Posted by Mike Solms on July 23, 2002 at 13:20:25:
In Reply to: 5 valve trade off posted by Sam Gnagey on July 23, 2002 at 12:50:43:
John Fletcher shared this opinion on fifth valves. In an article he wrote for "Sounding Brass" he mentioned that, in his opinion, the large Rudy Meinl's played much better as four-valvers. He felt the addition of the fifth valve hurt both the sound and response. He went so far as to have the fifth valve removed from one of his Holtons and claimed that response, sound, and intonation were all improved.