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Hey everyone,

I have been experiencing difficulties with my second valve sticking when I press it down. I have tried using different valve oils (hetman's 1, 2, and 3), cleaning it with rubbing alcohol inbetween. The third seemed to work best, however it still stick after pressing it down half way. I have tried to take it in for repairs and they said that the tubing from the second slide somehow got pushed into the valve (how I have no idea). It was working for a couple weeks (beginning to mid December) but now it is sticking badly.

It is a 5-valve Jupiter 584L. If anybody has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. I have my graduation recital in a couple months and my fear is that it will stick during the recital!

Did the repair geek/geekette do anything toward fixing the problem? That's not uncommon in my experience, although not with my personal horns.

Hello, Trevor!

Assuming you haven't dropped your piston... the tech you took your horn to is probably correct. If it's your 2nd valve that's causing problems when about half-way down... you could have some distortion of the tubing ports on the casing. Some of the Jupiter tubas/sousas I've seen suffer from being not very well braced.

While moving the 2nd valve up and down... try putting a little pressure back and forth on the the 2nd tubing circuit to see if the problem gets worse or better. If the situation gets better when pushing in one direction... you've found your trouble. Sometimes this can be fixed by simply pushing a bit more in that direction. It's not good for a novice to attempt this so you need to find a repairman with the right knowledge and tools.

I second the repair suggestion. Especially since you have a critical performance in the not-too-distant future. Fortunately (I guess), since your instrument is a piston-valve, the process shouldn't be as involved as it might be with a rotary. You might even see if the school has a repair agreement with someone that you could take advantage of; even if you have to pay yourself, they might give you a break on the price.

There have been earlier threads discussing sticky valves. The usual causes and fixes seem to be (in no particular order):

• build-up of gunk or "lime" in the valve ports - needs a chemical cleaning
• gunk in the bottom valve caps flowing back into the valve guides when the tuba is stood on its bell - keep the bottom valve caps clean, don't stand the tuba on its bell.
• bent valve stems - get new stems
• damaged piston - consult an expert repair tech
• dented or squashed valve casing - consult an expert repair tech
• valve casings distorted by torque in the tubing, especially the mouth-pipe. This can happen from new, but is more likely after the tuba has been dropped, or knocked over, or had something heavy fall on it (often the stickiness comes and goes, as the tuba warms or cools). Some cranky tubas have been fixed by un-soldering a brace or two to release the torque, then soldering them back on. As usual, your best bet is to consult an expert repair tech.
• ghosts, bogles, knockers, malicious enchantments - consult an exorcist.

I had a problem with my second valve starting to stick after half an hour or so of playing. The original cause was probably dropping the tuba (the catch on my marching sling gave way). I think that, after it was repaired,
there must have been residual torque in the mouth-pipe; eventually, the solder holding the mouth-pipe to its stay at the receiver broke, and the problem went away.