Monday, October 12, 2020

What do Eddie Van Halen and Thomas Edison have in common?

Did you know that Eddie Van Halen is an inventor?  He is named on three utility patents and two design patents.  The design patents are pretty easy to understand.  One claims the design of a guitar peghead, the other claims the design of a guitar pickup.

Two of the utility patents are a little more complicated.  One claims an apparatus for adjusting the tension on the strings of a musical instrument.  The other claims a humbugging pickup.  Whatever that is.

The third is my favorite.  It claims an apparatus that lets you play a stringed instrument tilted 90 degrees upward from how you normally hold it.  I like it not because I want to jam out perpendicularly, but because it has the most rock n roll figure I've ever seen in a patent.

Rest in peace Eddie Van Halen, guitar superhero and patent rockstar.


23 comments:

TR said...

I spent all of my teenage years trying to jam perpedicularly.

zman said...

zson decided to vomit all over the place at 2:00 am last night so both zkids are wfh today. This does not bode well for any of my scheduled meetings.

rootsminer said...

Nice work Z. Hope Zkids let you be productive today.

rob said...

at this very moment, packages containing things are flying around the u.s., destined to make gheorghies happy and their friends confused. still need address info for danimal, donna, and dave (triple d!). send to batogato15 at gmail dot com.

Donna said...

You're so kind, Rob, to include me. I'm a gheorghie by extension :-). This blog makes me laugh and provides helpful info even (car advice!) - what could be better?!
Sending you my info via email. Hope the mental health day was great! That's awesome, by the way, that your company understands how important supporting folks is.

TR said...

Did Clara Benet ever get back to you?

rootsminer said...

Clara just cares about book promotion. She's not into the community here.

Dave said...

i believe it's "humbucking" pickups-- although i like the sound of "humbugging" pickups. single coil pick-ups are crisper sounding, humbuckers darker and mid-range and bluesy-- there's some kind of field cancellation with humbuckers. many guitars have both and you can switch between them.

zman said...

RIP Joe Morgan.

Whitney said...

Hernia surgery today. Got here at 7am. Still here. Plenty of pain and drug induced wooziness and nausea. Now they need me to pee or I can’t leave. It’s like a twisted form of beer bash. I’ve been trying for 3 hours. Bladder is numb from general anesthesia. Fingers crossed for a stream soon! Or they may implement the c-word... catheter. Yiddit.

Not that any of you wanted to know...

TR said...

We all care. Your urethra is our urethra.

Mark said...

Sous vide for the first time at home tonight. Doing bone in pork chops. I’m not big on pork chops because it’s so hard to do them right but everything I’ve ready says doing them sous vide is dam bear fool proof. Wife a blue compote to go with them. I’m excited.

TR said...

Is dam bear related to cocaine bear?

Whitney said...

I just made it rain. I’m free!

rob said...

little worried about mark's wife being a blue compote. probably more dangerous than whit's hernia.

rootsminer said...

Congrats on the golden shower whit. Heal well, friend.

Whitney said...

Thanks, good people. I’m home now in a pretty Amount of pain since it’s been 8 hours since the pain pill. But I’m home.

rob said...

our friend from colorado might've left you something that'll help

Mark said...

Fuck you all. Or not, that’s a lot of mistakes. Sous vide pork chops were fantastic.

TR said...

I had a hernia operation when I was 11 months old. It was the downside of having such a magnificient scrotum as an infant. I had a visible scar until the zeroes grew in.

Jamboni said...

Much of this performance from Drew Brees is strongly resembling Donovan McNabb, circa 2010.

TR said...

Jamboni comes off the top rope with a backhanded compliment. Brees was hot garbage in the first half for sure. But he’s been spot on in the second half. And Chargers gonna Chargers.

TR said...

And I am jealous of the sous vide. And air fryers too. I have neither and want both.

But I still swear by a good overnight brine for a thick-cut pork chop, followed by 6-9 hours of a quality marinade.