The invention relates to musical instruments, and in particular, to cases for musical instruments.
When transporting a guitar, it is useful to place the guitar in a case. Such a case protects the guitar from impact and provides a place to store paraphernalia that is used when playing a guitar, such as picks, tuners, tuning bars, and spare strings.
Known guitar cases have devices that assist in carrying the case. Such devices include a handle as well as straps to enable the guitar to be carried on one's back.
In some cases, guitars are deceptively heavy. For example, although the body of a solid body guitar is small, it is quite dense and heavier than it appears. For this reason, it is preferable to be able to roll the case instead of carrying it.
Aside from the weight of the guitar itself, another difficulty that arises with carrying a guitar on one's back is that the guitar's neck is long. This is particularly true for a bass guitar. As a result, the top end of the case can be higher than a person's head. It is thus easy to accidentally hit such objects as door's head jamb, a low-hanging chandelier, or, in particularly unfortunate cases, a rapidly spinning electric fan.
To avoid this difficulty, certain guitar cases have been made with wheels, much like wheeled luggage. However, known wheels are inconvenient to use and somewhat fragile.
In one aspect, the invention features a chordophone case with a wheel assembly. The chordophone case has opposed front and rear faces with corresponding front and rear anchors attached to the chordophone case's corresponding front and rear faces. A shoulder harness is attached to the rear face. The wheel assembly features a fork mount having a base and first and second sidewalls that project from the base in a projection direction that forms an acute angle relative to the base. An axle, which has a wall mounted thereon, extends between the sidewalls. The wheel assembly also includes a frontward strap and a rearward strap. The frontward strap has an anchored end and a free end, the anchored end being attached to a front edge of the base. The rearward strap has an anchored end and a free end, the anchored end being attached to a rear edge of the base. The frontward strap's free end is configured to be attached to the front anchor and the rearward strap's free end is configured to be attached to the rear anchor. The frontward strap and the rearward strap have lengths selected such that when the free ends are attached to the respective attachment points, the base is parallel to the rear side of the chordophone case.
Embodiments include those in which the free end of the frontward strap includes an attachment face having a touch fastener disposed thereon to permit the attachment face to fasten to itself. Examples of such touch fasteners include a hook-and-loop fastener and a hook-and-pile fastener.
In other embodiments, the free end of the rearward strap is attachable to the rearward strap by a touch fastener disposed on an attachment face of the rearward strap.
Also, among the embodiments are those in which the front anchor includes a strap and a loop. In such embodiments, the strap includes an anchored end that is attached to the front face and a free end that is attached to the strap after having been passed through the loop.
Still other embodiments include those in which the rear anchor includes a loop that is attached to the rear face and those in which the front anchor includes a loop that hangs from the front face by a variable distance.
In some embodiments, the wheel assembly is one of a pair of identical wheel-assemblies, the front anchor is one of a pair of identical front-anchors, the rear anchor is one of a pair of identical rear-anchors. The front-anchors are offset on either side of a line that bisects the chordophone case along a longitudinal axis thereof and the rear anchors are also offset on either side of the line.
Embodiments include those in which the frontward strap is attached to the front anchor and the rearward strap is attached to the rear anchor and those in which the frontward strap is detached from the front anchor and the rearward strap is detached from the rear anchor.
In still other embodiments. the wheel assembly extends from front anchor to the rear anchor and covers a portion of the footing.
Among the embodiments are those in which the wheel includes polyurethane, those in which the wheel includes nylon, those in which each of the straps includes polyester webbing, and those in which each of the straps includes a hook-and-loop fastener.
In other embodiments, the base includes a front slot extending along a front edge thereof and a rear slot extending along a rear edge thereof. In such embodiments, the anchored end of the frontward strap is attached to the frontward strap after having passed through the front slot and the anchored end of the rearward strap is attached to the rearward strap after having passed through the rear slot.
Also, among the embodiments are those in which the first and second sidewalls project in a rearward direction along which the rearward strap extends.
Yet other embodiments include a loop. In such embodiments, the free end of the frontward strap loops through the loop. When the wheel assembly is connected to the front anchor, a free end of the front anchor loops through the loop.
Still other embodiments are those in which the rearward strap is longer than the frontward strap.
These and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and its accompanying figures, in which:
These and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying figures, in which:
Within the drawings, the same or corresponding reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.
The illustrated case 10 includes a handle 12, a front face 14, and a footing 16 separated from the body by a seam 18. The guitar case 10 further includes a pair of front anchors 20 that are offset on either side of a midline that bisects the guitar case 10.
Each of the front and rear anchors 20, 26 has an anchored end 28 and an attachment end 30. An anchor's anchored end 28 attaches to the chordophone case 10 and an anchor's attachment end 30 is used for attaching the front or rear anchor 20, 26 to a wheel assembly 32, which is best seen in
In the illustrated embodiment, the front anchor 20 comprises a front-anchor strap 34 having a front-anchor-strap proximal end 36 and a front-anchor-strap distal end 38. The front-anchor-strap proximal end 36 has been sewn into the seam 18 at the front anchor's anchored end 28. The front-anchor-strap distal end 38 passes through a front loop 40 and is then sewn onto a distal portion of the front-anchor strap 34, thus forming a loop. This loop secures the front loop 40 to the front-anchor strap 34 and forms the front anchor's attachment end 30.
In the illustrated embodiment, the rear anchor 26 comprises a rear-anchor strap 42 having a rear-anchor-strap proximal end 44 and a rear-anchor-strap distal end 46. The rear-anchor-strap proximal end 44 has been sewn onto the rear face 22 at the rear anchor's anchored end 28. The rear-anchor-strap distal end 46 passes through a rear loop 48 and is then sewn onto a distal portion of the rear-anchor strap 42, thus forming a loop. This loop secures the rear loop 48 to the rear-anchor strap 42 and forms the rear anchor's attachment end 30.
As shown in
Referring now to
As shown in
While a variety of dimensions can be used, in some embodiments, the values of L1, L2, L3, and W shown in
As used herein, a “touch fastener” includes such fasteners as hook-and-loop fasteners and hook-and-pile fasteners. Such touch fasteners are configured to temporarily fasten two surfaces by application of pressure and to cause surfaces thus fastened to become unfastened by application of a force in a direction opposite to that of the force that was used to apply the pressure.
The frontward strap 52 has an anchored end 82 and a free end 84. The frontward strap's anchored end 82 is passed through the front slot 70 and stitched to itself to form a permanent loop. This permanent loop anchors the frontward strap 52 to the fork mount 50. The frontward strap's free end 84 has a touch fastener 86 on an attachment face 88 thereof. The frontward strap's free end 84 is passed through the front loop 40 and fastened to itself to form a detachable loop. This forms a detachable connection with the front face 14 chordophone case 10.
The fork mount 50 comprises a first sidewall 90 and a second sidewall 92. The first sidewall 90 and the second sidewall 92 extend away from the base 60 along a direction that forms an oblique angle relative to a plane defined by the base 60 and in the direction along which the rearward strap 54 extends. As shown in
In some embodiments, the wheel 58 comprises polyurethane or nylon with a hub that comprises a thermoplastic polymer such as polycarbonate or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and the various straps 34, 42, 52, 54 comprise polyester webbing. Because of its greater ruggedness, the use of polyurethane is particularly advantageous for use outdoors on potentially irregular and rougher rolling surfaces.
The chordophone case 10 is thus transformable between a wheeled state and an unwheeled state. To transform the chordophone case 10 into the wheeled state, one simply attaches the frontward and rearward straps 52, 54 to the corresponding front and rear anchors 20, 26 on the chordophone case 10. To transform the chordophone case 10 into the unwheeled state, one detaches the frontward and rearward straps 52, 54 and stows them in a convenient location they will be readily available. With the wheel assembly 32 having been thus removed, it is possible to use the shoulder harness 24 without the discomfort that may arise from the presence of the wheel assembly 32. The resulting multi-modal chordophone case 10 can thus be transported using the shoulder harness 24, the handle 12, or the wheel assemblies 32.
In the illustrated embodiment, the touch fasteners 78, 86 are part of the wheel assembly 32 and the front and rear loops 40, 48 are part of the front and rear anchors 20, 26, respectively. However, in alternative embodiments, the touch fasteners are on the front and rear anchors 20, 26 and the front and rear loops 40, 48 are part of the wheel assembly 32. In a broad sense, the wheel assembly 32 is one that can be attached to and detached from the front and rear anchors 20, 26 with a level of ease that is comparable to that associated with attaching and detaching a strap from a briefcase.
The illustrated embodiment is a chordophone case that is specific to accommodating a guitar and similar lute-like instruments, including a banjo, a bass guitar, a cello, and a contrabass.
It is to be understood that the foregoing description is intended to illustrate and not to limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the appended claims. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Application No. 63/221,097, filed on Jul. 13, 2021, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in it's entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2022/036164 | 7/5/2022 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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63221097 | Jul 2021 | US |