Patent Publication Number: US-8525015-B2

Title: Sound effect pedal

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONS 
     This invention relates to adapting a conventional sound effect pedal that is battery powered pedal to one that is powered from conventional AC power source. In particular it relates to providing an adapter for converting a conventional battery powered petal to one powered from an AC source without physically changing any part of the structure of the original pedal and can readily change back to a battery powered one. 
     At the present time, there are modern sound effect pedals that have a built in jack for being connected to a “on line” AC power source, and very many older battery powered sound effect pedals in use for string instruments that start draining power from the battery as soon as the cable from the string instrument is plug into the the sound receiving jack of the pedal. As a result, with battery powered devices the voltage starts dropping and after a time, for example an hour, the sound emanating during the use when playing the instrument is adversely effected. Further, after use for a few hours, the battery has to be replaced which can be relatively costly over time. The older pedals can be modified by drilling a hole into the pedal housing for connecting an on line source to power the petal internal circuitry. However, older pedal can be worth quite a bit, for example, about two to twelve hundred dollars. Drilling a hole into the housing can substantially decrease the value of the pedal. 
     In order to provide novel structure (adapter) for modifying a battery powered sound effect pedal to one that is powered from a conventional AC power source without making a physical change (without modifying) the battery powered pedal, for example, such as drilling hole in its housing, this invention has been made. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The sound effect pedal includes a conventional pedal housing, a convention pedal base, and an adapter intermediate the base and housing that mounts an adapter cord having a power inlet jack which is electrically connected to an adapter connector that is connectable to a battery type terminal connector that is snapped onto the terminals of a pedal battery for powering conventional pedal circuitry. The pedal circuitry is mounted in the hosing. 
     One of the objects of the invention is to provide new and novel means for converting a battery powered sound effect petal to one powered by an electrical AC power source. A further object of this invention is to provide a new and novel adapter that is removable mountable between the housing and base of a convention sound effect pedal for converting the convention sound effect pedal from a battery powered one to one powered from a convention AC source without making any physical changes to the conventional base and cover. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of the sound effect pedal of this invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a front view of the adapter of the sound effect pedal of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a fragmentary cross section view of the adapter that is generally taken along the line and in the direction of the arrows  3 - 3  of  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the sound effect petal of  FIG. 1  with a vertical intermediate portion broken away, said view being generally taken along the line and in the direction of the arrows  4 - 4  of  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a side view of the sound effect pedal of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is fragmentary top view of the adapter and base; and 
         FIG. 7  is a somewhat diagrammatic showing of the components for powering the pedal circuitry and connecting the string instrument to the amplifier. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to the drawings, and in particular to  FIG. 1 , there is shown the sound effect pedal of this invention, generally designated  10 , in a disassembly condition. The pedal  10  includes a convention open bottom, generally rectangular housing H, a conventional, generally rectangular base B and screws (not shown) for removably securing the base directly to the housing when being used as a conventional battery powdered pedal. The housing mounts conventional pedal circuitry  12  that is shown by a dotted line block in  FIG. 7  and is connected to a sound output jack  14  that is mounted by the side wall  17  of the housing and is connected to a sound input jack  19  that is mounted by the other side wall  20  of the housing. A push button  21  that is operably connected to the pedal circuitry is mounted on the top wall  11  of the housing that upon being push down by a foot results in changing the emitted sound effect while control knobs  23  and  24  are mounted by the top wall  11  and connected to the ciruitry for selectively changing sound effects provided by the circuitry. Further, a snap on battery terminal connector  15  is connected to the circuitry for powering the circuitry and can be snapped onto the battery terminals of, for example a  9  volt battery (not shown), the connector having snap on contacts  15 A,  15 B for being snap on the respective negative and positive terminals of a battery (not shown) for powering the conventional pedal. 
     For converting a conventional DC powered sound effect pedal such as described above, there is provided an sound effect adapter A of this invention. The adapter includes a generally rectangular adapter frame, generally designated  25 , that is open at the top and bottom (see  FIG. 1 ). The frame has a perimetric bottom notch  29  to receive the perimetric flange  28  of the base to facilitate the alignment of the adapter with the base during assembly. Further, the frame side walls  27  have upper flanges  31  extendable into notches  32  in the housing, the rear wall  44  has a rear flange  44 A extendable into housing rear wall notch (not shown) and the flanges  33 ,  33 A of the front wall  43  extendable into the housing notches  34 . 
     Since the adapter frame front wall  43  is of a greater height than the rear wall  44  and the perimetric bottom edge  43 A of the frame wall is substantially planer, the adapter side walls  27  are trapezoidal whereby the top wall is sloped to make it easier for the user using a foot for operating the button  21 . In each corner portion of each of the base and adapter there is provided a bore  37  and  38  respectively extended therethrough for having screws  39  extended therethrough and threaded into bores  40  of the housing for retaining the housing, adapter and base in an assembled condition. Since the housing bottom perimetric edge  32 A is planar and the base flange perimetric top edge is planar with the planes being parallel in a convention pedal assembly position, screws (not shown) are of a shorter length than screws  39 . However, when the housing, adapter and base are in an assembled condition, the central axes of the housing bores are not coaxial with those of the adapter and base and accordingly the bores of the adapter are sufficiently large and the base bores have upper bore portions are of smaller diameters than lower bore portions with screw heads extend therein to permit the screws  39  extending at a slight different angles than when the short screws are used to assemble the base directly to the housing. 
     The adapter frame front wall  43  includes an upward opening, generally U-shaped slot  41  with a similarly shaped groove  41 A to have the rectangular jack mount  45  of the adapter power cord, generally designed  50 , slidably mounted therein. The jack mount top edge abuts against the housing and mounts the inlet DC power jack  49  of the cord. Leads  51  connect the power jack to posts  52   a ,  52   b  of the adapter connector  52  that form a snap fit with the contacts  15 A,  15 B of the connector  15 . 
     A conventional power source power cord P has a plug  55  pluggable into the adapter jack  49 , a cable  53  connecting the plug to a transformer  57  that has prongs  57 A that can be plugged into a conventional wall socket (not shown) of an on line AC power source. The transformer provides a step down DC voltage suitable for operating the pedal circuitry. A cable  58  has a plug  58 A that is plugged into the jack  19  to connect the musical stringed instrument  59 , for example an electric guitar, for transmitting sound to the pedal circuitry while a cable  70  has a plug  70 A that can be plug into jack  14  for transmitting sound from the pedal circuitry to the amplifier  71 . 
     With the connector  52  connected to connector  15  to transmit power from cord P and the power cord plug  70  plugged into an “on line” source of AC power and the plug  58 A is plugged into jack  18 , the circuitry  12  is energized (starts drawing power). The sound emanating from the string instrument, for example an electric guitar or the like, and broadcasted by the amplifier is modified by depressing the push bottom  21 . The modification is depended on the circuitry provided in the housing. It is to be understood that a number of pedals with modifications in the their respective circuitry can be mounted to a pedal board to provide different sound effects. Further the pedal of this invention may have a conventional foot pedal (not shown) mounted to the housing for depressing the push bottom. 
     It is be understood the size and shaped of the adapter depends the model of the conventional DC powered pedal that is to be modified to be an AC powered one without damaging the DC powered pedal housing and base. Further, it is to be understood the housing, base and adapter may not have cooperating notches and flanges although it is preferred they do to facilitate assembly. In the event the conventional DC battery powered pedal is of a type that has its top wall sloped downwardly relative its bottom edges, than the adapter of this invention to be used therewith could have its front wall of a height that is the same as the height of its rear wall for converting the battery powered pedal to one that uses a cord P instead of a battery for powering the pedal circuitry.