Re: Ball Bearing?

Hi, Sean.  Patent applications must list the inventor properly or the patent is unenforceable during its lifetime (17 years from the issue date at that time)      If Mr. Loar had invented it he would have been listed as such on the application regardless of his whereabouts at the time of filing.  George Altermatt deserves credit for his fine invention or to be posthumously jailed for fraud.  

 I just bought one of these at a local auction (1926 tb-4) and am trying to decide how it will sound with a new 5 string neck.  I strung it up as a tenor and it sounds hollow and weak.  Head is tight (91 on the drum dial).  Anyone have any insight?


On Friday, July 6, 2001 at 8:04:34 PM UTC-4, Sean Barry wrote:
> All here can save a lot of confusion and disagreement if they would check 
> out the original patent application, which is available at the 
> US Patent Office website:
> http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
> or at the Banjo Patent Archives:
> 
> http://banjopatents.com 
> The patent number is 1678456
> The patent application states that the springs and ball bearings function
> to center and support the "resonance ring throughout its length" and leave
> it free to vibrate with the head, instead of being damped by contact with
> the wood rim. Nowhere does it suggest that the springs are intended to
> compensate for head flexibility changes. As Peter and others have stated,
> if the tone ring moved under those circumstances, so would the bridge and
> therefore so would the action. BTW, the ball-bearing ring was a Lloyd
> Loar design, but Loar was long gone from Gibson by the time the patent
> application was filed. It was also the best-made of any tone ring that
> Gibson has ever produced, and note that the design changed a little every
> year that it was used (1924-26). The various rings are not
> interchangeable, and neither is the 1926-specific ball-bearing replacement
> flathead ring made by First Quality Music Supply.
> Sean Barry