Posted by Matt G on October 05, 2000 at 08:25:15:
In Reply to: Re: St. Pete's -- tendency to be flat? posted by Jay Bertolet on October 05, 2000 at 07:58:40:
To take Jay's comments one step further, the fact that these horns have notoriously bad valves that have air flow around in addition to through them could be a contributing factor. Most of the time this topic is related to piston valves but I think it could have a negative effect on a rotary valve also. If this is the problems it could be very costly to have the valveset rebuilt. I remember sitting next to a guy in college with a St. Pete that had valves that didn't seal. I remember him having a hard time really nailing the pitch below Eb below the staff at times. It wasn't always flat but it varied from note to note even when corrective slides were pulled. The guy practiced and was a good player but I think that the valves were to blames on the horn. The sound was alright pother wise, but any thing on the horn that had to physically move while playing (valves/slides), it seemed to have been mechanically engineered by Cro-Magnon Man.
Just my thoughts,
Matt G