WO2004079713A1

WO2004079713A1 - Mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar

Info

Publication number: WO2004079713A1
Application number: PCT/SK2004/000001
Authority: WO
Inventors: Robert Neuszer
Original assignee: Neuser, S.R.O
Priority date: 2003-03-03
Filing date: 2004-03-02
Publication date: 2004-09-16

Abstract

Mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar, at first of all electric bass guitar consists of a base plate (2) affixed to the original place of the bridge on the guitar body (1) in two places by means of attachment screws (21, 21') and grooves (211, 211'). There is a working space limited by abutments (212, 212') on the base plate (2), in which there is placed in a row a pair of front guiding grooves (213) and a pair of rear guiding grooves (213') separated by an intermediate space (214). The base plate body (2) is equipped with guiding rollers (22, 22') and in the working space of the base plate (2), by means of upwards and downwards extending pairs of front and rear adjusting screws (31, 31') in guiding grooves (213, 213')and in intermediate place (214) there is a a sliding string support (3) equipped, on its sides, with guiding pins (32, 32') and, on the top side, with a string groove (33) . The string support (3) is, together with the respective tensioned string (5), which rests thereon covered by a sliding cover (4) controlling the sliding of the string support (3). The sliding cover (4) is equipped with bottom grooves (41, 41') for guiding rollers (22, 22') and side grooves (42, 42) for guiding pins (32, 32') and, on the top wall, with handling openings (43) for handling the front and rear adjusting screws (31, 31') of the string support (3). This mechanical device is formed on the guitar body for each string separately.

Description

Mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar at first of all of electric bass guitar, which acts in the function of a bridge.

Background of the invention

Electric bass guitar, constructed for the first time in the forties of the last century, underwent various constructional modifications leading to greater perfection and reliability. It presently constitutes a mature instrument and its function in music as such is changing. From then a purely accompanying instrument, which was supplying music with the low bass tones, it is presently turning into a solo instrument with solo parts and compositions written exclusively for bass guitar.

Presently, there are two types of electric bass guitars in use, namely guitars with and without frets. Each of these emits its sound of a characteristic timbre. For solo and accompanying play, both said guitar types are used equally. A prerequisite for this is, of course, that a musician must own both such instruments, which is particularly costly.

Alterations of the sound of electric guitars including bass guitars in prior art are dealt with by numerous technical solutions. For example, mechanical device for sounding of an electric bass guitar is the subject of the utility design _SK 1311. This device is placed in the opening of the guitar body and consists of at least one shaped flap, flexibly held in the side of the guitar recess by means of a steel back-moving spring, which is equipped, at its bottom side, with an abutment, and, on the bottom of the guitar recess, there is at least one rotary sounding arm with an extension piece. Between the arm and the bottom of the guitar recess, there is a steel spring. When playing, the string is sounded by the wooden arm rather than a finger of the player. The sound emitted by the instrument has thus a completely different character and timbre than sounds effected by standard playing technique.

Another type of devices, which alter the original sound of a guitar, are, for example, dampers, which essentially do not limit the string vibrations caused by the musician's hand, but their role is to damp the undesirable sounds, resonance ringing, and harmonic overtones, and to cleanse all musical tones through elimination of undesirable sounds that may be generated at the neck of the instrument . Examples of such devices are the solutions protected by US patents No. 2.628.524 and No . 3.971.287.

US patent No. 4.632.003 suggests that moderate changes in tonality may be achieved by means of a mechanical sound gate. This device changes the size of the opening, through which the sound vibrations pass. If the guitar sound control board is covered in this manner, toning of its natural frequencies occurs. Although moderate tonal variations are possible, this is a method of sound reduction rather than necessarily an improvement of natural properties thereof .

The facility described in US patent No. 5.101.706 serves for generation of harmonic overtones at the guitar neck. Harmonic bridge may be attached to the guitar neck and placed directly over any fret where overtones are generated. This will evoke a series of string contacts over the selected fret, similarly as when a guitarist uses his/her fingertips to generate accords. This concept presumes that the given instruments maintains contact with the strings and therefore both hands can perform other functions. Other functions may be limited, however, most of them will be taken over by the fingerboard.

Another of the well known technical solutions, which is, at the same time, closest to the proposed one from the technical point of view, is an additional device designated for string musical instruments such as guitar, bass guitar, which is the subject of the US patent No.5 497 690. This additional device with settable height over the guitar body is attached to the guitar bridge by gluing or by means of attachment screws, the sound character being altered by contact of flexible rounded metal sheets, which are part of this additional device, with the instrument's strings. The very fact, that this is an additional device, subsequently means that it increases the weight of the guitar itself. Moreover, it takes a certain space in front of the bridge, depriving the player of the playing technique, at which the string's vibration is initiated immediately at the bridge. As it has been mentioned, with this device, alteration of the sound timbre is achieved by contact of metal sheets with the instrument's strings. For accurate setting of pressure against the string, however, the metal sheets must be made of a relatively thin flexible metal sheet. This, however, means that they are of small weight, which may be sufficient to generate sounds similar to that of a sitar, a santura or a tambura, but may be insufficient to generate a sound of a fretless bass guitar, since the large weight of strings of a bass guitar requires a greater stiffness and weight of that part of the device, which is in contact with the string and causes alteration of the sound timbre.

The device described also influences the tuning ability of the instruments. Accurate tuning of the instrument for the pitch of free strings' tones and in their octaves is given by two conditions, namely a/ creating an accurate tension in strings by tensioning thereof, and b/ exactly given length of strings measured from the zero fret to the first point of contact of the string with the bridge .

Contact of the metal sheets of the given device mounted in front of the bridge on the strings violates condition b/, since the string length is substantially reduced - the distance from the zero fret to the point of contact of the string on the newly created bridge is shortened. That means that the guitar needs to be retuned, but this retuning cannot achieve the required accuracy achieved with the original bridge, since the length of strings has changed while the position of frets on the fingerboard remained unchanged. The device described presumes contact of metal sheets with the strings or playing without this contact as selected by the player, which means constant retuning or playing on a moderately out-of-tune instrument.

Application of the device described, i.e., pressing the metal sheets against the strings from the top towards the instrument body, causes moderate reduction of the distance between the strings and the frets on the fingerboard, which can cause rattling of strings against the frets when playing. A solution of this problem is to increase the given distance of strings from the fingerboard on the original bridge, which, however, decreases the convenience of playing itself.

Description of the invention

The described disadvantages of prior art solutions eliminates, to a substantial degree, a device for alteration of sound of electric guitar according to the invention. The device consists of a base plate affixed to the electric guitar body in the place where a bridge was located on the original instrument. The base plate is equipped, at its ends, by grooves for attachment screws. On the base plate, there is a working space delimited by abutments for a string support, within which space there is a pair of front guiding grooves and a pair of rear guiding grooves placed in a row for setting screws of the string support. Preferably, the guiding grooves are of different depths. The front ones, with respect to the space between the guiding grooves, are deeper than the rear ones. The base plate is further equipped with guiding pins for a sliding cover. On the base plate, there is a sliding string support equipped with a pair of front adjusting screws and a pair of rear adjusting screws, which extend therefrom upwards and downwards. The string support is further equipped with guiding rollers for the sliding cover and by string groove. The string support, in its top part, which is placed under the string, is moderately rounded in the direction of the string and, together with the respective string, which rests thereon, is covered by a sliding cover equipped with side grooves for guiding rollers and with bottom grooves for guiding pins. On the top wall of the sliding cover, there are handling openings .

The mechanical device according to the present technical solution is affixed to the guitar body separately for each string and substitutes the bridge.

In application of the mechanical device according to the invention, the base plate is affixed to the guitar body by means of attachment screws and grooves for attachment screws formed therein. By sliding this base plate towards the guitar head or in the opposite direction, the tuning of the guitar in octaves is set and the position of the base plate is stabilised by the attachment screws. On the base plate, the front adjusting screws of the string support are inserted in the front guiding grooves of the adjusting screws. In this basic position, the rear adjusting screws are placed in the intermediate space between the guiding grooves, wherein, to facilitate handling, a shallow groove may be formed. The front and rear adjusting screws, when sliding the string support in the guiding grooves, copy the shape of the bottom of the base plate, maintain the stability of the string support, and enable to adjust the string distance from the surface of the guitar body. The guitar string is held by the string holder and, by its tension, presses the support against the base plate .

The sound of the bass guitar with the applied device according to the technical solution can be altered by adjusting the position of the string support. Thereat, if the string support is in the basic position, i.e., the front adjusting screws are inserted in the front guiding grooves and the rear adjusting screws are placed in the intermediate space between the guiding grooves, the string support is in a slanted position with respect to the guitar string and the string rests in the string groove. Then the sound of this electric guitar corresponds to that of an electric guitar with frets. After the position of the string support has been changed by pushing out the front adjusting screws to the intermediate space and inserting the rear adjusting screws to the rear guiding grooves, the string support is in a parallel position with the string. That means that the guitar string rests on the string support and vibrates on its surface. Then it generates a rattling sound characteristic for an electric guitar without frets.

The string support is shifted by means of the sliding cover. In this arrangement, if the string support is in the basic position, the height of the string over the guitar body is set through handling openings by rear adjusting screws. The sliding cover can be shifted from a position representing a guitar with frets to a position representing a guitar without frets, while guiding pins forming part of the string support are inserted in the side grooves of the sliding cover. The end positions of the sliding cover are given by bottom grooves for guiding rollers inserted therein. The sliding cover reaches the end positions in accordance with the abutments limiting the working space on the base plate. In the position representing a fretless guitar, the sound characteristic for a fretless guitar is adjusted by means of front adjusting screws through the handling openings in the cover.

Appropriate functioning of the device according to the invention may be achieved also in the case that the adjusting screws of the string support and the respective grooves are formed individually rather than in pairs.

The device according to the invention described and schematically represented in the attached figures is designated primarily for the electric bass guitar, however, by changing the dimensions of this device it is possible to use an identical solution for other electric guitars.

The device according to the invention enables, while using a single instrument, i.e., a bass guitar, to change the usual sound of a fretted bass guitar into the sound of a fretless bass guitar. While having this capacity, it does not unnecessarily increase the weight of the instrument, since this device is not an additional one but it rather substitutes older types of bridges and its weight is greater by only a fraction. With its dimensions, it occupies a space comparable to that occupied by original bridges and therefore does not limit the technique of playing the instrument at all.

The device according to the invention enables very efficient generation of the sound characteristic for a fretless bass guitar, which is enabled by the strength and weight of the string supports and by their shapes, the rounded shape of the top side of the string support even more markedly improving the achieved sound of the character of a fretless bass guitar. While having this capacity, the sustain of the tones in the entire tone scale of the instrument is extended - particularly, however, in the medium and higher part.

The alteration of the sound character is achieved by changing the position of the string support by shifting the sliding cover, whereby in the point of contact with the string, thanks to the changed position of the string support, the shape and dimension of the area of contact of the string support with the string changes. However, the point of contact does not shift with respect to the length of the string, i.e., the string is neither prolonged nor shortened and thereby the original tuning is maintained. The adjusting screws ensure that the height of the string does not change and that the distance of strings from the fingerboard selected by the player remains the same even while altering the sound character.

Description of figures

In the attached drawings, Fig. 1 shows a schematically represented top view of the base plate. Figs. 2a and 2b show a cross-section A-A of the device with demonstrated attachment of this base plate to the guitar body and two optional positions of the string support; Fig. 3 gives a top view of the string support and Figs. 4a and 4b represent side view of the sliding cover with indicated change of position of the string support when changing the position of the sliding cover. The shape of the string support is represented schematically, without rounding.

Examples

Mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar substituting the bridge consists of a base plate 2 affixed to the electric guitar body 1 equipped, at its ends, with grooves 211, 211'' for attachment screws 2^, 21" . On the base plate 2, there is a working space delineated by abutments

212, 212' for the string support 2 , within which space there is a pair of front guiding grooves 213 and a pair of rear guiding grooves 213' placed in a row for adjusting screws 31,

31' of the string support 3. The front guiding grooves 213, with respect to the intermediate space 214, are deeper than the rear ones. The base plate is further equipped with guiding rollers :22, 22' for the sliding cover 4. On the base plate 2 , there is a sliding string support 3_ equipped with a pair of front adjusting screws 3_1, 31' and a pair of rear setting screws, which extend therefrom upwards and downwards. The string support 3_ is further equipped with guiding pins 3_2, 32 ' for the sliding cover 4 and with the string groove 3_3. The string support 3 , together with the respective string 5_, which rests thereon, is covered by a sliding cover 4_ equipped with bottom grooves 4JL, 41' for guiding rollers 22_, 22' and with side grooves 4_2, 42 ' for guiding pins 3_2, 32 ' . On the top wall of the sliding cover 4, there are handling openings 43_. The device is formed for each string of an electric guitar separately.

The base plate 2 is affixed to the guitar body 1 by means of attachment screws 2^, 21' and grooves 211, 211' formed therein. By sliding this base plate 2 towards the guitar head or in the opposite direction, the tuning of the guitar in octaves is set and the position of the base plate 2 is stabilised by the attachment screws 21, 21' . On the base plate

2, the front adjusting screws 3_1 of the string support 2 are inserted in the front guiding grooves 213. In this basic position, the rear adjusting screws 3_1' are placed in the intermediate space 214. The adjusting screws 31, 31J_, when sliding the string support, copy the shape of the bottom of the working space delimited on the base plate 2, maintain the stability of the string support 3, and enable to adjust the height of the string 5_ from the surface of the guitar body 1.. The guitar string is held by the holder 6_ of the string 5_ and, by its tension, presses the string support 3_ against the base plate 2 .

The sound of the bass electric guitar is altered by changing the position of the string support 3_, whereat if the string support 3_ is in the basic position, it is in a slanted position with respect to the guitar string 5 and the string 5 rests in the string groove 33. Upon such arrangement, the sound of the electric guitar corresponds to that of an electric guitar with frets. After shifting of the string support 3_ and inserting the rear adjusting screws 3_1' in the rear guiding grooves 213", the front adjusting screws 213 rest in the intermediate space 214 and the string support 3 is in a position parallel with the string 5, i.e., the guitar string 5_ rests on the string support and vibrates on its surface. Then it generates a rattling sound characteristic for an electric guitar without frets.

The string support 3_ is shifted by means of the sliding cover 4, the height of the string 5_ over the guitar body 1 being set in the basic position of the string support 3_ by means of rear adjusting screws 31' . The sliding cover 4_ can be shifted smoothly from the position representing a guitar with frets to the position representing a guitar without frets, while guiding pins 3_2 forming part of the string support 2 are inserted in the side grooves 42 of the sliding cover. The end positions of the sliding cover 4 are given by the bottom grooves 41 for guiding rollers 22_ inserted therein. The sliding cover reaches the end positions in accordance with the abutments 211, 211' limiting the working space on the base plate 2. In the position representing a fretless guitar, the sound characteristic for a fretless guitar is adjusted by means of front adjusting screws 3_1 through the handling openings 4_3 in the cover 4.

Industrial aplicability

The present technical solution may be used in manufacture or modification of electric guitars, particularly electric bass guitars .

List of reference numbers

1 - electric guitar body

2 - base plate

21, 21" - attachment screws

22, 22" - guiding rollers

211, 211' - grooves

212, 212" - abutments

213 - front guiding grooves (of adjusting screws)

213' - rear guiding grooves

3 - string support

31 - front adjusting screws

31' - rear adjusting screws

32, 32' - guiding rollers

33 - string groove

4 - sliding cover

41, 41' - bottom grooves

42, 42' - side grooves

43 - handling openings

5 - string

6 - string holder

Claims

C L A I M S

1. Mechanical device for alteration of sound of electric guitar, at first of all electric bass guitar, characterised in that it consists of a base plate (2) affixed to the original place of the bridge on the guitar body (1) in two places by means of attachment screws (21, 21") and grooves (211, 211") , and, on the base plate (2) , there is a working space limited by abutments (212, 212"), in which there is placed in a row a pair of front guiding grooves (213) and a pair of rear guiding grooves (213") separated by an intermediate space (214) and the base plate body (2) is ^• moreover equipped with guiding rollers (22, 22"), and in the working space of the base plate

(2) , by means of upwards and downwards extending pairs of front and rear adjusting screws (31, 31") in guiding grooves (213, 213") and in the intermediate space (214), there is a sliding string support (3) equipped, on its sides, with guiding pins (32, 32") and, on the top side, with a string groove (33) , the string support (3) being, together with the respective tensioned string (5) , which rests thereon, covered by a sliding cover (4) controlling the sliding of the string support, equipped with bottom grooves (41, 41") for guiding rollers (22, 22") and side grooves (42, 42") for guiding pins (32, 32") and, on the top wall, with handling openings (43) for handling the front and rear adjusting screws (31, 31") of the string support (3) , and this mechanical device is formed on the guitar body for each string separately.

2. Mechanical device according to claim 1 characterised in that the top side of the string support, which comes into contact with the string, is moderately rounded in the direction of the string.

3. Mechanical device according to claim 1 characterised in that the front guiding grooves (213) are, with respect to the level of the intermediate space (214) , deeper than the rear guiding grooves (213').

4. Mechanical device according to claim 1 characterised in that the end positions of the sliding cover (4) are delimited by the bottom grooves (41, 41') for guiding pins (22, 22') and, at the same time, they are in accordance with the abutments (212, 212') delimiting the working space in the base plate (2) .

5. Mechanical device according to claims 1 to 4 characterised in that in the intermediate space (214) , preferably, there are fine grooves formed for the sliding front and rear adjusting screws (213, 213' ) .