High-mass elliptical cup mouthpiece with conical section for brass musical instruments

Abstract

A mouthpiece for use with brass-wind musical instruments which includes an elliptical cup with conical section internal contour and a high-mass design.

Claims

1. A mouthpiece for a brass-wind musical instrument, comprising: i. an upper section, wherein said upper section comprises an inner wall and outer wall of differing angularity with respect to a longitudinal axis of said mouthpiece forming a concave ellipse; ii. a cup located within said upper portion, wherein: iii. the lower edge of said cup comprises a throat and said cup extends downward partially into said upper section, wherein: a. said throat is located internally centered along the longitudinal axis in said upper section and immediately below and adjacent to said cup; and b. said cup is formed of a single ellipse; iv. a backbore extending immediately downwardly below said throat, wherein the uppermost portion of said backbore extends downwards from the bottom of said cup; V. a semi-circular rim comprising the uppermost point of said mouthpiece; vi. a collar comprising a three-dimensional elliptical structure with a hollow opening situated perpendicular to said longitudinal axis; vii. a shank located immediately below and adjacent to said collar along said longitudinal axis, wherein: a. said shank comprises external left and right sides of equal length and internal sides with a conical section contour forming a hollow opening running parallel to said longitudinal axis, and b. said shank extends from the bottom edge of said collar, wherein said backbore extends to the bottom edge of said shank.

2. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said mouthpiece is constructed of brass, high-density plastic, or other high-mass material.

3. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said mouthpiece is constructed from a solid piece of material.

4. The mouthpiece of claim 1, whereas said cup is in fluid communication with said throat.

5. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said collar is constructed of brass, high-density plastic, or other high-mass material.

6. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said collar is an oval, circular, semi-circular, or rectangular shaped disk.

7. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said semicircular rim is configured to provide a user a tight seal on the lips of a user.

8. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said collar is configured to add high-mass material to said mouthpiece.

9. The mouthpiece of claim 1, wherein said collar is an oval, circular, semi-circular, or rectangular shaped disk.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 depicts a top view of an exemplary configuration of the mouthpiece according to the present invention, and depicts the cup, semi-circular rim, and throat.

(2) FIG. 2 depicts an external side view of an exemplary configuration of the mouthpiece according to the present invention, with high-mass design, cup, rim, collar, shank, and backbore.

(3) FIG. 3 depicts a cross-section of the internal contour and body configuration of an exemplary configuration of the elliptical mouthpiece, with high-mass design, rim, cup, throat, collar, shank, and backbore.

(4) FIG. 4 depicts an external view of an exemplary configuration of the elliptical mouthpiece.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of a, an, and the includes plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

(6) As used herein, the term about in conjunction with a numeral refers to a range of that numeral starting from 10% below the absolute of the numeral to 10% above the absolute of the numeral, inclusive.

(7) As used herein, the term high-mass refers to the actual weight of the mouthpiece relative to the average weight of a standard mouthpiece, which is lower. For example, whereas the mouthpiece of the present invention weighs about 13 ounces, whereas a standard mouthpiece weighs about 5.4 ounces (a 2.4 ratio). The terms mass and weight are used interchangeably.

(8) The invention structure as illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 will be specifically explained in greater detail. The similar numbers contained within FIGS. 1-4 refer to corresponding parts of mouthpiece 100. In one embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 1, mouthpiece 100 comprises throat 20, a cavity called cup 40, with semi-circular rim 10 that is configured for placement of a musician's mouth, comprising a circular inner edge and circular outer edge (see FIG. 1). In an embodiment, throat 20 is defined as the narrowest portion of cup 40 of mouthpiece 100. In one embodiment, the width of throat 20 measures about 11/32 inch. Shading in FIG. 1 is just to differentiate the three different diameters.

(9) The exemplary embodiment in FIG. 2 depicts the front view of the body of mouthpiece 100, that is symmetrical along longitudinal axis LX (see FIG. 4). In this embodiment, mouthpiece 100 comprises semi-circular rim 10, upper section 80, cup 40, collar 90, shank 70, and backbore 50 (FIG. 3). Cup 40 is in fluid communication with throat 20. In one embodiment, mouthpiece 100 comprises passage 30 to throat 20 and backbore 50. In one embodiment, FIG. 3 shows a generally downward-sloping transition curve from the wider to narrower portion of cup 40. In an embodiment, upper portion 80 provides an overall internal cavity that downwardly progresses from a wider portion to a relatively narrower portion in the direction from rim 10 toward collar 90.

(10) In one embodiment, rim 10 is located atop upper section 80, which is immediately followed by collar 90 and then shank 70 forms the bottom-most component. In one embodiment, mouthpiece 100 is about 3 inches long and about 1 inches wide. In another embodiment, mouthpiece 100 is about 3 to 4 inches long and about 1 to 2 inches wide. In another embodiment, shank 70 is configured to be inserted into a brass-wind instrument. In an embodiment, backbore 50 is an opening in shank 70 where mouthpiece 100 fits into a brass-wind instrument. In one embodiment of mouthpiece 100, components are tooled separately. In this embodiment, collar 90 can be connected via a plurality of screws to upper section 80 and shank 70 (not shown). This embodiment enables a user to have different options for collar 90 for different sound effect as desired. In another embodiment, mouthpiece 100 is formed as a single unit.

(11) The exemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 3, mouthpiece 100 comprises upper section 80, with an elliptical cup of radius A1, rim 10, disk-shaped collar 90, shank 70, with a conical section contour A2, and backbore 50. In one embodiment, A1 is an ellipse with a major axis of 1 inches. In another embodiment, collar 90 is an oval, circular, semi-circular, or rectangular shaped disk. Inclusion of collar 90 adds further high-mass material to mouthpiece 100. Collar 90 of different thicknesses provides additional mass to mouthpiece 100. Collar 90 is also configured to afford sufficient surface area to affix markings, including engraving characters or other images onto collar 90.

(12) In one embodiment, upper section 80 is about 1 inches long, wherein rim 10 is about inch thick. In one embodiment, rim 10 is also configured to add a high mass to mouthpiece 100 by increasing the thickness of rim 10. In another embodiment, upper section 80 is about 1 to 2 inches long and rim 10 is about 1/16 to inch thick. In one embodiment, the concave curve A3 of outer wall W1 of upper section 80 is about 36 degrees and the concave curve A4 of the inner wall W2 of upper section 80 is about 33 degrees. In another embodiment, the concave curve of outer wall W1 of upper section 80 is about 30 to 40 degrees. In one embodiment, cup 40 is about 1 inch wide. In another embodiment, cup 40 is about 1 to 2 inches wide. In an embodiment, collar 90 is located immediately below and adjacent to upper section 80 and terminates at shank 70, with shank 70 serving to connect mouthpiece 100 to the desired instrument. In one embodiment, there is 3/32 inches blending in the transfer from the curve of cup 40 to the curve of throat 20. In another embodiment, there is no blending from the curve of cup 40 to the curve of throat 20.

(13) In one embodiment, L2 is the length of collar 90 with respect to outer wall W1 of upper section 80. In one embodiment, L2 sits about 5/32 inches below the outer wall of upper section 80. In another embodiment, the horizontal center line of collar 90 is located about 1/32 to 9/32 inches below the lowest point of outer wall W1 of upper section 80 (not shown.) In one embodiment, collar 90 comprises an elliptical shape, where each side protrudes from underneath upper section 80 at an approximate 33-degree angle (A4) and the concave elliptical sides of collar 90 join shank 70 at an approximate angle of 25 degrees (A5). In another embodiment, the sides of collar 90 protrude from underneath upper section 80 at an approximate 28 to 38-degree angle and the concave elliptical sides of collar 90 join shank 70 at an approximate angle of 20 to 30 degrees. In another embodiment, the sides of shank 70 reside immediately below and adjacent to collar 90 along the longitudinal axis LX of mouthpiece 100. In one embodiment, the vertical sides of shank 70 measure about 1 inches from the top intersection point with collar 90 to the bottom of mouthpiece 100. In an embodiment, shank 70 measures about inch across. In another embodiment, the vertical sides of shank 70 measure about 1 to 2 inches from the top intersection point with collar 90 to the bottom of mouthpiece 100. In this embodiment, shank 70 measures about to about inch across.

(14) In another embodiment, mouthpiece 100 may be formed from any high-mass material, such as brass, high-density plastic, or other high-density material. Mouthpiece 100 may be constructed by 3D printing, lathe turning, casting or any combination thereof.

(15) In an embodiment, FIG. 3 illustrates the cross section of mouthpiece 100. In this embodiment, cup 40 is located within upper section 80. The unique internal contour of mouthpiece 100 is formed as follows: once the curve from the semi-circular mouthpiece rim 10 ends, cup 40 is formed of a single ellipse. In one embodiment, upper section 80 is formed from inner wall W2 and outer wall W1 of differing angularity with respect to the longitudinal axis LX, forming a concave ellipse having internal and external contour with the widest point D. The convex ellipse of the upper section 80 begins and slopes slightly inward, where it meets the larger conical section A2 which starts above collar 90. The remaining sweep of conical section A2 runs through shank 70 and terminates at backbore 50. In one embodiment, the diameter of backbore 50 measures about 7/32 to 15/64 inches. In an embodiment, the thickness between inner wall W2 and outer wall W1 of upper section 80 is of about inch to about inch. In another embodiment, the thickness between inner wall W2 and outer wall W1 of upper section 80 is about to inches.

(16) Thus, exemplary embodiments of a mouthpiece for use with brass-wind instruments have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already 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. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms comprises and comprising should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.