I have a Yamaha 321 tuba that I purchased used a few years ago. The vales are pitted and a lot of the silver plating is worn to the brass. I had small pit holes develop inside the valves that I filled with solder. The horn plays fine but as a old school horn it has it's dents, worn finish and has not been taken care of properly. My question is, When do you know it's time to refinish the valves and should I spend the money (estimate of $450.00) to have the valves and cylinders refinished or just play it the way it it. The compression seems good but I have to use a high grade of oil and the valves are very noisy. I also notice some air leaking from the drain hole at the bottom of the cylinders. I play in a couple of community bands and not professional.
Thanks
Tuba Charlie
When is it time to replace or refinish valves
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- bugler
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- bububassboner
- pro musician
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- Location: Sembach, Germany
Re: When is it time to replace or refinish valves
So most of my hands on experience on this has been in Germany, so I'm gonna guess some American repair people might not agree.
In Germany valves are rebuilt all the time. Most will go no more than 10 years but it's pretty common to have them done every 3-6 years here. In America we tend to go decades without a valve rebuild then wonder why our horns don't play well anymore. My suggestion is that if this is a horn you plan to keep playing for a long time then get the valves rebuilt (plated then lapped in). It's money well spent and will keep your horn playing for many years.
Bloke is right about the noise. Spend a little extra and get some blokewashers from him. With the springs I see a lot that the tuba sized springs are replaced with these smaller and narrower springs. These move around easily in the casing and it can be a pain to line them up right. Just get some new springs from bloke when you get his washers. That way you know they'll be right.
When you say you had to fill holes in the valves with solder are you talking about the brass tubing inside the valve? If there are holes there then I'm guessing it's from red rot and you should get brand new valves. Ive seen it a number of times and in my opinion it's best to just replace them and start new.
We can only guess and give our advise here. Take it to a good repair person and have them look at it. Before you start dropping a ton of money to fix this up it may be better to just sell the horn and find something that's in better mechanical condition. That's a talk between you and the repair person.
Good luck!
In Germany valves are rebuilt all the time. Most will go no more than 10 years but it's pretty common to have them done every 3-6 years here. In America we tend to go decades without a valve rebuild then wonder why our horns don't play well anymore. My suggestion is that if this is a horn you plan to keep playing for a long time then get the valves rebuilt (plated then lapped in). It's money well spent and will keep your horn playing for many years.
Bloke is right about the noise. Spend a little extra and get some blokewashers from him. With the springs I see a lot that the tuba sized springs are replaced with these smaller and narrower springs. These move around easily in the casing and it can be a pain to line them up right. Just get some new springs from bloke when you get his washers. That way you know they'll be right.
When you say you had to fill holes in the valves with solder are you talking about the brass tubing inside the valve? If there are holes there then I'm guessing it's from red rot and you should get brand new valves. Ive seen it a number of times and in my opinion it's best to just replace them and start new.
We can only guess and give our advise here. Take it to a good repair person and have them look at it. Before you start dropping a ton of money to fix this up it may be better to just sell the horn and find something that's in better mechanical condition. That's a talk between you and the repair person.
Good luck!
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Go Ducks!
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- bugler
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Re: When is it time to replace or refinish valves
Thank you all for your great advice. Yes the holes appear to be from a lack of cleaning and proper pol use and pitting started. The information is very useful.
Tuba Charlie
Tuba Charlie