Musical instrument pick with replaceable strap

A musical instrument pick has a flat pick with parallel slots through which an adjustable strap is passed. The strap has a wide portion and a narrow portion. The narrow portion is passed through the slots until a shoulder of the wide portion encounters a slot and prevents further passage of the strap. The strap has hook-and-loop surfaces that allow a user to adjust the strap to a wide range of digit diameters and shapes.

BACKGROUND

Many guitar players choose to use guitar picks to protect their fingers and/or because of the different sounds guitar strings produce when played with a pick instead of with bare fingers. The most widely-used pick design is thin, flat, roughly triangular in outline, and is usually grasped between a player's thumb and forefinger. A player must grasp a pick firmly to hold the pick in position, causing fatigue during extended playing sessions. Perspiration can make a pick slippery, forcing a player to grip a pick even more firmly and thus become fatigued more quickly.

The need to grasp a pick may be avoided by use of a pick that attaches to a player's thumb. A “thumb pick” usually has a rigid or semi-rigid loop that is sized to fit players whose thumb diameters fall within a certain range. The loop is often tapered and contoured so that the loop will slide partially onto a player's thumb, then jam firmly into position. A pick is either riveted onto or molded as part of the loop. Once a pick is too worn to be used the entire assembly must be discarded.

While sizing and contouring may secure a pick on a player's thumb it also limits placement of the pick to a specific position with respect to the end of the player's thumb, thereby limiting the player's range of techniques. Since player's hands vary in size and shape, a loop that is sufficiently rigid to remain securely in place is likely to fit poorly on many players' thumbs.

SUMMARY

A musical instrument pick has a flat pick with a pair of parallel slots having substantially the same length. A narrow portion of a strap is slightly narrower than the length of the slots. A wide portion of the strap is substantially wider than the length of the slots. The strap is passed through the slots until the wide portion pulls up against a surface of the pick, preventing further passage. The wide portion wraps around an instrument player's thumb or finger and the narrow portion wraps around the wide portion, then fixed in place by a hook and loop fastener.

The strap allows easy adjustment to fit any digit. Since the strap is not permanently attached to the pick, either element can be easily replaced if worn or broken. The strap and slot configuration prevents the pick from rotating with respect to the strap. The musical instrument pick can be worn towards the base of the thumb or towards the tip. All of these features and advantages of embodiments of the invention, and more, are illustrated below in the drawings and detailed description that follow.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A musical instrument pick with a replaceable, adjustable strap allows any player to comfortably attach the pick to his or her thumb and to easily replace a worn pick or strap.FIG. 1shows a perspective view of an embodiment of such a musical instrument pick100with a replaceable, adjustable strap120attached to a flat pick110.

A narrow strap portion106passes through a first pick slot102in a flat pick110, back through a second pick slot104, and wraps around a wide strap portion108.FIG. 2shows a top plan view of a flat pick110, which can be made of plastics such as DELRIN® or celluloid, or wood, metal, ceramics, or other materials known in the art. The assignment of first pick slot and second pick slot is arbitrary and the narrow strap portion may be passed first through any slot from either side of the pick. Alternate embodiments may include additional pick slots.

Although the embodiment ofFIG. 2shows a commonly-preferred pick shape, any pick shape can be adapted to the present invention. The first102and second104pick slots are sufficiently separated so that once a strap is installed and the assembly is attached to a thumb, the pick110cannot easily rotate within its plane and become disoriented in the way that riveted thumb picks often do. At the same time, the pick is attached in a region close to its centroid and the edges of the pick110are unencumbered, allowing manipulation of the orientation of the pick110by the player.

FIG. 3shows a top plan view of a replaceable hook-and-loop strap120with a narrow strap portion106and a wide strap portion108. The width of the narrow strap portion106shown inFIG. 3is exaggerated with respect to the typical width of the wide strap portion108. A shoulder302marks the transition point between the narrow strap portion106and the wide strap portion108. The strap120may be cut from a single piece of webbing, fabric, or other flat, flexible material known in the art, or the narrow strap portion106and the wide strap portion108may be made from separate pieces of such material joined together.

The width of narrow strap portion106is slightly less than the width of the first102and second104pick slots. The wide strap portion108is substantially wider than the width of the first102and second104pick slots, so that a strap120may pass through the first102and second104pick slots only until the shoulder302pulls up against a surface of the pick100.

A strip of loop material304is attached to the lower surface308of the strap120. A strip of hook material306is attached to the upper surface310of the strap120. While the strips of hook and loop material shown inFIG. 3are of nearly equally width and cover only central portions of the strap120, in other embodiments the loop material may cover much or all of a surface of the strap120and the hook material may cover much or all of the opposite surface of the strap120. A typical embodiment comprises a wide strap portion108that is much wider than the narrow strap portion106, with loop material covering a surface of the wide strap portion108.

When the strap120is wrapped around onto itself, the hook material306engages the loop material304, temporarily locking the strap120into a fixed loop. Alternatively, the hook material306may be disposed on the lower surface308and the loop material304disposed on the upper surface310. Although any hook-and-loop material suitable for attachment to fabric will suffice, a low profile hook-and-loop material similar to 3M™ DUAL LOCK™ Low Profile Reclosable Fastener SJ4570 creates a less bulky and more flexible strap assembly.

FIG. 4Ashows an initial step in the installation of a pick110on a strap120. The narrow end400of the narrow strap portion106is inserted through the first pick slot102. As shown inFIG. 4B, the narrow strap portion106is pulled through the first pick slot102until the shoulder302pulls up against a surface of the pick110. The narrow strap portion106is then inserted through the second pick slot104and pulled through until taut.FIG. 5shows a top plan view of an assembled pick and strap.FIG. 6shows a bottom plan view of the assembled pick and strap ofFIG. 5. Assembly can be initiated from either side of the pick110and through either pick slot.

Once the pick110and strap120are assembled the musical instrument pick100can be attached to a player's thumb or finger by separating the narrow strap portion106and the wide strap portion108, placing the musical instrument pick100in a desired position along the length of a digit, wrapping the wide strap portion108around the digit, then wrapping the narrow strap portion106around the wide strap portion108so that the hook material306engages the loop material304. Friction between the secured strap120and the player's digit fixes the musical instrument pick100in place until the strap120portions are again separated.

FIG. 7shows a front elevation view of a musical instrument pick.FIG. 8shows a rear elevation view of the musical instrument pick ofFIG. 7.FIG. 9shows a side elevation view of the musical instrument pick ofFIG. 7.FIG. 10shows the musical instrument pick ofFIG. 7attached to a player's thumb.

Embodiments of this invention offer several advantages over existing instrument picks. The adjustable strap120provides “one size fits all” convenience. Since the strap120is not permanently attached to the pick110, either element can be easily replaced if worn or broken. Passing the strap120through parallel slots102,104in the pick110creates a musical instrument pick100that is more stable than many known pick designs by preventing the pick110from rotating with respect to the strap120.

Embodiments of the invention can be worn towards the base of the thumb or towards the tip. This is helpful because different players grip their picks in different ways. Earlier “molded” thumb picks restricted pick placement to a more or less fixed part of the thumb. In an embodiment where the wide strap portion is much wider than the narrow strap portion and the wide strap portion is covered with hook or loop material, the narrow strap portion may be wrapped at an angle across a surface of the wide strap portion, causing the closed loop of the fastened strap to assume a cone shape that may adjusted to conform to different portions of a player's digit. The ability of embodiments of the invention to adjust easily to different parts of a digit allows a player to choose between using the flesh of the thumb tip to strike the bass strings, as is preferred by classical guitarists, or to use the plastic portion of the pick to strike the bass strings, which is more common in blues, country and folk playing.

A player may optionally use embodiments of the invention as a flat pick only. The strap120decreases the likelihood that a pick will be dropped during a performance where excessive perspiration can make a player's grip uncertain. The force necessary to hold the pick is greatly reduced. The use of slots and removable straps allows for different pick thicknesses, sizes and styles to be used with the same strap, making the straps both reusable and interchangeable.

The principles, embodiments, and modes of operation of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing specification. The embodiments disclosed herein should be interpreted as illustrating the present invention and not as restricting it. The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the range of equivalent structure available to a person of ordinary skill in the art in any way, but rather to expand the range of equivalent structures in ways not previously contemplated. Numerous variations and changes can be made to the foregoing illustrative embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.