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A Walter Sear De Prins Front Piston 4 V. A Craigslist find. Straighten the bell rim a bit and shine her up, should be a good player for years.

Anyone have a valve button that would fit that you would be willing to sell?

Cowgo wrote:Anyone have a valve button that would fit that you would be willing to sell?

Out of jealousy for your find, no, I don't.

Schweet - nice score.

I played one of them for 10 years. Nice horn! Good intonation, but the leadpipe angle was awkward. If I had my hands on that one I would not hesitate to operate on it to make it comfortable. Back then I was afraid to try, so I used a conn sousa bit. (The tuba was a little high-pitched without the bit anyway.)

Take one of the existing valve buttons down to an Ace hardware store to find out what size threads are on it. (probably a standard metric size) Then you should be able to find a replacement that works, or make one out of a small brass screw and a coin.

Art Hovey wrote:I played one of them for 10 years. Nice horn! Good intonation, but the leadpipe angle was awkward. If I had my hands on that one I would not hesitate to operate on it to make it comfortable. Back then I was afraid to try, so I used a conn sousa bit. (The tuba was a little high-pitched without the bit anyway.)

Take one of the existing valve buttons down to an Ace hardware store to find out what size threads are on it. (probably a standard metric size) Then you should be able to find a replacement that works, or make one out of a small brass screw and a coin.

Thanks for sharing your experience with these horns. I had a Walter Sear Cerveny that was a good player, so I'm looking forward to good things with this one...it's currently on a greyhound bus and should be here tomorrow.

The coin suggestion is interesting. I was thinking of taking a valve button around to repair techies in the area and hoping a match would pop up, but your idea sounds funky. I've seen coins soldered on rotary valve paddles. If I do one coin/screw valve button, I should probably do all 4. Maybe old mercury dimes, or better yet some old silver Belgium franc coins.

That's awesome! Way to go on the sweet find.

Jeff,

Call me at Heritage Music Repair.

A new button is an easy fix. If we don't have something in a random box that just fits it won't take any time at all to tap the thread so something 'stock' does fit.

This is a sweet horn. I had one for a few years and still have the Helleberg Sear mouthpiece that came with it. Although only a .660 bore it had a good bottom end, perhaps partially because of the big bell flare, and it sang in the upper register. Its valves were the fastest I've ever had. Good projection too.