Patent Publication Number: US-2006006038-A1

Title: Extendible musical instrument cable

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to electrical cables. More specifically, the invention is an extendible musical instrument cable for connecting musical instruments to an amplifier or other sound equipment.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Electric and electronic musical instruments, such as electric guitars, electronic keyboards and synthesizers, and numerous other kinds of instruments, are commonplace, along with associated electronic equipment including amplifiers, speakers, public address (PA) systems, microphones, recording equipment, and a litany of other devices.  
      Electrical cables interconnect instruments and associated electronic equipment. Most typically, an electronic musical instrument is connected to associated electronic equipment with a cable having a male phone plug at each end. For example, an electric guitar has a phone jack within its body, and a phone jack is disposed on the housing of an amplifier. The male phone plug at one end of a cable is plugged into the electric guitar, and the male phone plug at the other end of the cable is plugged into the amplifier.  
      It is desirable to provide a musical instrument cable of sufficient length to accommodate a variety of equipment arrangements or setups, from equipment arranged across a large stage to equipment stacked at close quarters in a small recording or rehearsal studio. However, excessive lengths of cable present problems in that the excessive cable may be unattractive, may be prone to entanglements, and may present a tripping hazard as excessive lengths of numerous cables accumulate. Loose cables must be coiled for storage or transportation after use.  
      It is, therefore, desirable to provide musical instrument cable along with a means for storing and organizing the cable. A simple solution is to provide an elongated cable coiled about a spool, whereby an appropriate length of the cable for a given use is uncoiled from the spool. The length of unused cable remains coiled on the spool. However, the task still remains to manually uncoil a desired length of cable from the spool, and then manually recoil the cable back onto the spool.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,324, issued on Jun. 15, 1971 to A. Renndorfer et al., discloses a cable reel having a length of cable terminated at a free end with a plug for connection into a socket or receptacle of a remote device. The reel itself has a female electrical receptacle in connection with the cable. This represents a common configuration of cable reels that function in an “extension cord” manner, receiving the plug of a cord or cable in the receptacle and providing a length of cable that may be removed from the reel to extend to the remote device.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,497, issued on Dec. 15, 1987 to J. Smith, discloses a self-storing cord and reel assembly for shielded cables. The assembly has a housing that contains a spring-biased cable reel. A length of cable is coiled about the reel such that the cable may be pulled from the reel against the spring bias. A ratchet mechanism locks the reel in place, allowing an amount of cable to be removed from the reel. The ratchet mechanism is releasable to allow the cable to be rewound onto the reel by the spring. Thus, a length of cable may be pulled from the reel, and rewound automatically by the spring. As with the Renndorfer device discussed above, connection is made to the cable by a female receptacle disposed in the housing and in electrical connection to the cable.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,833, issued on Sep. 30, 1997 to M. Edwards et al., discloses a retractable coaxial cable device having a length of coaxial cable that is extendible from a reel disposed within a housing. The cable is rewound using a hand crank, and the device includes an electrical connector fixed to the housing for connection to the coaxial cable.  
      Such “extension cord” type cable reels are disadvantaged, however, by the need to provide an extra cord for connection to the cord reel. Because a typical musical instrument cable has a male phone plug on each end, it is desirable to have a cable reel configuration that includes, instead of a female receptacle, a length of cable having a male phone plug for compatibility with musical instrument connector ports.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,487, issued on Jun. 22, 1999 to M. Leatherman, discloses a retractable cable system featuring multiple cable retractors within a single, rack-mountable housing. Each of the individual cable retractors contains an electrical cable having a fixed end and a retractable end, the fixed ends of each of the retractors extending from the housing for connection to a nearby fixture, such as a rack mounted public address (PA) system. While such a retractable cable system is well suited for its intended purpose in providing retractable cables for a rack-mounted equipment environment, it is disadvantageous for a single performer or for a distributed arrangement of musical instruments and electrical accessories because of its relative size and weight.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,080, issued on Sep. 9, 2003 to B. Edwards et al., discloses a retractable cord device for an earphone used with a cell phone. The device provides two separate spools for earphone and connector ends of a cord.  
      None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, an extendible musical instrument cable solving the aforementioned problems is desired.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The extendible musical instrument cable comprises a housing having a pair of parallel sidewalls and a peripheral wall defining, preferably, a flat cylindrical housing. An opening is defined in the peripheral wall. A mounting loop is disposed on the housing, preferably located on the peripheral wall. A cable reel is rotatably mounted between the sidewalls of the housing, the cable reel being spring-biased in a first rotational direction. A ratchet assembly controls the rotation of the cable reel in a direction opposite the first rotational direction.  
      A fixed length electrical cable extends from one of the sidewalls. One end of the fixed length electrical cable is terminated with a male phone plug for connection to a musical instrument or to a piece of electronic equipment, while the other end is electrically connected to an extendible electrical cable coiled about the reel. A free end of the extendible electrical cable extends through the opening on the peripheral wall of the housing, and is terminated by a male phone plug.  
      The extendible musical instrument cable allows for connections between electric and electronic musical instruments and associated electronic equipment without the need for additional adapter cables. The mounting loop allows the extendible musical instrument cable housing to be secured to, or adjacent to, a musical instruments or associated electronic equipment so that as the extendible cable is pulled from the housing, the fixed cable end is not pulled from its connection to the musical instruments or associated electronic equipment.  
      These and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an extendible musical instrument cable according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the extendible musical instrument cable according to the present invention, the spring being omitted.  
       FIG. 3  is a section view drawn along lines  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 .  
       FIG. 4A  is a perspective view showing the contact side of a contact ring insert for a sidewall of the extendible musical instrument cable according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 4B  is a perspective view showing the wiring side of the contact ring of  FIG. 4A . 
    
    
      Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.  
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      The present invention is an extendible musical instrument cable, referred to generally as  10  in the drawings. Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the extendible musical instrument cable  10  comprises a housing  20  containing an extendible cable  50  coiled about a reel  30 . A free end  52  of the extendible cable  50  extends from an opening  28  defined in the housing  20 , and is terminated with a phone plug  54 . A fixed cable  40  having a free end  42  that is terminated with another phone plug  44  extends from the housing  20 . The fixed cable  40  is in electrical connection with the extendible cable  50 . A mounting loop  70  is disposed on the housing  20 . In use, the extendible musical instrument cable  10  is connected between a musical instrument and an associated piece of electronic equipment, or between two pieces of equipment. Typically, the phone plug  44  on the fixed cable  40  is plugged into a phone jack of an amplifier or PA system, and the extendible cable  50  is extended to a desired length, the phone plug  54  at its free end  52  being then plugged into a musical instrument, such as an electric guitar. The mounting loop  70  allows the housing  20  to be anchored to a point near the phone jack, preventing the phone plug  44  from being pulled free from its connection as the extendible cable  50  is pulled from the housing  20 . The mounting loop  70  is preferably pivotally mounted to the housing  20  so that the housing  20  may be anchored in a variety of orientations.  
      Turning now to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the extendible musical instrument cable  10  is shown in greater detail. The housing  20  comprises first and second sidewalls  22 ,  24  and a peripheral wall  26 , the walls defining a housing  20  having generally a flat, cylindrical shape. The housing  20  is assembled from two mating halves  21   a ,  21   b , each of the mating halves  21   a ,  21   b  having a sidewall and a peripheral edge  25   a ,  25   b , the peripheral edges  25   a ,  25   b  together forming the peripheral wall  26  when the mating halves  21   a ,  21   b  are joined. The mounting loop  70  is disposed on the peripheral wall  26  of the housing  20 . An opening  28  is defined in the peripheral wall  26 . A reel  30  is rotatably mounted between the sidewalls  22 ,  24 , the reel  30  holding a length of electrical cable.  
      The reel  30  has a first sidewall  32  and a second sidewall  33 , both of the sidewalls  32 ,  33  being circular. The sidewalls  32 ,  33  are separated by an outer hub wall  34  and an inner hub  36 , there being a hollow hub interior  35  defined between the inner hub  36  and the outer hub wall  34 . An axle  38  extends through the inner hub  36 , and the reel  30  is rotatably supported within the housing  20  by the axle  38 . A spring  60  is disposed within the hollow hub interior  35  in connection with the reel  30  and with the axle  38 , whereby the spring  60  is wound as the reel  30  is rotated in a first direction.  
      A releasable ratchet assembly controls the rotation of the reel  30  in a second direction, opposite the first direction, unwinding the spring  60 . The ratchet assembly includes a ratchet gear  62  disposed on the inside face of the first sidewall  22  of the housing  20 , and a spring-biased pawl  64  disposed on the outer surface of the first sidewall  32  of the reel  30 . It can be understood that as the extendible cable  50  is pulled from the reel  30 , the reel  30  rotates winding the spring  60 , thereby increasing the rotational bias on the reel  30 . The ratchet assembly holds the reel  30  in place until released, allowing the length of the extendible cable  50  to remain extended. When the ratchet assembly is released, the spring  60  causes the reel  30  to rotate to rewind the extendible cable  50  onto the reel  30 .  
      A pair of concentric circular slip ring contacts  66  are disposed on the outer surface of the second sidewall  33  of the reel  30 , and are in electrical connection with a pair of wiper contacts  68  disposed in the inside surface of the second sidewall  24  of the housing  20 . The extendible cable  50  is electrically connected to the slip ring contacts  66 . In the illustrated embodiment, the slip ring contacts  66  are disposed on a removable insert portion  72  of the second sidewall  33  to facilitate wiring of the device. The removable insert portion  72  is shown in greater detail in  FIGS. 4A and 4B . Wiring terminals  74  extend through the removable insert portion  72  to the slip ring contacts  66 . The individual conductors  56  of the extendible cable  50  are connected to the slip ring contacts  66  via the wiring terminals  74 .  
      The fixed cable  40  extends from the second sidewall  24  of the housing  20 , the fixed cable  40  passing through a small aperture in the second sidewall  24  of the housing  20 . Wiper contacts  68  are disposed in the inside surface of the second sidewall  24  of the housing  20 . The fixed cable  40  is electrically connected to the wiper contacts  68 , thereby bringing the fixed cable  40  and the extendible cable  50  into electrical connection.  
      It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.