Tom wrote:Do you have the original parts? It's a shame, in my opinion, that the originals were replaced with the minibals you have. Although it is probably the most expensive solution to the problem, I think I'd make it a point to try to get the original linkage back on that tuba. The company is still in business and that model is still manufactured so it's actually possible to do that. Yes, I can imagine that it's not cheap to order those parts if you don't have them.
Personally I would not use loctite on it.That's a band-aid solution and not a fix. There are plenty of applications for loctite, but I wouldn't use it as a long-term fix on a high end tuba like your Willson.
I wonder why they were changed
I bought this from Norm Epley last summer, and he did the minibal linkage conversion. From what I've learned from him and the previous owner, I think the rotor paddles were previously modified. Possibly to make it a LH rotor tuba, possibly just to make the linkages shorter...? Not quite sure, but when it got to Norm, it *did* have the original linkages, but they were shortened to the point where Norm found the rotors difficult to reach... so he replaced the linkages with Minibals. It was likely a matter of costs of why Minibal was chosen over ordering Willson linkages.
Norm forwarded me an email from Willson with a price quote for a whole new set of linkages, and it's neither cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It's on the to-do list, but not something I can afford to do just yet. Norm does good work, and the Minibals work very well... so if/when I change it back, it won't quite be out of necessity.
For now though, I'm taking it to Eric Peterson sometime later this week to fix this screw, check the others, and maybe make some sort of more human (or humane?) fifth valve lever. Loctite would get me through a rehearsal, but you're right, I'm looking for a permanent fix, not a workaround.
Thanks!
That's the size of the male threads on the bottoms of the pro-model valve stems...