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On good trumpets and cornets it is possible to control slide lengths pretty easily by means of saddles, rings, or triggers. Combinations 1+3 and 1+2+3 may be played in tune.

And then trumpet players often use instruments pitched to accomodare a given key (like trumpets in D or Eb).

Very little repertory demands notes not playable on 3 valve instruments. One sample is a low written F# on the now extremely rarely used trumpet in A. The tuning devices mentioned above here allow that note to be played on a Bb flat trumpet.

Getzen made a fine, but slightly unwieldy, flugelhorn with 4 valves. That 4th valve became kind of obsolete, when triggers were introduced on flugelhorns.

Klaus

I use the euphonium and tuba 4th valve only in the pedal range , exept for two notes.
Pedal range is mostly unused on trumpets I guess.

Wim

It is generally a matter of physics. The amount of tubing necessary to reach a certain note does not increase by the same amount in every range. Valve tuning slides on the other hand have a constant length at any point in time. The actual length required is a percentage of the regular tubing length, not a constant length.When notes get lower the amount of tubing that needs to be added to bring the note in tune is longer than the standard length and the difference between the necessary length and actual length of the tubing is greater the lower the note. This can be dealt with by pulling slides, but this is hard to do when you are playing 1+3 or 1-2-3 combinations if it is even possible. Adding a 4th (or 5th or 6th) valve allows additional tubing lengths to be available to bring notes in tune without pulling slides, or at least without pulling them as much. Because trumpet tubing is so much shorter the amount of tubing that is required to bring valve combinations in tune is much shorter and therefore easier to achieve with valve slide rings or triggers.

Even compensating horns require valve-slide "kickers" to be in tune if you are unable to make the changes for every register with your chops.

A 4th valve adds a lot of weight to an instrument. Because of the way trumpets are held, weight is an issue. Have you ever tried to play one of those "marching baritones"?
Don Ellis had a trumpet with a quarter-tone 4th valve,
and you do occasionally see 4-valve flugelhorns (soprano tubas) but they are rarely played for extended periods of time.

Trumpet players have convinced the composers and arrangers of the world that the instrument just does not go below concert E. Tuba players have not.

http://www.horncollector.com/Trumpets/T ... 0Valve.htm" target="_blank

J.c.S.

My favorite classical trumpet player, Sergei Nakarikov, plays a flügelhorn with 4 valves (Courtois). Talk about a 'soprano tuba' sound, his flugel must have a bell close to tenor trombone size. He is also the best I've seen doing circular breathing.

J.S. Bach - Air on the G String, Sergei Nakariakov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmkGiLLTl5A&NR=1

This was my attempt at a somewhat more ergonomic 4 valve flugelhorn and no, it's not that heavy...

I started out on trumpet in 5th grade. What everyone says above is true. With slide kickers on trumpet, a 4th valve just isn't needed. And this in spite of B&H and their rendition of a true compensating cornet a century ago.

Yes, the added weight of a 4th valve is an issue, especially when marching, regardless of the instrument. Why bother when you don't have to? (thinking of a Conn 14K with a modified upper 1st valve loop to a movable slide in particular).

But for the lower instruments, and the proportionally longer tubing needed, in a concert setting a 4th valve is nearly indispensible if you want both good intonation and uninterrupted chromatics down to the pedals. A BBb three-valve comp like I have will get you great intonation as far as it goes down to the traditional E nat, and some other 3-valve horns that have a workable 1st valve slide will do the same, but very few concert instruments have the quality tonality of their "false pedals" starting on low Eb that can get you there.

Most professional trumpet players don't need a fourth valve. They can use false tones to get almost every note below F#. I am a student and the trumpet professor at my school can get all the notes down on the bottom of the piano, tuba range, on his standard 3 valve Bb and C trumpet. They are not all pretty, but they work for what he needs them for (21st century music and random demonstrations).