Pitch adjuster for valved brass instruments

Abstract

A pitch adjuster for a valved brass instrument having a tuning slide crook and a third valve slide crook enables play in the just intonation scale and includes a main push rod attached to the tuning slide crook, a finger operator attached to the third valve slide crook and slidably mounted on the main push rod, a bias spring retaining the finger operator in a normal position, a trigger operator and a detent assembly which provides for stopped flat and sharp positions. The trigger operator retracts the main push rod to retract the main tuning slide crook and sharpen the pitch of the note being played. The finger operator extends the main push rod and thereby extends the tuning slide crook and third valve slide crook to flatten the pitch of the note being played. The finger operator may be moved beyond the stopped position, by sliding along the main push rod and compressing the bias spring, and further extend the third valve slide crook alone. The detent assembly may be locked to disengage the pitch adjuster and a threaded tuning knob assembly permits adjustment of the relative position of the main push rod with respect to the tuning slide crook to thereby tune the instrument without affecting the pitch adjuster.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.