Tone hole pad for wind instruments, particularly flutes

Abstract

A tone hole pad comprises a rigid backing disc but having a bendable margin and has at one face a recess between inner and outer coaxial collars to accommodate a cushion ring. Stretched across the radial faces of the collars and backed by the cushion ring is a membrane or skin as a sealing surface means that folds around the periphery of the rigid backing disc and is secured at the opposite face and is limited to a ringlike area. The support of the skin in a limited ringlike area on concentric collars effects a stability to resist and minimizes shrinkage or expansion, under ambient conditions, of the sealing surface that causes leakage. The periphery of the backing disc in one form of the invention is grooved to accommodate a tool for bending or marginally deforming one side of the disc to close leakage gaps caused by uneven contact on the rim of a tone hole. In a preferred form of the invention a similar but grooveless disc is backed by a non-bendable rigid disc. To compensate for leakage, partial shims are placed between the two discs in an area where leakage has been detected. By a wedging action a bending at such area of the bendable disc to close the leakage gap between the skin and a tone hole seat is effected by forcing the discs together, with the non-bendable rigid disc being supported by the pad cup to resist movement.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.