US3595118A

US3595118A - Guitar pick

Info

Publication number: US3595118A
Application number: US855859A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ande Dale Paxton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1969-09-08
Filing date: 1969-09-08
Publication date: 1971-07-27
Anticipated expiration: 1988-07-27

Abstract

A pick made of thin, flat, stiff but springy plastic sheet material which is gripped between thumb and forefinger when picking or strumming the strings of a guitar. A noncircular aperture is located adjacent the butt end of the pick and acts as a female spline to resist rotation of the pick between the thumb and finger gripping the same. A slit or slot in the clip provides access to said aperture for admitting a guitar string thereto and thus attach the pick to the instrument and prevent separation of the pick and the instrument when the latter is not being used. The invention also provides means for storing a reserve supply of several picks right on the guitar in a manner which does not interfere with playing the latter.

Description

United States Patent Primary ExaminerRichard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner- Lawrence R. Franklin AnorneyDana E. Keech ABSTRACT: A pick made of thin, flat, stiff but springy plastic sheet material which is gripped between thumb and forefinger when picking or strumming the strings of a guitar. A noncircular aperture is located adjacent the butt end of the pick and acts as a female spline to resist rotation of the pick between the thumb and finger gripping the same. A slit or slot in the clip provides access to said aperture for admitting a guitar string thereto and thus attach the pick to the instrument and prevent separation of the pick and the instrument when the latter is not being used. The invention also provides means for storing a reserve supply of several picks right on the guitar in a manner which does not interfere with playing the latter.

PATENTED JUL2 7197:

lNl/E/VTOR.

l/V35 DALE PAXTO/V ATTORNEY.

comm PlCK SUMMARYQF THE INVENTION It is the universal, practice in playing a 'guitar'touse a pick made of thin, flat, stiff but springy plastic sheet material which is gripped between the thumb and forefinger of the player. this pick having a pointed portion which is applied to the strings of the guitar in picking -or strumming the same. The pick is gripped so that this pointed portion extends approximately one-half inch from between the thumb and forefinger and flexes relative to the portion gripped between the thumb and forefinger as the pick passes over a string. One of the difficulties of using such apick is the tendency ofthe latter to rotate in the plane of the pick between the thumb and forefinger. This is caused by the fact that the friction between the thumb and forefinger and the pick is frequently inadequate to prevent such slipping. A number of expedients have been developed to prevent such rotation of the pick, one of which'is to provide the latter with a cork surface, at least on one side of the pick, which will provide'sufficient friction between this and the thumb or the forefinger toprevent rotation of the pick. v j

It is an important object of the present invention to provide a guitar pick embodying an improved means for effectively retarding the tendency of the pick to rotate between the thumb and forefinger gripping the same.

Although a pick is as essential as the guitar itself when it comes to playing the latter, it is a small and easily lost item and a guitar player frequently finds the pick has been lost when he gets ready to play his guitar.

lt is another important object of the present invention to provide a novel guitar pick embodying means for attaching the pick to the guitar so that the pick will not become separated from the guitar when the latter is not in use and thereby assure that a pick will always be available when one takes up the guitar for playing the same.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel guitar pick embodying means for securing the pick to the guitar of such a nature as to facilitate several picks being readily secured to the guitar in a position on the latter in which said picks will constitute a reserve supply of the same ready for use but, until used, remaining in storage while incorporated with the guitar itself in a position thereon in which said supply of picks does not interfere in any way with the playing of the guitar.

A yet further object of the invention is to provide those improvements in a guitar pick having the objects aforesaid all of which are embodied in the pick itself comprising solely an entity die cut from a strip of thin, flat, stiff but springy plastic sheet material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic fragmentary perspective view of the head portion of an electronic guitar illustrating the manner in which several guitar picks of the present invention may be stored on. said guitar to furnish an always available reserve supply of picks, without interfering in any way with the playing of said guitar.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic perspective view in full scale of a preferred embodiment of the invention applied to two strings of a guitar, one of which strings is an outside string.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing a modified form of the invention with the latter applied to a single outside string of a guitar so as to cause said string to capture said pick and retain the same assembled with the guitar when the latter is not in use.

FIG. 4 is a full scale plan view of the pick shown in FIGS. l and 2.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of the pick shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 and illustrates how said pick is gripped in different areas between the thumb and forefinger of the player for rendering the pick more flexible or less flexible and how. when the pick is gripped in each of two substantially different areas, a means is embodied in thepick for resisting rotation of the latter between the thumb and forefinger. i

2' DESCRlPTlON or rna PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings as comprising a guitar pick 10 which is preferably die cut fromwa sheet of thin, stiff but springy plastic'material, approximately 0.032 inches in thickness, and has a shape as clearly shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 5. The pick 10 may vary in size but is preferably about 1 3/16 inch in length and 74-inch wide. The pick includes a butt end portion 11 and a pointed end portion 12, the'butt end portion being gripped between a thumb and forefinger for applying the pointed end portion to a guitar string. it is a common practice in playing a guitar toapp'ly the thumb and forefinger to'an' area of the butt end portion of the'pick-whichis relatively close to the pointed end portion of the pick for picking the strings with a maximum force and to apply the thumb and forefinger to an area relatively distant fromthe pointed end portion in order to ick the strings relatively lightly. In FIG. 5 the areas to which the thumb and forefinger are appliedin these two positions are indicated respectively by dotted line 13 and dashline 14.

The butt end portion of the. pick 10 of the present invention preferably has an arcuate end edge l5'with a relatively deep V-shaped notch 16 formed in the center thereof. The butt end po'rtion'of the pick to is also provided with a centrally located aperture 17 which is connected to'the apex of the notch l6 by a narrow slot 18. The aperture 17 is approximately triangular in outline with straight converging

side edges

19 and 20 and with its upper edge on opposite sides of the slot 18 concavely arched to form recesses 21 which terminate where theyjoin with the lower end of slot 18 in barbs 22.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention employs a slot 18 to connect the notch 16 with the aperture 17 in which opposite sides of the slot do not contact each other, although very close together, it is obvious that the invention is not limited to a slot being employed in this portion of the invention as a normally closed slit in the material of the pick 10, and corresponding in location to the slot 18, will be equally effective for the purposes of the invention.

The conformation of the pick 10 of the invention, as above described, divides the material of the butt end portion ll of the pick on the longitudinal axis of the latter from the extremity of the butt end of the pick to the bottom end of the a erture 17. The barbs 22 are thus provided on opposed jaws 23 located on opposite sides of the slot 18 which jaws normally lie in the plane of the pick 10 but which are adapted to be flexed in opposite directions from said plane by applying the pick 10 to a wire so that this wire enters the V notch l6 and presses against the jaws 23 so that a slight twisting of the pick 10 will cause these jaws to be deflected out of the plane of the pick and thereby admit said wire through the slot 18 and into the pick aperture 17. This having been done, the twisting pressure on the pick may be relaxed causingthe jaws 23 to return to their normal position in the flat plane of the pick 10 thereby trapping the wire in the aperture 17 and preventing the separation of the pick 10 from said wire until the pick is again flexed relative to the wire so as to bring pressure of the latter to bear in opposite directions on the

side edges

19 and 20 of the aperture 17 thereby springing the jaws 23 apart and widening the slot 18 so that the barbs 22 will pass on opposite sides of the wire trapped in the aperture 17 as the pick 10 is withdrawn from said wire. The wire is thus freed from being trapped in the aperture 17 of the pick 10 and the pick 10 is readily removed from said wire.

After the pick 10 has been applied to a single wire as above described and while said wire is still trapped in aperture 17,

the pick may also be applied to a second guitar wire adjacent to the first as shownin FIG. 2. Thus the pick 10 will be secured to the guitar by two of the guitar wires being trapped in aperture 17 of the pick. The pick 10 of the invention may be applied to almost any one or two wires in the guitai at any portion of the guitar where these wires are exposed for manipulating the pick into trapping relation with such one wire or two wires of the guitar.

The present invention has the additional merit of permitting a reserve supply of picks to be thus applied to two wires of a guitar in the head of the latter as shown in FIG. 1 so that this group of picks 10 is snugly held by said wires against accidental displacement from the guitar. This is accomplished in an area outside of the vibrating range of said wires so as not to interfere in any way with the playing of the guitar. Removal of one of the picks 10 from group 25 is readily effected by slipping the outermost pick in the group endwise on the two wires trapping the same and then rotating the pick thus separated from the group about said two wires so as to permit a twisting of the pick to deflect the jaws 23 apart and thus facilitate the removal of said pick from said two wires.

Referring again to H6. 5, it is to be noted that when the pick 10 is gripped between the thumb and forefinger with the area of contact between the thumb and forefinger and the pick substantially as indicated by dotted line 13, the skin of the thumb and forefinger is pressed into the aperture 17 and into the area of the V-notch 16 so that said aperture and notch individually and collectively form a female spline interlocking with the skin of the thumband forefinger so as to effectively resist inadvertent rotation of the pick in the plane of the latter between the thumb and forefinger gripping said pick. It also is evident from this view that when the area within which the pick 10 is gripped between the thumb and forefinger is shifted to the position indicated by dash line 14, a substantial portion of the aperture 17 plus all of V-notch 16 are located within said area so that the resistanceof the pick 10 to rotation between the thumb and forefinger gripping the same is still effective.

While the aperture 17 ofthe guitar pick 10 ofthe present invention is preferably approximately triangular, the invention is not to be understood as being limited to said aperture having precisely this shape. A modified form of pick is illustrated in FIG. 3 having an aperture 17' which is heart-shaped. the pick 30 otherwise being identical with the pick 10. This view also illustrates the manner in which the pick of the present invention may be secured to a guitar merely by trapping a single wire of the guitar in the wire trapping aperture thereof.

1 claim: l. A symmetrical guitar pick comprising: a piece of thin, flat and stifi but springy sheet plastic material, said pick having at one end of its axis of symmetry, a pointed portion for picking a guitar string, and at its opposite end a blunt portion providing a pick gripping area, an aperture provided on said axis approximately in the middie of said gripping area said aperture readily permitting the thumb and forefinger to meet together within said aperture and expand against the edges of the latter, when gripping said pick in said area, to prevent said pick slipping from the player's grip, and an axial passage connecting the middle of said blunt pick end portion with said aperture, said aperture being sufficiently large to permit flexing apart of the edges of said passage to readily admit a guitar string through said passage and into said aperture, said passage being normally sufficiently narrow to trap said string in said aperture when pressure on said pick is relaxed. 2. A guitar pick as recited in claim 1, wherein: said aperture has a noncircular outline so as to function as a female spline relative to the skin pressed into said apermm from a thumb and forefinger between which said pick is gripped to effectively resist inadvertent rotation of said pick in the plane of the latter between said thumb and forefinger. 3. A guitar pick as recited in claim 2, wherein said aperture has the approximate shape of a triangle.

4. A guitar pick as recited in claim 3, wherein:

said access passage is relatively short and connects at its outer end with a relatively deep V-notch formed in the adjacent edge of said pick, and wherein said V-notch falls largely within said gripping area of said blunt end portion of said pick, thereby contributing substantially to preventing rotation of the pick between the thumb and forefinger while said pick is in use.

Claims

1. A symmetrical guitar pick comprising: a piece of thin, flat and stiff but springy sheet plastic material, said pick having at one end of its axiS of symmetry, a pointed portion for picking a guitar string, and at its opposite end a blunt portion providing a pick gripping area, an aperture provided on said axis approximately in the middle of said gripping area said aperture readily permitting the thumb and forefinger to meet together within said aperture and expand against the edges of the latter, when gripping said pick in said area, to prevent said pick slipping from the player''s grip, and an axial passage connecting the middle of said blunt pick end portion with said aperture, said aperture being sufficiently large to permit flexing apart of the edges of said passage to readily admit a guitar string through said passage and into said aperture, said passage being normally sufficiently narrow to trap said string in said aperture when pressure on said pick is relaxed.

2. A guitar pick as recited in claim 1, wherein: said aperture has a noncircular outline so as to function as a female spline relative to the skin pressed into said aperture from a thumb and forefinger between which said pick is gripped to effectively resist inadvertent rotation of said pick in the plane of the latter between said thumb and forefinger.

3. A guitar pick as recited in claim 2, wherein said aperture has the approximate shape of a triangle.

4. A guitar pick as recited in claim 3, wherein: said access passage is relatively short and connects at its outer end with a relatively deep V-notch formed in the adjacent edge of said pick, and wherein said V-notch falls largely within said gripping area of said blunt end portion of said pick, thereby contributing substantially to preventing rotation of the pick between the thumb and forefinger while said pick is in use.