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Has anyone had any experience with a "York"-style valve cluster transplanted onto another horn? I saw on Dan Oberloh's website where he was planning to graft a Hirsbrunner valve section onto an old 6/4 BBb York originally having 3 upright valves, and this got me wondering about putting a similar Hirsbrunner/MW/Nirschl/Gronitz cluster on my 36J. I would be interested in what others think or have experienced in this regard. Thanks

i had a BigValve cluster(the entire set including all slides) put on a 3 front valve holton 6/4 BBb.Albert at Baltimore Brass did it for me and said it went on really easily.i'm very happy with the results.this was the cheapest way for me to get a 4th valve and a valve job.

According to Peter Hirsbrunner, figure $3800 for four valve cluster as seen on Oberloh's site (that's a price quote directly from Peter, 08/16/04). However, I was told by a very reputable brass miracle worker the price varies depending on his mood, day of the week, color of the sky at sunrise, etc.,...
According to Matt Walters (as of last October) a MW set will run about $1800 (also four valves)...
Nirschl...umm...in researching things, I...um...look into this on your own...but as of January, 05, he quoted a price of 1800 Euros.
And the guys at Gronitz, unless conditions have changed, will tell you they don't have enough sets to build their horns so they certainly can't spare any.

I, uh, have sort of been looking into this myself...

<img src=http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/images/myfrankentuba>

I put a BBb Nirschl valveset onto an 1927 Martin about 5 years ago and liked it so much that I sold my Bohm & Meinl. I had to make valve-button extenders to make it fit my hand, but it's still working well for me.

<img src=http://www.geocities.com/galvanized.geo ... valves.jpg>

Very interesting. Could you comment on how the Nirschl valveset changed the tone/response, compared to the way the Martin played before?

the ideal candidate for this operation was mine,a 3 valve holton 6/4 front action.since it and the horn the valves were made for were both copies of the Chicago York,just soldered right on with a few new braces.