US2844985A - Quick-change string tuner - Google Patents

Description

C. R. FERRIERA QUICK-CHANGE STRING TUNER July 29, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 6, 1955 Cress/7. Ferriera INVENTOR. 403:.

B aiuw c; FE; FERRIERA QUICK-CHANGE STRING TUNER July 29,1958.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 6.-;1965 V Fig.4

Cress R. Farr/era INVENTOR. @6 41- United States Patent QUICK-CHANGE STRING TUNER Cress R. Ferriera, Coloma, Calif.

Application June 6, 1955, Serial No. 513,187

6 Claims. (Cl. 84-312) The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in a quick-change string tuner for stringed musical instruments, and has reference, in particular, to an electric steel guitar having novel and readily accessible quick-change tuning means etfectually and satisfactorily incorporated therein.

In carrying out a preferred embodiment of the inventive concept, a structurally distinct bridge construction or assemblyis provided. This is set forth herein as bridge means, generally construed, and is mounted in a requisite portion of a specially constructed body adjacent'the tail portion of said body. It is characterized, as will hereinafter be more specifically revealed, by adjustable string anchoring, tuning and quick-change pitch regulating members which are complemental to and operatively aligned with the usual tuning keys at the head end of said body. Specially devised regulable pitch changing selector means is operatively and accessibly mounted on the body rear- Wardly of the bridge means and is characterized by readily variable and trippable elements which are ever-set and handily positioned for efficient cooperation with complemental parts of the bridge means, whereby the pitch of the usual strings may be changed independently of but in conjunction with the stated keys.

Manufacturers, instrumentalists and others conversant with the state of the art to which the instant invention relates are aware that inventors and others engaged in this line of endeavor have evolved and produced varying quickchauge string tuners for guitars and the like. An object of the instant invention is to structurally, functionally and otherwise improve upon known prior art adaptations with a view toward more satisfactorily and effectually solving the problem of which type or form of quickchange string tuner is best and more aptly suitable to meet manufacturing, assembly and repair requirements and, what is more important, the needs of those whose chords and other playing requirements are to rely upon understandable and accurate quick-change results involving the attainment of the desired ends in a matter of seconds during the course of play.

What with the fact that the art under consideration has been explored and partially developed by prior inventors, the present state of the art is generally well known by those immediately concerned therewith. It follows, there- :fore, that the principal purpose of the invention is to fur ther advance the art and to provide the members of the public with a practical, reliable, accurate, well-balanced and seemingly acceptable electric guitar body and complemental quick-change string tuner which will appeal to and be endorsed by all concerned.

Other objects, features and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following description and the accompanying sheets of illustrative drawings.

In the drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a stringed musical instrument, an electric steel guitar, for example, constructed r 2,844,985 Patented July 29, 1958 in accordance with the principles of the present inventron;

Figure 2 is an exaggerated edge elevation of one of the parts which is hereinafter identified as a manually actuatable selector or selector-lever;

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2 looking in the direction of the arrows and showing parts in elevation;

Figures 4, 5 and 6 are enlarged fragmentary sectional and elevational views in which the stringed tuning quickchanging devices are revealed, and wherein the aforeentioned selector-levers are revealed in their several pitch changing positions; and

Figure 7 is a perspective view of one of the bridge assembly members hereinafter specifically treated as an arm.

By way of introduction to the description of the details, it may well be pointed out that the essence of the invention has to do with an elongated body having a substantially flat top, a head portion, a tail portion and an intervening intermediate or body portion, there being a string bridging and supporting nut fixed in the head portion and a plurality of string anchoring and manually regulatable tuning keys operatively mounted in said head portion outwardly of said nut. I provide a plurality of arms and these have upper end portions pivotally mounted in the tail portion, there being one arm for each string. It is significant to note that each arm serves to bridge, tension and anchor its cooperating string. The strings have end portions passing over the nut and adjustably attached to their respective tuning keys in a well-known manner. Median portions of the strings are stretched across the top and the other end portion of the strings are stretched across the pivoted upper ends of the respective arms. The terminals of the strings are secured to and in this manner anchored on their arms below the plane of the pivot points of the arms. This is so that movement of the arms in either direction serves to tension or loosen the strings and consequently to vary the pitch of each string. It will be noticed that the nut and the arms constitute the sole means for supporting and suspending the strings in their playing positions over the top, the tuning keys serving, as usual, to establish the given pitch for each string, said arms cooperating with said tuning keys to effect quick-change tuning needs while the guitar is in use. Novelty is predicated on the construction stated and the bank of optionally adjustable side-by-side selector levers, the latter being pivotally mounted in the tail portion outwardly of the arms. One lever is provided for each arm and each lever is aligned and coplanar with its companion arm and has a handle portion fully exposed but accessible for selective viewing and use. Each selector lever is provided with a head having marginal portions which define and provide circumferentially spaced fiat portions serving as abutments and the abutments are selectively adjustable and progressively engage the cooperating edge portions of their respective cooperating arms whereby each string may be tuned to three separate pitch changes of the diatonic scale. For instance it may be tuned to the normal or given pitch, say A-natural, secondly a half step below to A-fiat, and thirdly, another half step below to B-natural. With this construction the player has at his disposal expeditiously regulatable means on any group of adjacent strings involving an unbroken chain of successive ascending and descending tones of the diatonic scale including the prerequisite sequence of sharps and flats.

Referring now to the drawings, the body of the instrument is denoted by the numeral 10, and it preferably takes the form of a solid maple or equivalent block which in practice has been made from hard maple plies or laminations buttressed and secured together by a 3 special process not necessarily revealed here. Its purpose is to form a rigid durable body, frame, or base on which all of the related parts are mounted. At the head end 12, as shown in Figure 1, there is a fixed nut 14 over which the adjacent ends of the strings 16 are trained. Any number of strings will be employed, but in the instant showing, eight are revealed. To the left of the nut, appropriate recesses are formed to accommodate the mechanism characterized by conventional type tuning keys 18 to which the cooperating ends of the strings 16 are connected. The rear or tail end is denoted by the numeral 20, and it is suitably constructed to include a mound 22. The rear terminal portion of this mound is gradually curved downwardly, as at 24. Formed in this portion of the body are suitably proportioned and shaped recesses 26 contoured as revealed in Figures 4, and 6. A first transverse rigid rod 28 is extended horizontally through the portion 22 where it separately bridges each of the plurality of recesses 26. This rod is a rigidly braced and significant part of the bridge assembly, or, as it is sometimes called, bridge means. The aforementioned members which are contained in the various recesses and depend from the rod are specifically referred to here as arms or levers 30. Each arm is of the construction shown in Figure 7 wherein it will be seen that it is a rigid metal member, the upper end of which is pivoted or hinged on the rod 28. The upper end is here denoted by the numeral 32, and the upper rearward corner portion is arcuately rounded at 34 and is concentric with the axis of the rod 28 and provides the surface over which the adjacent end portions 36 of the complemental string is bridged or trained. Downwardly of the pivot point is a diagonal notch 38, and adjacent thereto, the metal is bifurcated to provide furcations 40. These components 38 and 40 cooperate in providing satisfactory anchoring means for the knotted or equivalent terminal 42 of each string. The upper or rearward longitudinal edge of the arm is flat and linearly straight, as at 44. Supported and properly mounted behind the bridge means of the tail portion is the pitch changing manually regulable selector means, and this is characterized by a second horizontally disposed rod 46 which is on a plane below and parallel with the first named rod 28 and is anchored in the body and spans or bridges the respective recesses 26. This rod 46 provides a satisfactory support for the selector-levers. Since there are eight strings and eight arms 30, there are, obviously, eight selector-levers, that is, one selector-lever for each arm or lever 30. Moreover, each selector-lever is confined for operation in its particular pocket or recess 26. The selector-levers are all the same, and are denoted by the numeral 48. Each is of rigid metal or equivalent material and includes a block-like head 50 having a handle portion 52. The head is confined primarily in the recess, and the handle is accessible and operable in a manner clearly evident from the drawings. The head is concentrically pivoted and is provided around its peripheral or marginal edge with circumferentially spaced stop shoulders which are here described as selectively usable abutments. The main or central abutment is denoted at 54, and the one to the left at 56, and the one to the right at 58. The latter two abutments are preferably provided with projectible and retractible setscrews 60 and 62, respectively, These setscrews are mounted in threaded bores provided therefor, as shown best in Figure 3, the setscrew 60 having a head 64 operable in a socket or bore 66 and accessible for adjustment in the manner shown. In the angularly disposed cooperating bore 68, there is a retainer ball or check 70 which is pressed against the setscrew by a coil spring 72. The setscrew 62 has a similar mounting and is provided with a head 74 accessible by way of the cooperating bore 76. The complemental angularly disposed bore or socket 78 is provided with a coil spring 80 and a ball detent 82.

These spring pressed ball detents provide satisfactory retainers for setscrews after the latter have been adjusted by hand, as is obvious.

Reverting to the bridge means, it is preferred that a single rod or shaft 28 be employed, and its location with respect to the distance away from the nut 14 will be 22 plus, more or less, depending upon the quantity and quality of overtones desired. It is within the purview of the invention to provide one or more arms 30 on said rod. As is clear, the arms 30 are the elements or members to which the ball-equipped ends of the guitar strings are secured in an obvious manner. Any movement of an arm on its pivot shaft or rod 28 will cause a change of tension in the string which said arm also anchors. It is to be particularly noted here that the movement of an arm will not and cannot change the actual length of that portion of the string producing the vibratory tone which in combination with those tones produced by other strings of the same instrument will determine the final tuning of the instrument. It is further to be noted that the same is true because the arc of the rounded surface 34 keeps this distance constant, regardless of the position of the arm. The coplanar and aligned pitch change lever 48 controls every movement of the companion arm 30. The normal positions of the selector-levers 48 are shown in Figure 5. With the selector-lever in this position, the string being controlled by the same must be brought up to its natural pitch, of course, by use of the complemental key 18. The resulting tension of the string will cause the edge portion 44 of arm 30 to seat firmly against the fiat abutment 54 of the selector-lever 48. This same string tension is adequate to hold said selector-lever in any of its three selected positions, but it is not enough to hinder its movement from one position to another, as intended by the player. Now, with both adjustments or setscrews 60 and 62 fully retracted, the selector-lever may be shifted to its forwardmost position, which is the one designated in Figure 4. The pitch of the string will now be more than one full tone below the previously mentioned natura pitch. The pitch of the string is now brought up to exactly one full tone below the natural pitch by use of the adjustment screw 60. Once this screw has been adjusted, it will be held in place by the spring ball detent, as is obvious. The lever 48 may now be moved, to any of the other positions and back again and as many times as it is returned to the forward position, the pitch will be exactly one full tone below the natural pitch, providing the natural pitch remains constant. Variations of the natural pitch will be caused mainly by an increase or decrease in moisture content of the body 10 or a change in room temperature. These variations are naturally compensated for by adjustment of the desired or necessary tuning key 18. Now, the lever 48 may be moved by means of its handle portion 52 to the position shown in Figure 6, and the above adjustment procedure will be repeated, except that the pitch to which the string is adjusted will be only onehalf tone below the natural pitch. Thus, we now have one string capable of producing any one of three pitches by the simple movement of the selector-lever which is easily, as is clear, accessible to the player. Once each of the strings has been tuned in the foregoing manner, no further adjustment of the setscrews should be necessary for the life of the original string. These setscrews are provided mainly to compensate for irregularities in the manufacture of guitar strings. For all practical purposes, once the adjustments have been made, the instrument can be quickly and easily put in tune for a night stand by conventional use of the customary tuning keys. The natural pitch of the string may be defined for purposes here as being the highest tone to which the player prefers to tune a given string. The shape of the head 50 is so calculated that adjustment screws may be extended far enough to cause the position of the cooperating arm to be identical for all three posi tions of the selector-lever 48. This is advantageous in that the strings may be made by many different manufacturers and therefore may be used with equal success here. As already pointed out, the arms 30 and complemental or companion selector-levers 48 are made of hard metal.

The improved contribution to the art here characterized by the novel bridge assembly and selector levers is an improvement over known adaptations and serves to effect a quick change of tuning in a steel guitar. The steel guitars generally thought of today began as a six string instrument similar to a Spanish guitar but were played differently and were identified, and still are, as a Hawaiian guitar. An electric pick-up and amplifier were added to this instrument, and the acoustic type bodies were virtually done away with, and it became known, as here, as an electric steel guitar. As its popularity grew, different ways of tuning the instrument became known, until the average steel guitar player used at least two or three different tunings during a single night performance. To tune an instrument properly is a lengthy and distasteful task, especially when it has to be done in public, as is well known. This started the use of multiple neck instruments, such as those ranging from two to four necks with eight strings each, providing a total, in some instances, of thirty-two strings on one instrument.

It is submitted that a studied consideration of the drawings, specification and accompanying claims will serve to acquaint the reader with the purposes of the invention and the preferred structural adaptations which have been utilized. For such reasons, a more extended description is believed to be unnecessary.

Changes in shape, size and rearrangement of parts which come within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims may be resorted to, if desired, in actual practice.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. An electric steel guitar comprising an elongated body having a substantially flat top, a head portion, and a tail portion, a string bridging and supporting nut fixed in said head portion, a plurality of string anchoring and manually regulable tuning keys operatively mounted in said head portion outwardly of said nut, a plurality of arms having upper ends pivotally mounted in said tail portion, there being one arm for each string, each arm serving to bridge, tension and anchor its cooperating string, a plurality of strings having corresponding ends passing over said nut and adjustably attached to their respective tuning keys, median portions of said strings being stretched across said top and the other end portions of said strings being stretched across the upper pivoted ends of their respective arms and the terminals of the strings being secured to and thus anchored on said arms below the plane of the pivot points of said arms so that movement of the arms in either direction serves to either tighten or loosen the string and vary the pitch of the string, said nut and said arms being the sole means for supporting and suspending the strings spaced in playing positions above said top, said tuning keys serving, as usual, to establish the given pitch for each string, said arms cooperating with said tuning keys to effect quick-change tuning needs while the guitar is in use, and a bank of optionally adjustable side-byside selector levers pivotally mounted in said tail portion outwardly of the arms, there being one lever for each arm and each lever being aligned and coplanar with its companion arm and having a handle portion fully exposed and accessible for selective viewing and use, said levers having abutting and camming contact with their respective arms so thatwhen properly actuated by said levers, the latter serve to adjust the arms and in this manner to either raise or lower the pitch of the particular string which is acted upon.

2. The structure defined in claim 1, and wherein said tail portion is provided with individual recesses each having closely spaced parallel walls, each arm and companion lever being confined for operation between adjacent pairs of said walls, the upper pivoted ends of said arms having arcuately rounded portions over which the cooperating string is stressed and supported.

3. The structure defined in claim 1, and wherein said tail portion is provided with individual recesses each having closely spaced parallel walls, each arm and companion lever being confined for operation between adjacent pairs of'said walls, the upper pivoted ends of said arms having arcuately rounded portions over which the cooperating string is stressed and supported, and each selector lever having a head the marginal portion of which is provided with circumferentially spaced fiat portions providing abutments, said abutments being selectively adjustable and progressively engaging the cooperating portions of their coacting arms, whereby each string may be tuned to three separate pitch changes of the diatonic scale; namely, the normal or given pitch, say A-natural, secondly, a half-step below to A-fiat, and thirdly another half-step below to B-natural, the latter pitch to be a half-tone above the given pitch of the next lower string so as to make available to the player on any group of adjacent strings an unbroken chain of successive ascending and descending tones of the diatonic scale, including the prerequisite sequence of sharps and flats.

4. An electric steel guitar comprising an elongated solid body having an end providing a head portion, an opposite end providing a tail portion and an intervening fiat top portion, a transerve string bridging nut fixed across the top portion at the juncture of said top portion and head portion, said tail portion having at least one pocket-like recess opening through the top portion, said recess embodying closely spaced parallel vertical walls a prescribed distance apart, a first horizontal pivot rod fixed between said walls and spanning an upper portion of said recess, a multpurpose string bridging, tensioning and anchoring arm snugly confined for movement in said recess between said walls, said arm having an upper end pivotally hung on said rod and havng an arcuately conviex porton above the plane of said rod and a string anchoring notch opening through an upper edge portion of the arm just below said rod, that end of the arm at the lower portion of the arm being free to swing in a limited are, a second pivot rod fixed in said walls and spanning the recess outwardlly of and in a plane below said first rod, a lever having a head and handle coplanar with said arm, said head being wholly confined in said recess between said walls and pivoted for limiting swinging movement on said second rod, said handle extending through and beyond the open top of said recess for easy viewing and manual actuation, said head having a marginal edge portion in camming contact with a cooperating portion of said arm, the contact points between said marginal edge and arm being in a plane below said string anchoring notch, at least one tuning key mounted for operation in said head portion and in alignment wth said arm and recess, and a vibratory string having an end adjustably attached to said key, a portion strained over said nut and a portion passing and strained over the convex portion of said arm and a terminal anchored in said notch, whereby the string is supported solely by the nut and arm and may be turned in part by the tuning key and in part by said bridging, tensioning and anchoring arm, the tension of the string on said arm serving to maintain the arm in constant functioning contact with the head of said lever.

5. The structure defined in claim 4 and wherein the marginal edge of said head is provided with circumferentially spaced, selectively usable abutments, that portion of the arm adjacent said abutment being linearly straight and fiat, and said abutments being progressively and selectively cooperable therewith, whereby said string may 7 be tuned to three separate settings of the diatonic scale, one setting serving to provide the normal or given pitch for said string, a second setting serving to detune the string one-half tone, and the remaning setting serving to detune the string a second half-tone.

6. The structure defined in claim 5, and wherein certain of said abutments are provided with projectable and retractable setscrews mounted in bores provided therefor in said head, said bores opening through marginal portons of the head isolated from the abutments so that they are at all times readily accessible for adjustment purposes, and spring-loaded detents operatively mounted in additional bores provided therefor in said head and being engageable with their respective setscrews to assist in retaining the latter in their intended adjusted positions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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