Posted by John Swensen on August 29, 2000 at 15:15:37:
In Reply to: Valve-venting redux posted by Rick Denney on August 29, 2000 at 12:59:32:
Rick,
To my knowledge, the CSO Yorks do not have vented pistons, nor do any modern York clones. If your slides are working smoothly, you can usually time the slide moving and valve pressing to avoid pops while playing.
If you like pulling slides to drain water, you can usually find the right slide without looking to pull it, and a thumb ring does a pretty good job of keeping the tuba on your lap. If you really need to look to get the slide back in, you could get it started without pushing the valve, then push the valve to depress it the rest of the way. If you needed to replace the slide during a very quiet passage during a performance, you could depress the valve very slightly to release the pressure difference gradually, then finish pushing the slide with the valve down.