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Vibrato tailpiece for guitar

  • US 5,196,641 A
  • Filed: 02/21/1992
  • Issued: 03/23/1993
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/21/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In an electric guitar, the combination comprising:

  • a guitar body having a top surface,a neck attached to said guitar body and extending outwardly therefrom, said neck including a nut at its outer end and a tuning head located outwardly of said nut and carrying a plurality of tuning devices,a vibrato tailpiece attached to said guitar body and having a base and a plurality of saddles carried by said base, said saddles each having an upwardly facing string supporting surface located above and near said top surface of said body,a number of strings each attached to said tailpiece base and extending from said tailpiece base over the string supporting surface of a respective one of said saddles and over said nut to a respective one of said tuning devices which is manually operable to stretch the associated string between itself and said tailpiece base to apply a selected tension force to the string for tuning purposes,said vibrato tailpiece being attached to said guitar body by means permitting said base thereof to move relative to said guitar body about a pivot axis located below said strings and extending in a direction generally parallel to said top surface of said guitar body and perpendicularly to said strings so that the tension forces applied to said strings by said tuning devices tend to rotate said base about said pivot axis in one direction of rotation,a spring means connected between said tailpiece base and said guitar body for biasing said tailpiece base about said pivot axis in the direction of rotation opposite to the direction of rotation urged by the string tension forces, said tailpiece therefore having a fundamental positioned determined by the counteracting forces applied to it by said strings and by said spring means at which fundamental position said strings carry fundamental tension forces and have fundamental pitches,said vibrato tailpiece also including a manually operable actuating arm attached to said base allowing a player to manually apply additional forces to said tailpiece base to rotate said tailpiece base in one direction or the other about said pivot axis to vary the tension forces and pitches of said strings from their fundamental values,the range of movement of said tailpiece base by said actuating arm being such as to include positions of said tailpiece base at which said strings become free of tension forces and can move loosely relative to the string supporting surfaces of their respective saddles,the string supporting surface of each of said saddles having a dimension extending perpendicularly of said strings approximately equal to the diameter of the associated string and each of said saddles further having means defining guide surfaces extending upwardly on either side of its string supporting surface to restrain the associated string to movement to the same position on the string supporting surface of its saddle each time it moves from a tension-free condition to a tensioned condition as a result of operation of aid actuating arm,each of said saddles including a wall extending upwardly relative to said guitar body top surface, and said string supporting surface of each saddle and said guide surfaces of each saddle being provided by a hole through said upwardly extending wall of said saddle through which hole the associated string passes.

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