Patent ID: 7247779

Claim:
A pitch changing mechanism for a pedal steel guitar having a cabinet including a soundboard, said pitch changing mechanism comprising: a) a tension control lever pivotally connected to a control bridge pin with a string attachment means; b) a lowering pitch-changing lever with a plurality of rod attachment means; c) a pivot means for pivotally attaching the lowering lever to a raising lever; d) a raising pitch-changing lever with a plurality of rod attachment means, pivotally attached to the lowering lever and pivotally connected to the control bridge pin; the raising lever being selectively attachable to a pull rod to actuate the raising lever from a neutral position to an actuated position, and includes a portion that stops in contact with a cabinet slot portion of the steel guitar cabinet soundboard when the raising lever is in the actuated position; e) respective pull rods attached to said raising lever and said lowering lever, so that on pulling of each respective pull rod, said corresponding raising and lowering levers create clockwise or counterclockwise rotation of tension control lever about the bridge pin, thus raising or lowering the tension of the string trained across said tension control lever to raise or lower the pitch; f) a biasing spring attached to the lowering lever; and g) a tone ring which is mounted in direct contact with said guitar cabinet soundboard and encircles said pitch-changing mechanism and which incorporates a neutral position stop bar.