Posted by Jay Bertolet on March 25, 1999 at 12:50:34:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Intonation question posted by Howard Read on March 24, 1999 at 17:25:37:
I really don't get any serious wear at all on my slide. I have to use a lighter grease (in my case, Pond's cold cream) and I have to lubricate the slide alot more often than normal. I guess it is a tradeoff because I use my valve slides so infrequently that I've started greasing them with anhydrous lanolin and I've had to do that only twice (that I can remember) in the last fifteen years.
Actually, Gene Pokorny was involved in developing a device similar to this called (I think) a "Pitch Finder". It attached to the slide and established a "center" position for the slide that you could adjust to and from and using a spring loaded setup, the device would return to the center position when released. I believe this idea was first tried on a trumpet and Gene tried to make it work for tuba but it never took off. I would like to see this device researched again, it would make using a tuning stick device much easier.