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If you've not visited Allan Baer's website, you might not have heard about his PVAK (Piston Valve Alignment Kit).

We just now put the first one on a W-series Willson 2900, and the effect is immediately noticeable.

Proper alignment of valve ports and tubes is critical for us.

And since Willson is charging about $76 for a set of felt spacers, Alan's $180 for what amounts to a virtual lifetime alignment seems a deal to us.

Or you could do it yourself for $5 worth of washers

Amilcare wrote:If you've not visited Allan Baer's website, you might not have heard about his PVAK (Piston Valve Alignment Kit).

We just now put the first one on a W-series Willson 2900, and the effect is immediately noticeable.

Proper alignment of valve ports and tubes is critical for us.

And since Willson is charging about $76 for a set of felt spacers, Alan's $180 for what amounts to a virtual lifetime alignment seems a deal to us.

This has been studied extensively by the TNFJ.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31111&p=272835&hili ... rs#p272135" target="_blank

I had this done to my old Marzan tuba. The alignment was nice, and I did like the result. The valves aren't silent with this setup, but it's a solid satisfying bang bang bang on the return.

FWIW, the actual most valuable thing about having this done was that mine was a custom order, and it required me going to Al's house and chatting with him for 2 hours while he machined them for me.

pecktime wrote:Or you could do it yourself for $5 worth of washers

How? A step by step guide may be incredibly helpful for diy tinkerers.

I have the PVAK at the moment because when I wanted something other than felts bloke didn't want orders for his neoprene washers, and a used PVAK that would fit the tuba I wanted it for popped up at a good price. Works fine. However, if the school repairs are about done and orders are open again, bloke has a solution that is just as durable, just as accurate, less noisy, and a fraction of the price.

I guess shipping from Switzerland is very expensive. Actually, I know that for a fact.

The Big Ben wrote:

Amilcare wrote:If you've not visited Allan Baer's website, you might not have heard about his PVAK (Piston Valve Alignment Kit).

We just now put the first one on a W-series Willson 2900, and the effect is immediately noticeable.

Proper alignment of valve ports and tubes is critical for us.

And since Willson is charging about $76 for a set of felt spacers, Alan's $180 for what amounts to a virtual lifetime alignment seems a deal to us.

This has been studied extensively by the TNFJ.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31111&p=272835&hili ... rs#p272135" target="_blank" target="_blank

That's not quite as controversial as the Tone Bridge...