Patent Publication Number: US-6670533-B1

Title: Shoulder rest for violin or the like capable of improving tone quality

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a shoulder rest for violin or the like capable of improving tone quality, and more particularly to a shoulder rest that is fixed to a back of a string instrument, such as a violin or the like, and is able make the musical sound produced by playing the violin or the like even more sonorous and sweeter. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A violin player would usually rest a rear end of the violin on one shoulder bone to bear one chin against the violin while playing it. To reduce the discomfort at the shoulder area being compressed by a hard body of the violin, it is a common practice to place a shoulder rest at a lower rear end of the violin. 
     Such shoulder rest for violin or the like basically includes an elongated base configured for fitly bearing against the player&#39;s shoulder bone, and two spaced binding elements provided at two upper outer ends of the elongated base. The binding elements are separately tightened to outer edges of the violin or the like near the rear end thereof to fixedly connect the shoulder rest to the violin. To enable an ideal timbre effect, the elongated base is generally made of a wooden material, such as rose wood. Meanwhile, since a lower surface of the elongated base is directly pressed against the player&#39;s shoulder bone area, it is a common practice to fixedly attach a layer of air-permeable soft pad to the lower surface of the base, so that the shoulder rest is more comfortable for use. 
     To match with different configurations of violins or the like, as well as players&#39; different preferences, the two spaced binding elements provided on the elongated bases of most currently available shoulder rests have adjusting means assembled thereto in advance, so that the two binding elements may be adjusted to space from each other by different distances depending on the body configuration of the violin or the like and the actual needs in use. 
     Canadian Patent No. 2,262,290 granted to Farha and owned by Canadian firm of The Kun Shoulder Rest Inc. discloses a separating device for the binding elements disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 1,290,961 granted to Kun. 
     However, most existing shoulder rests for violin or the like are designed to enable easy association with the body of the violin or the like and easy adjustment of a distance between the binding elements. All these designs are obviously of little help in terms of the function of violin or the like. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A primary object of the present invention is to provide a shoulder rest for violin or the like that is able to resonate with strings of the violin or the like and thereby making the musical sound produced by playing the violin or the like has even more sonorous and sweeter tone quality. 
     To achieve the above and other objects, the shoulder rest for violin or the like according to the present invention includes at least one elongated base, and binding elements provided at two upper outer ends of the elongated base for fixing the latter to a back of the violin or the like. The elongated base is provided with a plurality of differently sized through holes corresponding to a plurality of strings provided on a top of the violin or the like, and the through holes corresponding to bass strings are diametrically larger than the through holes corresponding to treble strings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a shoulder rest for violin or the like according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 shows the shoulder rest of FIG. 1 is fixed to a back of a violin, wherein a body of the violin is shown with dashed lines in order to show an upper surface of the shoulder rest; 
     FIG. 3 is a rear view of FIG. 2; and 
     FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of FIG. 2 showing the position of the shoulder rest relative to the violin. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to FIG. 1 that is a top perspective view of a shoulder rest for a violin or the like according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the shoulder rest includes a substantially elongated base  10  made of a wooden material, and a layer of air-permeable soft pad  11  fixedly attached to a lower surface of the base  10 . The elongated base  10  is provided at two upper outer ends with two spaced binding elements, namely, a first and a second binding element  21 ,  22 . In the illustrated embodiment, the first and the second binding element  21 ,  22  are adjustable in position relative to the base  10 . That is, the two binding elements  21  and  22  include adjusting bolts  23  and  24 , respectively, which may be selectively locked to any two of one row of through holes provided along the base  10  and thereby locate the binding elements  21 ,  22  at differently spaced positions on the base  10 . 
     The present invention is characterized in a plurality of through holes spaced along the elongated wooden base  10 . In the illustrated embodiment, there are two spaced through holes  30 ,  40  provided on the base  10  to extend from the upper surface to the lower surface of the base  10 . The through holes  30  and  40  have different diameters and are so located that they correspond to an outermost bass string and an outermost treble string, respectively, of a violin or the like. In the illustrated embodiment, the through hole  30  is diametrically larger than the through hole  40 . 
     FIGS. 2 and 3 shows the shoulder rest of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1 is connected to a general violin  50 . The violin  50  includes a plurality of strings  60  provided at a top  51  thereof. The strings  60  are separately fixedly connected at respective front ends to tuning pegs  61  and at respective rear ends to a tailpiece  62 . The strings  60  are also guided through a bridge  63  located on the top  51  at a predetermined point between the tuning pegs  61  and the tailpiece  62 , so as to space from one another at the bridge  63  at fixed intervals. The shoulder rest of the present invention is fixed to a back  52  of the violin  50  by the first and second binding elements  21 ,  22  that have been adjusted and locked to corresponding outer edges of the body of the violin  50 . At this point, all the strings  60  are located above the top  51  of the violin  50 , and the large and small through holes  30 ,  40  pre-formed on the shoulder rest are correspondingly located below the back  52  of the violin  50  by a predetermined distance. Meanwhile, the shoulder rest is so located that the large and small through holes  30 ,  40  are located within an area below the strings  60 . 
     Please refer to FIGS. 2 through 4 at the same time. In the present invention, the above-mentioned large through hole  30  is particularly located at a position below an outermost bass string  70 , and the small through hole  40  below an outermost treble string  80 . Although not always necessary, it is preferable vertical centerlines  71  and  81  of the outermost bass string  70  and the outermost treble string  80 , respectively, pass centers of the large and small through holes  30  and  40 , respectively, as shown in FIG.  4 . That is, a center distance between the large and the small hole  30 ,  40  is preferably equal to a center distance between the outermost bass string  70  and the outermost treble string  80 . 
     Diameters of the large and small through holes  30 ,  40  may be changed depending on different violins. However, it is always necessary for the through hole  30  corresponding to the outermost bass string  70  to be diametrically larger than the through hole  40  corresponding to the outermost treble string  80 . In a feasible embodiment of the through holes  30 ,  40  implemented on a shoulder rest for a general violin, when the through hole  40  is set to 8 mm in diameter, the through hole  30  must be larger than 8 mm in diameter, and may be, for example, 10 mm. 
     With the differently sized through holes formed on the elongated base, the shoulder rest of the present invention is able to resonate with the strings of the violin or the like, and therefore makes the tone quality of musical sound produced by playing the violin or the like even more sonorous and sweeter and effectively upgrades the function of the violin or the like. 
     The present invention has been described with a preferred embodiment thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention as defined by the appended claims.