Patent Grant
8614383
Lap tapping is a unique guitar or similar string instrument playing style which has been developed by a small number of technically talented guitarists. Although it is a relatively recent playing form, it continues to gain in popularity.
The lap tapping musician holds the instrument flat on his or her lap with the strings face-up, tapping the body of the instrument and strings percussively while playing the melody. Tapping is usually accomplished by the motion of the fingers almost simultaneously plucking the strings and tapping them against the fingerboard of the instrument. Other parts of the instrument, primarily the body, are tapped as well to provide additional percussive effect.
Currently, the lap tapping musician has been limited to the basic instrument, usually the guitar, with its body, strings, and neck/fingerboard. There are no other instrumental options available to enhance the musically experience of lap tapping.
It is thus the object of the present invention to provide an improved lap tapping instrument which integrally incorporates components and accessories, thereby providing the musician with additional percussive options while playing.
These and other objects are accomplished by the present invention, a lap tapping instrument which can take the form of a guitar having a main body, a top surface with a sound hold therethrough, a bottom surface, sidewalls extending between the surfaces, a neck section with a fingerboard, and guitar strings extending over the sound hold and neck section. A percussive member having a series of parallel extending upstanding ridges is permanently secured to the top surface of the main body and an opening located through the sidewall has a connection for interchanging a plurality of different percussive accessories and attaching the accessories to the body of the instrument. The main body also has an optional top side opening into which other percussive accessories can be attached. The accessories are connected to the main body and interchanged with other accessories as the musician's need arise.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention, itself, however, both as to its design, construction and use, together with additional features and advantages thereof; are best understood upon review of the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Lap tapping instrument 1 is shown as a guitar in
Instrument 1 comprises main body 2 having forward end 4, after end 6, top surface 8, bottom surface 10 in spaced apart relation with the top surface, and sidewall 12 extending between the top and bottom surfaces. Sound hole 14 extends through top surface 8 of the instrument. Neck section 16 with finger board 18 extends out from main body 2. Strings 20 connected to main body 2, extend over the finger board and neck section and sound hole of instrument 1.
Percussive member 22 is permanently secured to top surface of main body 2 and, as shown in
As best seen in
For instance, bongo drum accessory 40 has threads 42 designed to threadably engage threads 36 of threaded connector 34 extending from sidewall 12 of main body 2. Other percussive accessories contemplated for connection to threaded connector 34 are castanet accessory 44 with threads 46, egg shaker 48 with threads 50, cabasa accessory 52 with threads 54, and ufo shaker 56 with threads 58. Each of these percussive accessories is interchangeable by threaded engagement with threads 36 of threaded connector 34, extending through opening 26 in sidewall 12.
Instrument 1 can also have opening 60 through top surface 8 of instrument 1, similar to that which was described with regard to opening 26 through sidewall 12. Connection piece 64, similar to connection piece 28, is inserted into opening 60. Another percussive accessory, for instance djembe drum accessory 62 with threads 66 can be inserted into opening 61) and secured by threadable engagement to connection piece 64 in the opening, as has been previously described with regard to the connections of the other percussive accessories.
Cover 70 with circumferential threads 72 is provided to threadably engage connection pieces 28 and 64, to close off the openings 26 and 60 when percussive accessories are not connected to instrument 1.
Lap tapping instrument 1 can thus be utilized alone, or in multiple combinations with various available percussive accessories. This provides greatly enhanced versatility to lap tapping instruments and, consequently, provides the musician with many different sounds and musical options.
While specific percussive accessories have been disclosed herein, this invention is not be considered restrictive to only those percussive accessories. It is contemplated that additional percussive accessories may be connected to the lap tapping instrument of the present invention and utilized in conjunction with the instrument, as described.
Certain novel features and components of this invention, are disclosed in detail in order to make the invention clear in at least one form thereof. However, it is to be clearly understood that the invention as disclosed is not necessarily limited to the exact form and details as disclosed, since it is apparent that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6441293 | LaBarbera | Aug 2002 | B1 |
