Abstract:
A carrier with attachment apparatus that allows mounting of large drums where the playing surface of the drum is vertically oriented. The mounting consists of three or more connection points where one or more of the connection points is adjustable for vertical and or horizontal locating on the drum, and the remaining connection points stabilize the drum on the carrier. The apparatus further includes fasteners for at least one of the connection points that allow rigid locking of the drum to the carrier. The rigid locking can be easily secured and released without tools. The rigid locking fastener consists of a threaded J or eyebolt and a locking nut that captures and clamps the J or eyebolt.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This invention relates to a shoulder mounted percussion instrument carrier for large drums or bass drums of various sizes. More particularly, the present invention relates to a carrier for large drums where the face of the drum is mounted vertically. The carrier allows the drum to be rigidly mounted in a variety of positions relative to the user. The mounting consists primarily of a three or more point mounting system.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The prior art discloses examples of carriers with large bass drum holding drum holding apparatus have been patented and used, but none provide the combination of features disclosed and claimed herein.  
         [0003]     Penn U.S. Design Patent No. DES 354,975 issued Jan. 31, 1995 discloses a musical instrument with four retaining points to secure the bass drum onto the carrier. While this patent satisfies the basic requirement of securing the drum onto the carrier, the carrier discloses uses more than three retaining points to secure the drum. When more than three retaining points are used to secure a drum or any object there is the possibility of the points not all being level or even. In addition to the number of mounting points, the carrier has a limited ability to move the drum closer or away from the user. Another limitation with this design is that the attachment of the drum to the carrier is not rigid to allow the drum to be locked into the carrier to reduce or prevent movement of the drum.  
         [0004]     LaFlame U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,144 issued Aug. 12, 1986 discloses a carrier with a single connection point to the bass drum. The single connection point allows the drum to be rotated or spun from a horizontal playing orientation to a vertical orientation and back around. This patent also satisfies the basic requirement of securing the drum onto the carrier, but the carrier does not provide rigid attachment of the drum to the carrier. The single connection point does not allow the drum to be oriented in a fixed orientation. In addition, the single mounting point of the drum to the carrier limits the ability to move the drum closer or away from the user.  
         [0005]     Other patents such as Pyle U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,357 issued Oct. 8, 1991, Austin U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,646 issued Aug. 16, 1994, Augsburger U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,0008 issued Sep. 7, 1999 and Ter Heide U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,955 issued Aug. 1, 2000 all disclose mounting systems for vertically mounted drums where the drum is not mounted to a carrier. These mounting systems consist of a variety of wheeled holders and suspended holders for bass drums. While these holders allow the bass drum to be held or suspended, none of these patents are for supporting the bass drum on a shoulder-mounted carrier.  
         [0006]     Various other configurations such as those currently available from the inventor provide for a three point mounting system for bass drums. In these configurations two top hooks retain the drum and a third fixed bumper reduces some rotational movement of the bass drum when it is attached to the carrier. These configurations also provide the basic function of holding the bass drum on the carrier, but they do not allow for the adjustability of the drum position. They further do not provide a clamping mechanism that allows the bass drum to be locked onto the carrier.  
         [0007]     Various prior inventions have been disclosed that attempt to provide large drum muting apparatus for a carrier, but none of the listed inventions provide a three or more point muting system that can be adjusted and or locked into position. The ideal invention would a minimum of three-point mounting or locating, with an adjustment for the position of the drum relative to the carrier and the user. Additionally the drum carrier would allow at least one of the mounting locations to be locked or secured down to prevent movement of the drum on the carrier. The proposed invention provides these features.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     One of the objects of the shoulder mounted apparatus is to provide a carrier that allows a user to carry and play a large drum while they transport the drum such as when they are walking, marching or moving. The mounting allows for the drum to be maintained in a vertical orientation where the drumheads are oriented in a vertical configuration allowing the drum to be played by beating the sides of the drum.  
         [0009]     Another object of the drum mounting apparatus is to provide a simplified mounting apparatus that requires less than four mounting points to retain the drum. The less than four mounting points allows the drum to be maintained at three points. The three points of mounting allows for a more stable mounting configuration. The three points allows any of the three points to be adjusted independently. The independent adjustment cannot be accomplished using more than three points, because, a plane is defined by three points. While the connection of more than three points can be used, at least one of the connection point will bind when a change is being made to another connection point.  
         [0010]     Another object of the invention is the adjustable single post, or mono postal, connection from the carrier to the bass drum that allows the position of the drum to be varied. Raising, lowering, inverting, sliding, rotating or articulating the mono postal component varies the position of the drum on the carrier. These adjustments move or rotate the position of the drum about the remaining connection points of the drum to the carrier.  
         [0011]     Another object of the invention is a locking component that allows the connections of the drum to be rigidly secured to the carrier. These components allow quick locking and un-locking of the bass drum to the carrier. The locking components consist of hooks and eye bolts with the addition of a hand-threaded fastener that clamps the hooks and eye bolts together.  
         [0012]     Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  is an isometric view of the carrier with a bass drum attached.  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is an exploded isometric diagram of the carrier with the components of the bass drum carrier shown.  
         [0015]      FIG. 3  is a side view of the carrier with a bass drum attached to the carrier.  
         [0016]      FIG. 4  is an isometric view of the mono postal components.  
         [0017]      FIG. 5  is an isometric view of the lock down hardware.  
         [0018]      FIG. 6  is a detailed view of the lock down component shown engaged and with the J bolt and the eyebolt.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is shown an isometric view of the carrier with a bass drum attached. From this figure a bass drum  100  is shown attached to a carrier  200 . The carrier is shown as a tubular constructed instrument carrier. In the preferred embodiment, the carrier is made in tubular construction, but the carrier can be T-bar, vest, a combination of the types listed or another configuration that is capable of retaining the mounting components to retain a bass drum. The carrier shown consists of shoulder straps  210 . The shoulder straps have padding  212  placed in the area that makes contact with the shoulders of the user. The padding provides a cushioning of the shoulder straps to improve the comfort when a person is using the carrier with the bass drum. The shoulder straps can be adjustable or removable to better fit the size of the user. The carrier has a back member  220  attached to the free ends of the carrier. The back member may be adjustable, and or removably attached to the carrier. The back member may also have padding  222  attached to the side of the back member that makes contact with the user. The shoulder straps attach to the front portion of the carrier. The front of the carrier extends down in front of the user and connects to a belly plate  230 . The belly plate curves slightly to wrap around the frontal area of the user and provide a greater area contact. The side of the belly plate that makes contact with the user may also be padded to provide comfort to the user. In the area where the shoulder straps connect to the front of the carrier a connection device is located that allows attachment of a bass drum. This is best viewed in  FIG. 2  that shows an exploded view of the carrier and the attachment components.  
         [0020]     In  FIG. 2  the carrier is shown as a complete assembly with the belly plate  230  not connected to the carrier. The belly plate is shown not attached in this figure to show that the location of the belly plate can be adjusted up or down to accommodate users of different sizes. In the preferred embodiment, at least one attachment mechanism is a J-bolt or a similarly shaped device  300  and  302 . The length of the J-bolts can be varied by replacing the J-bolts with longer or shorter J-bolts or by threading the J-bolts into the carrier to different depths. It is further contemplated that J-bolts of different lengths can be used to tip the drum to one side or the other to accommodate the preference of the user. The belly plate can also be replaced with belly plates of different sizes or shapes to accommodate the different sizes of users. In the preferred embodiment the belly plate is attached to the tubular constructed carrier using threaded hardware. The hardware attaches the belly plate through holes or slots locate in the tubes  240 ,  242  of the vest. If the attachment of the belly plate is with holes, the belly plate is located in finite increments where the holes are located on the tubes. If the attachment of the belly plate is with slots, the belly plate can be loosened on the tubes and slid into an infinite number location to accommodate each user. On the opposite side of the tubes of the carrier a lift base  250  forms a bridge between the tubes  240  and  242  of the carrier. The lift base has two semi-circular openings on each end where the tubes of the vest pass through. Refer to  FIG. 4  to see the semi-circular openings where the tubes pass through the lift base. The lift base is attached to the tubes of the vest using a threaded fastener such as item  254  that clamps the lift base onto the tube(s)  240 ,  242 . The lift base can slide on the tubes of the carrier to locate or position the lift base on the carrier.  
         [0021]     A tube  260  slides into the center portion of the lift base. Two slots  262  and  264  run lengthwise down the sides of tube  260 . These slots provide a guide and a retaining mechanism for the tube on the lift base. The tube can slide on the lift base, and be locked into position on the lift base with hardware such as item  258 . A bass drum support slider  270  is also attached and slides in slots  262  and  264  that exist on the side of tube  260 . The bass drum support slider can be moved on tube  260 , and locked into a fixed position on tube  260  using hardware  272  or similar hardware. The bass drum support slider can be placed onto the tube  260  in either orientation based upon where the user wants to orient the remainder of the pieced of the bass drum support, and where they want to position the bass drum.  FIG. 3  shows a side profile of the bass drum support slider with the narrow portion pointing downward, while  FIG. 5  shows the bass drum support slider with the narrow portion pointing upward. A horn shaped member  280  attaches to the bass drum support slider with hardware such as item  282  and  283 . This hardware allows the two members to pivot with each other and also be locked into position by tightening the nut  283  on the bolt  282   
         [0022]     The horn shaped member  280  is free to rotate on the bass drum support slider. Based upon the location of the bass drum support slider, and the location of the bass drum, the angular relationship between the horn shaped member and the bass drum support slider is established. At the opposite end of the horn shaped member a drum support member  290  is located that provides support to the bass drum. The connection between the horn shaped member and the drum support member is with hardware such as  284  and  285 . This hardware allows the two members to pivot with each other and also be locked into position by tightening the nut  285  on the bolt  284   
         [0023]     On the flat portion of support member  290  a pad or cushion can be attached to reduce movement and damage to the bass drum  100 . This pad cushions the drum if it moves up or down as the user is walking, marching or moving.  
         [0024]     The primary function of components  250 ,  260 ,  270 ,  280  and  290  is to provide vertical and horizontal positioning of the bass drum. This positioning allows the bass drum to be moved up, down, closer and further away from the user. This allows the drum to be positioned in various locations for the comfort of the user. These components consist of a single contact point for the drum. The single contact point is one of three points that make contact with and or secure the drum to the carrier. Two remaining contact points are J-bolts  300  and  302 .  
         [0025]     The J-bolts  300  and  302  connect to eyebolts  410  or similar hardware that connect into the J-bolts. The connection of a J-bolt and an eyebolt is best viewed in  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 . The bass drum has the two eyebolts attached through the shell of the bass drum. The bass drum is attached to the J-bolts on the carrier by positioning the eye bolts over the J-bolts, and “hooking” the eyebolts onto the J-bolts. Once hooked together, the drum is rotated down until it comes in contact with the pad on the support member  290 . The user can slide and position components  250 ,  260 ,  270 ,  280  and  290  to locate the drum in the playing position that the user prefers. Once the drum position is located, a lock-down component  500 , shown in  FIG. 5  is used to secure and further lock movement of the drum. The lock down component hand adjusted component.  
         [0026]     The lock-down component is shown threaded onto the J-bolt, and locking onto the eyebolt in  FIG. 5 . A detailed cross section and an outside view of the lock-down component are shown in  FIG. 6 . From  FIG. 6  the threaded area  520  is located on the inside diameter of the part. A recessed area  530  is located on the backside of the part. On the outside diameter of the part, a knurled surface  510  exists to allow the user the grip part more easily, and provide more torque when the part is tightened. A taper  550  also exists on the part to reduce the possibility of damage to the user or other components of the carrier. In the preferred embodiment just the outside diameter is knurled or roughened, but the tapered area may also be textured to give the user a greater gripping area of the lock down component. The outer edge of the lock down member  540  provides the contact point or points where the J-bolt and the eyebolts are clamped. This is best viewed in  FIG. 5  where the edge  540  of the lock down component  500  is shown pushing the eyebolt  400  into the J bolt  300 . As the J-bolt and the eyebolt are locked into each other motion of the bass drum on the carrier is reduced or eliminated. While a threaded lock down configuration is shown using eyebolts and J-bolts, multiple other mounting and lock down methods can be incorporated including but not limited to sliding locks, spring loaded locks, pinching locks and others. The lock down component can also be a part of the eye bolt and J-bolt where the J-bolt or eye bolt is tapered and as the eye bolt hooks into the J-bolt the J-bolt becomes wider or thicker to reduce movement of the eye bolt.  
         [0027]     The main advantage of this three point mounting of the bass drum is that the mounting provides the most secure mounting of the drum without requiring adjustment of a fourth mounting point or location. If a user wants to re-position the drum, the lock down mechanism in unscrewed down the J-bolt to loosen the lock between the eyebolt and the J-bolt. Once the clamp is loose, the drum can be removed or the position of the drum changed by adjusting the single or mono-postal drum support. Once the adjustment is complete the lock down mechanism is screwed back into position. This can all be accomplished without the use of any tools.  
         [0028]     Thus, specific embodiments and applications for a three point bass drum mounting system has been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.