Do vented Rotary Valves make tubas sound worse?

[brendanige]

Hello,

I'm think about venting my first and fifth rotary valve on my Perantucci F tuba. Does any have any experience with this ruining sound quality of a horn? Any advice?

Thank you

[bort]

Its only bad if it's done wrong.

[Ben]

Its only bad if it's done wrong.

+1

i just had the 1st valve vented on my 163. It sounds the same, but now I can play it with no concerns about playing through a pressure change.

[jeopardymaster]

If done right venting is not a problem. The only problem I would foresee with your plan is, it wouldn't cost much more (if any) to have ALL the valves done. And the advantage to that is, then the horn will behave the same way whichever valves you use. Pressure builds up in the pipes behind the valves as a result of temp changes, and venting allows that pressure to equalize. Having some valves vented and others not means you could still be getting little pops from time to time after long rests, something I personally find annoying. My Neptune came with only the 2nd valve vented - done because of the "kicker" no doubt. The horn behaved much better for me when I had the other 4 vented.

[Wyvern]

The vented 2nd valve on my previous Neptune made trills impossible - the air just leaked out of the valve. If it was 'done wrong' I don't know, but it was original factory venting.

I got over it by putting sticky tape over the hole

[tubeast]

Neptune wrote: "I got over it by putting sticky tape over the hole"
That´s just the thing I did to my Willson when I first received it.
They had done it wrong (failed to drill the hole through casing AND valve body, so the valve loop was still air tight).
The little PFFFT!! sound the horn emitted each time a valve was used was simply annoying.

So I decided to not adress the missing holes in the valve bodies, and shut the d?!§$$% thing up by sealing the holes with tape.
Next time I order a horn like this, I´d rather try having spit valves installed at places that allow me to depressurise the valve loop with the hand operating the slide.

Hans