A fretted fingerboard has a series of ridges fixed across the fingerboard, spaced apart from one another that project above a larger, major fingerboard surface. Each member of this series of structures has its axis of elongation provided transversely to the major axis of the neck, and each is located at a precise location along the length of the fingerboard. A fingerboard may have an upper surface, which is transversely planar or transversely arcuate.
The purpose of fingerboard frets is to permit the individual playing the instrument to shorten the effective length of the vibrating portion of a string positioned thereover. The individual or musician is enabled to select the effective lengths of the string at precise points, each of which is determined using the fret chosen by the musician for this purpose, to thereby alter the pitch or frequency of the sound produced by the vibrating string. If the individual stops the string against the fingerboard major surface on the side of the fret opposite the bridge or saddle, the string will also be stopped against that fret and a precise vibration frequency in the string can thus be set determined by the distance of the fret from the bridge or saddle. Frets promote the facility of playing the correct or perfect pitch, however they impede the smooth on changing musical notes occurred in a fretless fingerboard.
In fretless fingerboard, the string is stopped against the fingerboard surface by the musician wherever the individual chooses, and the resulting vibration frequency of that portion of the string between this stop point and the bridge or saddle is determined by the precise position of the point at which the string is stopped. Hence, there is no fret to stop the string against to provide a corresponding fixed frequency of vibration of string and the vibration frequency will change slightly with slight shifts in the stop point chosen by the placement of the musician's finger. Consequently, the point at which the string is stopped in a fretless fingerboard is more critical in determining the resulting vibration frequency of the string than is the point at which it is stopped in a fretted fingerboard, the latter requiring only that the string be stopped behind the fret to give a known frequency associated with that fret. Thus, a large range of frequencies for a vibrating string can be selected by a musician playing a fretless fingerboard than can be selected by a musician playing a fretted fingerboard. However, there is a large difficulty degree forming the correct or perfect pitch in a fretless fingerboard.
Instruments are available which have marks in substitution at every fret on the fingerboard. There is no difference between a regular fretless fingerboard and the fingerboard referred above.
There is further the need for a fretless fingerboard that allows the musician the flexibility to play an instrument without frets however with its sound characteristics and maintaining the facilities provided by a fretted fingerboard. This invention provides the solution for this need.
SUMMARY
The invention relates to a device to allow a fretless stringed musical instrument to be played with the same facilities of a fretted stringed musical instrument without losing the fretless instrument characteristics.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide the characteristics of a fretless instrument and also the characteristics of a fretted instrument in a single fingerboard;
(b) to provide to the musician to play chords almost impossible to be played in an instrument without frets;
(c) to provide to the musician an easier method or way to form the correct or perfect pitch at an instrument without frets.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2816469 (1957-12-01), Gossom
patent: 6156961 (2000-12-01), Beckmeier
Lockett Kim
Nappi Robert E.
Robert D. Varitz, P.C.
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