The present invention relates to a damper for a piano, which moves into and out of contact with a string in a manner interlocked with operation of a depressed key, to thereby stop and allow vibration of the string, and more particularly to an attachment structure of damper felt which is attached to a damper head.
Conventionally, as a damper for a grand piano, there has been known one disclosed e.g. in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-312272. This damper is comprised of a block-shaped damper head extending in the front-rear direction and two (front and rear) pieces of damper felt attached to the bottom surface of the damper head. The damper head is attached to an upper end of a vertically extending damper wire, and the damper wire is attached to a damper lever extending in the front-rear direction, via a damper wire flange provided at the lower end of the damper wire. The damper lever has a rear end thereof pivotally supported and a front end thereof placed on a rear end of a key extending in the front-rear direction. In a state where the key remains undepressed, i.e. in a key-released state, the damper presses a string associated with the key by its own weight, with the pieces of damper felt held in contact with the string from above.
In the above-mentioned piano, when the key is depressed, the damper lever is pivotally moved upward by the rear end of the key, whereby the damper wire flange and the damper wire are pushed up, moving the damper head upward in unison with the damper felt. As a consequence, the pieces of damper felt move out of contact with the string and then the string is struck by a hammer, whereby the string is vibrated to generate a piano tone. On the other hand, when the key is released, each of the damper lever, the damper wire flange, and the damper wire moves downward, and in accordance with the downward movement, the damper head and the damper felt move downward and return to their respective original positions. As a consequence, the pieces of damper felt hold the string to thereby stop the vibration of the same, so that the sounding of the piano tone is stopped.
In general, an acoustic piano uses strings for respective ones of all pitch ranges from the lowest pitch range to the highest pitch range and dampers suitable for the respective strings. Specifically, in a grand piano, strings are each stretched in a manner horizontally extending in the front-rear direction, and the string is thicker and longer as the pitch is lower. The strings are provided on a key-by-key basis, with a unit of one or two strings for each key in lower pitch ranges and a unit of three strings for each key in middle to higher pitch ranges.
In the damper 11 constructed as above, when the damper 11 moves downward during key release after key depression, the left protrusion 14L of the damper felt 14 is inserted from above between the left string S1 and the middle string S2, and the right protrusion 14R is inserted from above between the middle string S2 and the right string S3, whereby vibrations of the respective three strings S are stopped simultaneously.
However, in the damper 11, shape retention of the damper felt 14 is degraded due to aging, which sometimes causes narrowing of the space between the left protrusion 14L and the right protrusion 14R in the bifurcated shape, as shown in
It is an object of the present invention to provide a damper for a piano, which includes damper felt having a bifurcated shape in association with three strings and makes a space between two protrusions of the damper felt difficult to be narrowed, to thereby enable stable proper sounding stop operation to be performed over a long term.
To attain the above object, the present invention provides a damper for a piano, which moves into and out of contact with three strings extending in parallel with a space therebetween and configured in association with a single key, in a manner interlocked with depression of the key, to thereby stop and allow vibration of the strings, comprising a damper head extending along the three strings in a lengthwise direction of the strings and configured to be movable in directions in which the damper moves into and out of contact with the three strings, and damper felt attached to a side of the damper head, toward the strings, and extending in a lengthwise direction of the damper head, the damper felt having two protrusions which protrude toward the strings in a bifurcated manner and are configured such that the protrusions can be brought into contact with the three strings in a state inserted into respective spaces between the three strings, wherein the damper felt is attached to the damper head such that deformation of the damper felt in which a space between the two protrusions is narrowed is resisted.
With the construction of the damper, the damper felt is attached to the string-side surface of the damper head configured to be movable in directions in which the damper moves into and out of contact with the three strings. The damper felt has the two protrusions which protrude toward the strings in a bifurcated manner and are configured such that the protrusions can be brought into contact with the three strings in a state inserted into respective spaces between the three strings. Further, as described hereinafter, the damper felt is attached to the damper head such that deformation of the damper felt in which the space between the two protrusions is narrowed is resisted. Therefore, the damper of the present invention makes it possible to make the space between the two protrusions of the damper felt difficult to be narrowed, to thereby enable stable proper sounding stop operation to be performed over a long term.
Preferably, an attaching surface of the damper head to which the damper felt is attached has a cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the lengthwise direction of the damper head, which is convex, protruding toward the strings, and the damper felt in a state before attachment to the damper head has a flat attached surface to be attached to the attaching surface.
With the construction of this preferred embodiment, while the cross-sectional shape of the attaching surface of the damper head to which the damper felt is attached is formed convex, protruding toward the strings, the damper felt in a state before attachment to the damper head has the flat attached surface. In a state where the flat attached surface of the damper felt has been attached to the convex attaching surface of the damper head, damper head-side portions of the respective protrusions of the damper felt are in a state pulled toward the damper head. In other words, stress acts on the damper felt in directions opposite to respective directions in which the space between the two protrusions is narrowed. As a consequence, it is possible to suppress narrowing of the space between the two protrusions. Further, the same damper felt as the conventional one can be used, and therefore, it is possible to provide the damper of the present invention while suppressing increase in manufacturing costs by using the existing damper felt.
More preferably, the cross-sectional shape of the attaching surface of the damper head is a V shape, a trapezoidal shape, or an arcuate shape.
With the construction of this preferred embodiment, since the cross-sectional shape of the attaching surface of the damper head is a V shape, a trapezoidal shape, or an arcuate shape, it is possible to easily form the attaching surface of the damper head which is in a convex shape in cross section. Further, when manufacturing the damper head constructed as above, it is possible to obtain a desired type of damper head with ease e.g. by cutting the attaching surface of a damper head having the same flat attaching surface as the conventional one.
Preferably, the damper for a piano further comprises an interposing member to be attached in a state interposed between the damper head and the damper felt, an attaching surface of the interposing member, to which the damper felt is attached, has a cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the lengthwise direction of the damper head, which is convex, protruding toward the strings, and the damper felt in a state before attachment to the damper head has a flat attached surface to be attached to the attaching surface of the interposing member.
With the construction of this preferred embodiment, in the interposing member provided between the damper head and the damper felt, the attaching surface to which the damper felt is attached is formed in a convex shape protruding toward the strings. On the other hand, the damper felt in a state before attachment to the damper head has the flat attached surface. In a state where the flat attached surface of the damper felt is attached to the convex attaching surface of the interposing member, damper head-side portions of the respective protrusions of the damper felt are in a state pulled toward the damper head similar to the preferred embodiment described above. This causes stress to act on the damper felt in directions opposite to respective directions in which the space between the two protrusions is narrowed. As a consequence, it is possible to suppress narrowing of the space between the two protrusions. Further, as a damper head and damper felt, the same types as the conventional ones can be used, and therefore, it is possible to provide the damper of the present invention while suppressing increase in manufacturing costs by using the existing damper head and the existing damper felt.
Preferably, the attaching surface of the damper head, to which the damper felt is attached, is formed flat, the damper felt in a state before attachment to the damper head has an attached surface to be attached to the attaching surface, and the attached surface has a flat portion located in a central part thereof and extending in a lengthwise direction of the dumper head and a pair of left and right sloped portions which are continuous with left and right opposite ends of the flat portion 4b and are sloped downward as the sloped portions extend outward.
With the construction of this preferred embodiment, the attached surface of the damper felt is attached to the flat attaching surface of the damper head. The attached surface has the flat portion located in the central part thereof and the pair of left and right sloped portions which are continuous with the respective left and right opposite ends of the flat portion and are sloped downward as they extend from the flat portion. In a state in which the attached surface of the damper felt, or more specifically, the flat portion and the pair of left and right sloped portions of the attached surface are attached to the flat attaching surface of the damper head, damper head-side portions of the respective protrusions of the damper felt are in a state pulled toward the damper head similar to the preferred embodiment described above. This causes stress to act on the damper felt in directions opposite to respective directions in which the space between the two protrusions is narrowed, whereby it is possible to suppress narrowing of the space between the two protrusions. Further, as the damper head, the same type as the conventional one can be used, and therefore, it is possible to provide the damper of the present invention while suppressing increase in manufacturing costs by using the existing damper head.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing preferred embodiments thereof.
The damper head 2 is made e.g. of wood or a synthetic resin and is formed into a block shape extending in the front-rear direction over a predetermined length (e.g. 40 mm) and having a mountain shape in side view and a predetermined lateral width (e.g. 10.5 mm). The damper head 2A has a bottom surface 2a (attaching surface) of the damper head 2 formed into a convex shape, more specifically, a V shape protruding downward, in cross section orthogonal to the lengthwise direction of the damper head 2, over the entire longitudinal length thereof. Bonded to the bottom surface 2a of the damper head 2 are two (front and rear) pieces of under felt 3 and 3 each made e.g. of red felt and formed with a predetermined thickness (e.g. 1 mm) into a V shape in cross section along the bottom surface 2a. The pieces of damper felt 4 and 4 are bonded to the lower surfaces of the respective pieces of under felt 3 and 3.
Each piece of damper felt 4 extends along the damper head 2 in the lengthwise direction thereof and has a predetermined length which is smaller than half of the length of the damper head 2. Further, the damper felt 4 protrudes downward toward the strings S in a bifurcated shape to form two protrusions (a left protrusion 4L and a right protrusion 4R) such that the protrusions can be brought into contact with the strings S in a state inserted into respective spaces between the three strings S.
As shown in
Now, a description will be given, with reference to
Next, as shown in
As described above, according to the present embodiment, while the bottom surface 2a of the damper head 2 is formed in the V shape protruding downward, the damper felt 4 is formed to have a flat upper surface 4a in a state before attachment to the damper head 2 and is attached to the damper head 2, with the upper surface 4a deformed into the V shape along the shape of the bottom surface 2a of the damper head 2. In other words, the damper felt 4 is attached to the damper head 2 such that deformation of the damper felt 4 in which the space between the left and right protrusions 4L and 4R is narrowed is resisted. This makes it possible to make the space between the left and right protrusions 4L and 4R of the damper felt 4 difficult to be narrowed, to thereby enable the damper 1 to stably perform proper sounding stop operation over a long term.
Further, in a damper 1C according to a third variation shown in
Similar to the damper 1, described hereinabove, each of the above-described dampers 1A, 1B, and 1C makes it possible to make the space between the left and right protrusions 4L and 4R of the damper felt 4 difficult to be narrowed, to thereby enable stable proper sounding stop operation to be performed over a long term.
Although in the first embodiment, the damper 1 is provided with the two pieces of damper felt 4 and 4 each formed in a bifurcated shape as shown in
More specifically, in the damper 1E, the bottom surface 2a of the damper head 2 is formed flat. On the other hand, the upper surface 4a of the damper felt 4 is comprised of a flat portion 4b formed flat and a pair of left and right sloped portions 4c and 4c which are continuous with respective left and right opposite ends of the flat portion 4b and are sloped downward as they extend outward (leftward and rightward, as viewed in
In a state where the upper surface 4a of the damper felt 4 is attached to the bottom surface 2a of the damper head 2 via the under felt 3, the flat portion 4b and the two sloped portions 4c and 4c are flush with each other as shown in
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but it can be practiced in various forms. For example, although in each of the embodiments, the damper for a grand piano is described, it is to be understood that the present invention is also applicable to a damper for an upright piano. Further, in the damper 1 of the first embodiment, the same damper felt as the conventional one having a flat upper surface can be used as the damper felt 4, and in the damper 1E of the second embodiment, the same damper head as the conventional one having a flat bottom surface can be used as the damper head 2. This makes it possible to provide a damper of the present invention while suppressing increase in manufacturing costs by using the existing damper felt or the existing damper head. Furthermore, the construction of details of each of the damper 1, the damper head 2, the under felt 3, and the damper felt 4 in the embodiments is described only by way of example, and it can be modified, as desired, within the scope of the subject matter of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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038639/2018 | Mar 2018 | JP | national |