Posted by John Swensen on January 07, 2002 at 12:44:05:
In Reply to: Oh, the Oboe and the Tuba can be friends posted by Lesley on January 06, 2002 at 15:27:11:
Put some really heavy oil on the valves (eg. key oil, 10W30 motor oil, etc.) and see if this makes the low notes easier to produce. The valves will be terribly sluggish after this, so clean them (and the casings) off with a clean cloth, using regular valve oil as a solvent.
Valves can be made easier to depress by substituting weaker springs, but they may be too sluggish coming up, and they may bounce at the top. It is possible that the springs in the horn right now are much stiffer than necessary; asking another tubist to check out the horn sounds like a good idea.
John