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The fourth valve of my big Conn collects water. It's either in the valve casing itself, or in the plumbing right around it. The only way I have found to get rid of it when this happens is to remove the valve piston and dump the water out the top. It doesn't go into the tuning slide, which has a water key on it. There is nothing blocking the bottom of the valve, and it only gurgles when the piston is compressed, not when it's open.

Any ideas what is going on?

bloke wrote:The last thing I'm going to do (before polishing all of the solder joints/distressed lacquer and spraying on touch-up lacquer) is to add a couple of a la PCK waterkeys on the tubing elbows that come up out of the #3 and #4 pistons (to eliminate #3 and #4 slide dumping).

A waterkey (factory or otherwise) is in a similar spot on my Conn Donatelli. This is completely separate from the waterkeys on the bottom of the tuning slides.

I have a similar issue with my Olds. The tubing coming into the 4th enters from below and has a 90 degree bend to get into the valve. In normal playing position that makes a convenient low spot(water trap) that is hard to drain and only gurgles when 4 is depressed. I find if I lean forward to get the tubing sort of flat and blow like crazy with 4th depressed I can force the water through the valve and into the lower tuning slide where there is a water key. After that it is simple.

Thanks!

I wonder if I've got room for one of those extra water keys. Things are pretty tight in there.

Maybe an Amado water key - from Getzen?

"This delightfuly piece of engineering allows the player, with two fingers, to remove ALL the water from the tubing of the horn being played, in one movement."

http://www.elthamwoodwind.com.au/getzen ... ries.shtml

I had one on a trombone and it works well.