Posted by Ben on June 25, 1999 at 23:25:28:
In Reply to: Valves on 2155 posted by Daniel Bradley on June 25, 1999 at 21:43:52:
Your problem is not an uncommon one. You said your horn is more than 2 yrs old- that means it has the "crap" set Meinl used to put on there horns. From time to time, Gerhard Meinl has had falling outs with his cousin, Walter Nirschl, who manufactured the good valve sets for Meinl-Weston horns. A couple of years back, during one of their "out" periods, Gerhard and his guys were making the valves- and doing a bad job at that. Less than a year ago, Meinl switched to a new set of valves that are a copy of the Hirsbrunner set. These newest generation valves are more than equal to any piston valve ever produced, by any company (IM(not so)HO). As an owner of a 2155, I have only one suggestion for you- buy one of the new valve sets. They run approximately $1200 (that includes all tubing and slides), but they are definitely worth it (not only do they work much better, but they improve the sound too).
Contact Dillon Music. They will be able to get the new set for cheaper than anyone else, and will probably buy the set you have now. I have talked with a lot of Meinl owners about this exact problem and they all tend to agree- I think you'll find that Matt Walters at Dillon does too. I hope my (expensive) opinion can help.