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Hey all,

So I recently upgraded my sousa from a cheap chinese horn to a 36k. Plays well (far better than my old sousa), and the valves work well, but they leak. A lot….. I did a gig on it wednesday night, and it looked like I poured water all over the front of my shirt.

I know Wessex has a gutter for their Euphoniums available, but it attaches to the bumps that come off the valve caps (forgive my perfect terminology here). Does anyone know of a gutter that attaches to the 36k? Or, has anyone come up with a good home-grown solution I could duplicate? I have some ideas, but figured I can't be the only one with the issue, so I thought I'd reach out to the masses and see what options exist….

BMadsen wrote:Hey all,

So I recently upgraded my sousa from a cheap chinese horn to a 36k. Plays well (far better than my old sousa), and the valves work well, but they leak. A lot….. I did a gig on it wednesday night, and it looked like I poured water all over the front of my shirt.

I know Wessex has a gutter for their Euphoniums available, but it attaches to the bumps that come off the valve caps (forgive my perfect terminology here). Does anyone know of a gutter that attaches to the 36k? Or, has anyone come up with a good home-grown solution I could duplicate? I have some ideas, but figured I can't be the only one with the issue, so I thought I'd reach out to the masses and see what options exist….

I bought a black elastic cloth widget called a "Valve Beanie" at ITEC-- possibly from Martin Wilk? It stretches across the bottom of the valves and absorbs whatever comes out of them.

I made one by using a piece of leather and some shoe lace and fitting it around the valve caps like a diaper. I have reduced this problem by cleaning the valves with the new valve cleaner and oiling my valves every time I play with 3 or 4 drops per cylinder. I use one of the premium oils, which also seems to help.

With my 36K (currently for sale on this board), Klaus suggested using a sock over the the valve cluster bottom caps. I took his advice and used a short, black sweat sock. It's not noticeable to anyone watching and it worked like a charm without affecting the tone.

Thanks guys! I'll try the sock idea first, since I have lots of those laying around. If it doesn't cut it, I'll look into the valve beanie or anything else suggested (not much of a leather worker, so that option may not be for me).

I've had two approaches to this.

On my 1924 Buescher tuba that doesn't nave "nubs" on the bottom caps that a gutter could slide onto, I took a piece of clear vinyl tubing (1"? Maybe bigger diameter), made a slit in it lengthwise, cut a piece of sponge to lay in it, and then I manage to get it to push onto the valve group and hold the sponge under/on the holes in the bottom valve caps. It works.

For my Wessex 981 clone, I fabricated quite a nice gutter out of a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. I drilled "keyhole" slots in it that slip onto the valve cap numbs and lock it on. End caps are glued on caps I got at Lowes that are really from some computer desk application. Then after about a year, I added a (silver, of course) Amado water key on the bottom near the "downhill" end so that I can drain it when I want to without taking it off. It's great. Cheap and easy to make.

ghmerrill wrote:I've had two approaches to this.

On my 1924 Buescher tuba that doesn't nave "nubs" on the bottom caps that a gutter could slide onto, I took a piece of clear vinyl tubing (1"? Maybe bigger diameter), made a slit in it lengthwise, cut a piece of sponge to lay in it, and then I manage to get it to push onto the valve group and hold the sponge under/on the holes in the bottom valve caps. It works.

For my Wessex 981 clone, I fabricated quite a nice gutter out of a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. I drilled "keyhole" slots in it that slip onto the valve cap numbs and lock it on. End caps are glued on caps I got at Lowes that are really from some computer desk application. Then after about a year, I added a (silver, of course) Amado water key on the bottom near the "downhill" end so that I can drain it when I want to without taking it off. It's great. Cheap and easy to make.

Those aren't bad ideas. Probably will try the vinyl tubing idea if the socks don't work for me.

Thanks for all of the ideas!