Patent Application
20090274330
This invention relates to devices used by musicians and other performers to mount microphones to other equipment, and more particularly, to an apparatus for mounting a microphone to a speaker cabinet so the microphone is maintained in desired proximity to loudspeakers in the cabinet.
Musicians and other performers often use microphones to amplify sound from loudspeakers. While there are a myriad of different cabinets and microphones, typically the microphone is mounted in a clip that is attached to a tripod, and the tripod is placed in front of the cabinet. The tripod may include a flexible gooseneck to assist with positioning of the microphone adjacent the speaker housed in the cabinet, but in any case the musician adjusts the position of the tripod so that the microphone is maintained close to the speaker so that it accurately amplifies the sound.
In many cases there are numerous electrical cords and microphone cables scattered around a stage. This is particularly true where a multi-performer band is playing on stage, where each musician may have multiple instruments, microphones, cabinets and other powered equipment. Numerous cords running around a stage can present all sorts of problems, including tripping hazards. A very common problem occurs with microphones set up on tripods in front of cabinets: performers and others on the stage often trip on the cables or kick them enough to dislodge the tripod so that the microphone is positioned incorrectly relative to the speaker. Tripping can be dangerous to the performer, and improperly positioned microphones degrade the sound quality.
The present invention is a microphone mounting device that is designed to adapt to a cabinet so that a microphone is held in desired proximity to loudspeakers, and so that cables associated with the microphone may be kept out of the way of performers as they move around a stage. The microphone mount of the present invention is defined by an elongate body with arms that grip the cabinet—the body may be extended and retracted to vary the length of the body between the arms. An interface at one end of the body allows a microphone to be positioned adjacent a speaker housed in the cabinet.
The invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will be apparent by reference to the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the following drawings.
A microphone mount 10 according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. As best shown in
Microphone mount 10 is defined by an elongate main body 20, which in turn comprises an outer tube 22 and an inner tube 24 that, as detailed below, is elastically and slidingly telescopic in outer tube 22. Main body 20 defines a longitudinal axis, and as detailed below, the length of main body 20 may be varied to accommodate a variety of cabinet shapes and sizes. Main body 20 has a first arm 26 that extends transversely relative to the longitudinal axis from a first end 28 of main body 20, and a second arm 30 that extends transversely relative to the longitudinal axis from a second end 32 of the main body. A microphone interconnect 34 is removably attached to the second end 32 with a threaded lock nut 36, which is placed at the first end 38 of the interconnect 34. A similar threaded lock nut 40 attaches a microphone clip 42 to the second end 44 of the interconnect. Microphone 12 is removably attached to microphone clip 42. Microphone interconnect 34 is a length of tubing that has an approximately 90° bend midway along its length so that the microphone is positioned adjacent the speaker in the cabinet. The interconnect defines a microphone positioning mechanism that allows variability in the position of the microphone 12 adjacent or proximate to the cabinet. It should be understood that the manner in which microphone 12 is attached to the microphone clip, and the manner in which the microphone clip is attached to the microphone interconnect 34 are not particularly important to the invention defined in the claims, and that there are numerous equivalent structures that may be used in place of these components.
With reference now to
Arm 26 is attached to or near first end 28 of outer tube 22 of main body 20 with a screw 54 that extends through bores formed in the outer tube—the threaded portion of the screw 54 threads into a threaded bore formed in the base portion 46 of the arm. Second arm 30 is attached to an adaptor 56 that has an outer circumference the same as the outer circumference of outer tube 22 and which fits over the second end 32 of inner tube 24 of main body 20. A screw 58 extends through aligned bores formed through adaptor 56 and inner tube 24 and is threaded into the threaded bore in the base portion 46 of the arm to secure the arm to the adaptor and main body. When the arms 26 and 30 are attached to the main body, the gripping members are oriented so that they face one another. Of course, the position of the arms on the inner and outer tubes is somewhat variable so long as the arms are separable when the tubes are slid relative to one another.
Both outer tube 22 and inner tube 24 are cylindrical and the inner diameter of the outer tube is slightly greater than the outer diameter of the inner tube. As such, inner tube may be inserted into the outer tube, and the inner tube is longitudinally and axially slidable in the outer tube. A pair of diametrically opposed longitudinal slots 60 and 62 is cut into inner tube 24. When the inner and outer tubes 22 and 24 are assembled as shown in
An elastic cord 70 is contained in main body 20 and has one end 72 attached to screw 54 and the opposite end 74 attached to screw 58. The elastic cord is sized so that when microphone mount 10 is in a resting position—that is, when pin 64 is abutting ends 68—the cord is under slight tension to retain the inner tube in a retracted position in which pin 64 is abutting the proximate ends 68 of slots 60 and 62. It will be appreciated that as inner tube 22 is moved in the direction of arrow A in
The inner surface of second end 24 of inner tube 22 is threaded, as is the first end 38 of microphone interconnect 34. Threaded nut 36 is threaded onto the first end 38 of the interconnect 34, and the nut 36 is then threaded into the threaded inner surface of adaptor 56 to lock the interconnect relative to main body 20. The rotational position of the interconnect 34 relative to main body 20 may be changed by loosening threaded lock nut 36, rotating the interconnect to the desired position, and then tightening the nut. The microphone clip 42 and the second end 44 of interconnect 34 is attached to the interconnect in a similar, conventional manner. It will be appreciated that pin 64 extending through slots 60 and 62 prevents inner tube 24 from axially rotating relative to outer tube 22, and thus maintains the positions of arms 26 and 30 relative to one another. It will also be appreciate that other geometrically shaped inner and outer tubes may be used in place of the circular shaped tubes shown in
The components described above are shown in an exploded view in
The overall length of microphone mount 10 between arms 26 and 30 may be varied so that the mount may be attached to most commercially available cabinets. In
To attach microphone mount 10 to a cabinet 14, the inner tube is pulled outwardly to an extended position (
An alternative embodiment of a microphone interconnect 34 according to the present invention is shown in
It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the microphone mounts described above may be modified in certain equivalent respects without departing from the scope of the invention. As one example, the main body may be defined by flat rods that are movable relative to one another as opposed to tubular members that have like cross sectional configurations. As another example of an equivalent apparatus, the elastic cord could be replace with a mechanism such as a thumb screw that fixes the position of the inner and outer tubes relative to one another, and thus defines means for fixing the length of the mount body between the two arms. These and other modifications are contemplated by the invention.
While the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill that the spirit and scope of the invention is not limited to those embodiments, but extend to the various modifications and equivalents as defined in the appended claims.
