Yamaha Corporation

Mitsuru Kitajima

Shigeru Muramatsu

Toshiyuki Iwamoto

Koichi Saigo

Ichiro Osuga

Shin Yamamoto

Hirotsugu Suzuki

Yu Yoshizaki

A keyboard device includes: key units each including a coupler and white or block keys coupled to the coupler at their rear ends; and a key frame assembled to the key frame and supporting the couplers stacked on each other. The coupler of one of the key units is provided with a hook having an engaging portion. The coupler of each of at least one other key unit has a through hole at a position corresponding to the hook. The key frame has a through hole at a position corresponding to the hook. The couplers of the key units are secured on the key frame using the engaging portion in a state in which the hook extends through the through hole of the coupler of each of the at least one other key unit and the through hole of the key frame.

Keyboard device

A lever is supported by a lever supporting portion. The lever is urged by a first spring and a second spring. The urging force of the first spring varies over the entire operational range of the lever. The second spring and a third spring are provided serially through a movable supporting member. The displacement of the movable supporting member is restricted by a fixed supporting member. If the urging force of the second spring exceeds the urging force of the third spring, the restriction on the displacement of the movable supporting member is removed. Therefore, the present configuration provides a player with feeling similar to that the player perceives when he manipulates a damper pedal of an acoustic piano.

Pedal apparatus of electronic musical instrument

A keyboard apparatus having hammers each adapted for contact at its mass-unconcentrated half with a lower surface of an initial stopper that restricts initial pivot positions of the hammers, thereby reducing a contact force with which each hammer contacts the initial stopper, whereby the required thickness of the initial stopper can be reduced and height positions of key-depression surfaces of the keys in a non-key-depression state can be made uniform with ease. In the non-key-depression state, the hammers are in contact with the lower surface of the initial stopper mounted to a stopper mounting portion of the frame, whereby initial pivot positions of the hammers in a key-depression forward stroke are restricted and key-depression initial positions of respective keys are indirectly restricted, so that the height positions of key-depression surfaces of the keys are made uniform.

Keyboard apparatus

A keyboard assembly for an electronic musical instrument comprises an integrally formed multikey unit and a keyboard frame. The multikey unit has a plurality of juxtaposed key bodies and is comprised of three subunits, a sharp key subunit, a C-E-G-B key subunit and a D-F-A key subunit, which are complementary to each other to provide a key unit for a complete one octave. The rear end of each of the key body is extended downward to form a deformable thickness-reduced member to allow a vertical swing of the key body when depressed by a player. The thickness-reduced members are connected into a common connecting member to horizontally align the key bodies in the direction of juxtaposition. The keyboard frame has a vertical rear wall member and a rear top wall member both extending in the direction of the key body alignment, and guide ribs connecting the rear top wall member and the vertical rear wall member. In assembling, the common connecting member is first placed over the rear top wall member, thereafter is slid along the guide ribs, and is temporarily held at the correct position just behind the vertical rear wall member, before being fixed to the vertical rear wall member.

Keyboard assembly for electronic musical instrument

A keyboard apparatus made longitudinally compact while ensuring a pivotal motion range of hammers within a limited space. Common base ends, to which main bodies of white and black keys are connected via vertically extending hinges, are stacked one upon another and fastened to a fastening part of a frame. Hammers are each supported on a hammer pivot shaft such that its rear end is moved upward about the pivot shaft in a key-depression forward stroke. The hammers have their rear ends located forward of rearmost positions of visible parts of black keys. The hammer pivot shafts are located rearward of frontmost positions of the visible parts. A plate portion of the frame, on which key switches are disposed, is located forward of the rearmost positions of the visible parts of the black keys and upward of the fastening part of the frame.

A leveris supported by a lever supporting portion. The leveris urged by a first springand a second spring. The urging force of the first springvaries over the entire operational range of the lever. The second springand a third springare provided serially through a movable supporting member. The displacement of the movable supporting memberis restricted by a fixed supporting member FR. If the urging force of the second springexceeds the urging force of the third spring, the restriction on the displacement of the movable supporting memberis removed. Therefore, the present invention provides a player with feeling similar to that the player perceives when he manipulates a damper pedal of an acoustic piano.

A keyboard apparatus configured that heavy loads to support keys and hammers are perpendicularly applied to front-side and rear-side contact portions and the area of a front part of a frame as seen from side can be reduced, thereby suppressing an amount of use of resin. The keyboard apparatus includes a frame integrally formed by resin and mounted with a stopper mounting portion to which an initial stopper is mounted. The frame is supported on a keybed only by front-side and rear-side supporting portions respectively contacting the keybed at locations beneath hammer pivot shafts and beneath key supports. In a longitudinal region between the stopper mounting portion and the front-side supporting portion, the height position of a lowermost part of the frame become higher at a position closer to the stopper mounting portion.

Growing community of inventors

Hamamatsu, Japan

Mitsuru Kitajima