Back to results
US 5,182,413 AGranted
Harmonica
OwnerWilliam R. Eppinginventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A harmonica with increased musical range and volume is disclosed. The technique used to produce some of the additional notes is called bending. To increase the musical range of the instrument, the harmonica has four reeds per reed cell. Two of the reeds are traditional blow and draw reeds and the other two reeds are enabler reeds for enabling the blow and draw reeds to both be bent to lower frequencies. All four reeds have check valves which are essential for the enabler reeds to preclude unwanted sympathetic vibration in adjacent cells.
Claims6
A harmonica comprising:
- a multiplicity of adjacent mouthpiece openings;
- a draw reed of a first predetermined pitch associated with each of said mouthpiece openings;
- a blow reed of a second predetermined pitch associated with each of said adjacent mouthpiece openings which is of a different frequency than said first predetermined pitch of draw reed;
- an enabler reed of a third predetermined pitch associated with each of said adjacent mouthpiece openings which is lower in frequency than said first and second predetermined pitches;
- and
- a valve for said enabler reed
- and for said reed which has the higher pitch of said first and second predetermined pitches.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.