Re: sticky valves, new tuba


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Posted by Ken Sturgeon on October 11, 2001 at 02:06:27:

In Reply to: sticky valves, new tuba posted by Mike M. on October 10, 2001 at 20:45:44:

I had this problem with my Yamaha 621F. I hand lapped mine with liquid Lava soap 2 times. It helped a little. The problem is that Yamaha makes the gap tolerance between the valve and the valve casing so close, any kind of imperfection in alignment or foreign object inside, not matter how small, will stick the valve. I tried Alyson Oil and it helped also. It's a synthetic oil so if you use it, be sure to clean off all of the regular valve oil before applying the Alyson or the mix of the two will produce a gel like consistency and it will stick even worse. Although I don't recommend it, I ended up stretching out my valve springs a little bit to force the valve up with the increased spring tension. This made my fingers work harder to depress the valves, but eventually my fingers where exercised enough that it wasn't much of a problem. It will take awhile, but eventually the valves will be broken in. I've heard some vendors complain to Yamaha about this sticky valve problem, but Yamaha told them they didn't want to make any adjustments to remedy this. I don't know what their reason was, but your definitely not alone with this issue. The Yamaha's are good horns, so I recommend some patience to work out this problem. Best of luck.

Ken



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