Posted by John Swensen on October 23, 1999 at 01:20:59:
In Reply to: Euphonium valve slide falls out! posted by Steve on October 22, 1999 at 19:46:23:
If you are feeling brave, you can try this trick. I have used this successfully on a Yamaha 321 I once played, but it can buckle the slide at the bend if you don't have the right touch. I like Matt's advice about expanding the tube best, but here is the cheap (and somewhat dangerous version). A buckled slide probably can be fixed or replaced, but not until after considerable mental anguish.
If the slide tubes are not in a plane, they will rub and resist coming out. To visualize what I am talking about, hold your hand with fingers straight out (say, your 1 and your 2 valve fingers). Raise your middle finger a bit, keeping all fingers straight; that is what you are going to do to your slide (if you dare).
Insert one side of the slide in its tube, then swing the slide around so the other side is laying on top of its tube; if your slide is falling out, you should see that the side of the slide is a constant distance from its tube. Now hold the inserted-side tube to keep it from bending, and GENTLY twist the end of the other side of the slide up, out of the plane formed by the slide's two tubes, but keeping it in line with its tube. You want the ends of the slide to line up with the tubes to make insertion easy, but make the slide twist to get it all the way in. The deviation from parallel you are shooting for is about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch at the end, and you want to gently work up to that much deviation, checking your progress by periodically inserting both sides and feeling the resitance to insertion and removal. You don't want to bend the female tubes attached to the valve, as that could make the valves hang during exposed solos.
This technique can also work in reverse, as in aligning a first valve slide on a tuba so that it slides easier.