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Our community band recently inherited a tuba. It belonged to a member who passed away. It is an older Yamaha YBB-321 branded as a Holton. I'm told that dates it somewhere in the 1980's. Unfortunately it has some problems with the valves. The previous owner had the fourth valve replaced (I would assume due to a loss of compression). I sent the horn for a cleaning at a local music store and they said all the valves have good compression. Not that I have any doubt, but for my own reasons I'd like to learn how to check valve compression.

That aside, the plating is worn in several spots on the original three valves.

When the tuba sits for a while, the valves are pretty hard frozen in place, and become very difficult to get out in order to oil them. I assume this has to do with the raw brass-on-brass spots between the valves and casings. I'm told by the music store that replating isn't sensible as it would require re-lapping the valves to the casing ($$ labor $$), and those valves are easy enough to get new that it'd be cheaper to just get new ones and toss them in. I looked online and found valves at $100/each. Maybe someone has some good used valves for a lot less?

Outside of replaing the first three valves.... Is there anything we can do to mitigate this?

One thought I had was some sort of mixture of valve oil and something with a bit more viscosity that would remain as a buffer between the valve and the casing between rehearsals. Motor oil? Some kind of concoction? That thick as molasses magic lucas oil stuff that "fixed" my transmission?

I figure I'd solicit some good advice before I did anything stupid

I'll try to take some pictures of the valves at rehearsal tonight.

Thanks!

Keep the horn clean and oil the valves often. It's not unusual for pistons to stick after sitting for a while.

So I found out that there was more going on than I was aware of. The tuba had gotten damaged.
The tuba was left in the music equipment room of the school that we rehearse at. The next week, the valves were all jammed up. No amount of oil was going to get them to work. I took a closer look and noticed the third branch bent over to the right. The valve casings are out-of-round. One of the kids must have stepped/fell/dropped something on the tuba. It was in a soft gig bag. We don't have a hard case for it.

I called the local music store and he feels quite confident that he'll be able to fix it. I assume it involves straightening out the branches and re-honing the valve casings. We'll probably just go ahead and buy the new valves at this point. I'm a bit upset at the moment, because this tuba belonged to someone I knew, and sat next to for a few years. I'm having it fixed regardless of the cost, because I want his spirit to live on through music. I know I would want mine to! G-d forbid anything ever happens to me, I want my tubas going to someone who is going to make music with them, not sit around in a garage or something.

One thing is that we definitely need to get a hard shell case for this tuba asap! Since it's a YBB-321 it should be really easy finding a case for it. I know the SKB flight case I use is something like $650. Yamaha made "like a million" of these tubas, so I'd think that I should be able to find a used original case in reasonable condition for a whole lot less than $650.

Anybody have any idea on where to find a gently used case still in decent condition with the handles and the casters? I should probably post something in the buy/sell section.

Also any specifics I should ask the music store about how they plan to repair it? Any particulars to watch out for?

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Thanks.

I would suggest that the repair technician should try to remove all the tension from the tuba branches/valveset before going after the valve casings with tools, as much of the valve problems may go away when the tension issue is solved.

If the instrument is from the 1980's, some of the Yamaha pistons of that time had plating issues. You can get them rebuilt and re-plated to ensure that they are really good for a long time. You could also get replacement plated pistons, but if they are amongst the parts that are outsourced from China these days, you might not be much better off with the new pistons. If they offer monel pistons, they should be fine.

I agree with Lee now that you mention that the horn has sustained some damage. If you choose to go by the route of buying new pistons (although I doubt that will really be necessary)... if the serial number is lower than 100,000 you will also have to order new piston guides and stems. The older pistons with the brass guide in the top of the piston are not available from Yamaha any more. Also... if there are any problems with the valve caps... those threads changed at serial number 100,000.