TromboneChat

This auction for an antique trombone shows an interesting mechanism on the tuning slide. I guess a wingnut keeps it in place, rather than the normal friction. Do you think it was manufactured that way? Or just a repair hack?

Maybe it is so you can go from high pitch to low pitch without swapping the slide -- just pull the slide so far out that friction can't do the job.


https://www.auctionninja.com/waterbury- ... 50042.html

Some mechanism to facilitate switching between high pitch and low pitch?

Very difficult to believe that it's needed for the slide to stay in the instrument. That would imply potential problems with air tightness -- and there's no reason that the fit should be so loose anyway. It may be that some parts (stop blocks?) are missing.

I really doubt that is original

I have a third valve kicker on my 1924 tuba that's not original -- and I know that because I put it there. Many valved instruments of those times were capable of playing either high or low pitch (whatever those specific designations may have meant, and there were several alternatives) by means of interchangeable tuning slides. If you were in a situation where sometimes you had to play one and other times you had to play another, a quick way of changing was desirable.