Frozen Valves

[iiipopes]

One time when I was really young and stupid (yeah, I know...now I'm just not so young) in middle school I did use a drop of real antifreeze on each valve in a Christmas parade. Fortunately, it all washed out afterwards to no ill effects to either the horn or to me.

Yes, alcohol will lower the freezing point, but once it dilutes, instant freeze & seize.

The "accepted" solution, as used by some military stationed in cold climates, is to use pure kerosene.

When I was in high school, we marched 4 souzys. One before school practice was so cold we all had frozen valves. But here's the kicker: mine froze open; the next guy with 1st down, the next with 2nd down, and I forget what happened to the 4th guy. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and kept on with what we could. After we got back inside, we told the director what happened. He said something along the lines of, "So that's what happened. I did still hear everything, but wondered why it was so much softer than usual." He was fine with it after that.

[TubaRay]

Nope, they actually used anti-freeze. Tequila's good for before you play in the cold

I would hope you don't mean the type of anti-freeze one would use in an automobile. This would be dangerous and perhaps capable of doing some physical damage to the instrument.

[TubaRay]

Since we had the luxury of 20 tuba players, we let each tuba's valves freeze with a specific fingering and then played the songs like a bell choir only playing the notes that matched your fingerings. I still laugh when I think about that day.

Impressive!!!

[MaryAnn]

What occurred to me right away was to find some of those battery-heated socks for hunting or skiing. You wrap the socks around the valves, maybe tape them in place with some pretty bright red Christmas tape, tape the batteries somewhere reasonably convenient, and play away.

MA

[iiipopes]

And don't forget that rubbing alcohol, isopropyl, is just as poisonous as antifreeze.

[Tubaing]

Maybe we should all do what David Silverman did to keep the valves (and everything else) from freezing.

[andrew the tuba player]

Just a story. But, Last december, Our high school band was praciseing for our christmas parade. Everything froze. The trumpets and mellophone were first, then me and last, our trombonests slide froze ing third position. It was really funny. One of the trumpets 1st valve was half way down.