Patent ID: 7390951
Filing Date: 2008-06-24
Classification: G10G

Abstract:
1. A universal mount for acoustically coupling a musical instrument tuner to an instrument, comprising: a tuner sphere with a center point fixed to the tuner; a link adapted and arranged to have selectable loose and fixed states, with the link including complementary first and second clamping halves joined by a compression element; with an opposing pair of curved surfaces on a tuner end of the link, one of said pair of curved surfaces being on a tuner end of the first clamping half and the other curved surface being on a tuner end of the second clamping half, the curved surfaces at the tuner end disposed to grip the tuner sphere under compression imposed by the compression element when the link is in the fixed state and to release the tuner sphere for relative swiveling motion about the center point of the tuner sphere when the link is in the loose state; a clamp connected to a clamp end of the link for acoustically coupling the link and tuner to the musical instrument; with the compression element being a threaded fastener extending through the clamping halves; and with the threaded fastener including a shaft with an abutment surface at one end adjacent one clamping half of the link, a male-threaded central section, a female-threaded nut engaged with the central section of the shaft and adjacent the other clamping half of the link, the nut fixed against rotation relative the other clamping half, and an E-clip engaged with the other end of the shaft, such that the E-Clip prevents the shaft and nut from being be completely disengaged, and the fixed state of the link is selected by turning the shaft relative the nut in one direction to bring the abutment surface and nut into contact with their respective clamping halves, and the loose state of the link is selected by turning the shaft relative the nut in the other direction.