TubeNet

My Miraphone 191, bought new in 2010, over time developed an issue, hard to hit cleanly the first valve C above the middle Bb. Other first valve notes were not affected. I decided Ito get it professionally cleaned, and explained my note problem, and the repair guy said he found a small piece of congealed junk in that valve, but that the alignment notch or mark on the underside of the rotary valve was off. Cleaned and realigned, it again plays beautifully. It was a $200 fix, very well worth it.

My M 191 is my main horn, have recently purchased a used Yamaha YBB641 which I also like for every day practice. My old favorite, is a Miraphone 186, which I bought in 2001, probably 1970's vintage, which has a wonderful tone, but a noisy linkage which was even upgraded.

A side note, distance of rotary valve linkage lever movement on the Yamaha 641 is just 18 mm, the M-191 is 21 mm, and my old M-186 is 27 mm. Quite noticeable when going from one horn to another. I also have an old Ligmatone helicon, three valve, 18 mm valve linkage movement.

Vanderbagger
north-central WA state

I have at least one trombone where the "witness" marks don't quite line up with where they should. Some shops now only use bore scopes, which have become relatively cheap, when it comes to valve alignment. With one of my trombones it looks like they mismarked it the first time, so always really try to check things looking down the receiver into the valve.

Thank you both . . . good stuff.