Abstract: A one piece combination guitar string pick and shoulder strap lock that engages and retains a guitar shoulder strap upon one or more anchor posts affixed to the guitar. The combination pick and strap lock is not a part of the shoulder strap, and is used after the shoulder strap is affixed to the guitar body using standard shoulder strap clasps. The present invention then slides over the anchor post head using the clasp arm assembly and pressing the anchor post past the clasp assembly pinch point until the anchor post head snaps against the back of the anchor post channel in the body member and the anchor post stem is then held firmly by the clasp arm assembly. Another embodiment of the invention supports adding decorative figurines for novelty. Another embodiment supports semi-permanently affixing the present invention to the anchor post with a bolt extension.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a method for determining an optimal piano hammer felt voicing technique for voicing an unvoiced tone in a piano so as to achieve a predetermined standard of tonal quality associated with a given voiced tone using a computer program. The method comprises a) creating a library comprising at least two records wherein each record comprises a transfer function and a voicing technique wherein said transfer function mathematically expresses the effect upon tonal quality of said voicing technique; b) determining the harmonic profile for each of said unvoiced and voiced tones; c) identifying the record in said library that contains the transfer function that is most similar to the voiced transfer function that would be calculated from the harmonic profiles of said unvoiced and voiced tones; and d) disclosing the voicing technique that is contained in said identified record.

Abstract: A power-driven voicing tool simultaneously inserts into and withdraws from the felt of a piano hammer, needles to raise a nap thereon. A row of four needles is driven by two circularly moved cam surfaces on the ends of an assembly rotatable by a variable speed electric motor through a flexible drive cable. One cam surface lies outside the other and drives the external needles of the row of needles; the other drives the internal needles. The slopes of the two cam surfaces are different and one-hundred-and eighty degrees out-of-phase with each other and effect different movements in adjacent needles, one needle moving outward while the other moves inward. A process of inserting a needle while withdrawing an adjacent needle in the felt of the piano hammer, is practiced.