Violin or the like shoulder rest
OwnerJoseph Kuninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A violin or the like shoulder rest is disclosed, wherein the transverse inclination of the elongated base (12, 61) relative to the clamping forks (15, 16, 93, 102) is limited to an angle of about 5.degree. to about 25.degree. to reduce the likelihood of damaging the instrument by inadvertently impacting the bottom of the violin with the edge of the base of the shoulder rest. A preferred embodiment provides the advantage of transfer of load forces from the clamping forks (93, 102) to the base (61) through bearing caps (89, 100) rather than by way of pivot pins (87, 88, 98, 99), to allow substantial reduction in size of the pivot pins. In a particularly preferred embodiment, rectangular blocks (82, 95) are pivotable each within a complementary cavity provided in the respective post at the end of the base.
Claims11
A shoulder rest for a violin or viola, comprising an elongated base having an underside and two opposed ends, said elongated base being formed to conform to a user's shoulder, a pair of clamping members secured to the base, one at each of said ends thereof, for clamping the shoulder rest to a respective violin or viola by engaging opposed side portions thereof;
- each of said clamping members including two spaced apart clamping elements complementary with side portions of the respective violin or viola and an intermediate support means disposed between the clamping elements of each of said clamping members, for engaging a bottom portion of the respective violin or viola, said intermediate support means being complementary with and defining a support plane;
- clamping member securement means for securing a respective one of the clamping members to the base, said clamping member securement means including a pivotal joint disposed between each of said clamping members and the base and allowing pivotal movement of the respective one of the clamping members relative to the base about a longitudinal axis generally parallel with an elongation of the base to thus allow adjustment of a transverse inclination of the underside relative to the support plane, the shoulder rest further comprising stop means operatively associated with the pivotal joint to limit said pivotal movement in both a clockwise and a counter-clockwise direction, characterized in that the stop means is adapted to limit pivotal movement to an angle of a range of about 5.degree. to about 25.degree., said range of about 5.degree. to about 25.degree. being so disposed relative to said underside and said support plane that, when the underside and the support plane are generally parallel to each other, the support plane is disposed within said range of about 5.degree. to about 25.degree., whereby a maximum pivotal movement of the underside relative to the support plane is 25.degree. or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.