Re: short action valves


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Posted by Rob Perelli-Minetti on October 26, 2000 at 12:17:38:

In Reply to: short action valves posted by ken k on October 25, 2000 at 23:18:07:

I once asked Matt Walter and a guy from UMI about the possibility of new horns with short action valves at the Brass Conference. What I remember hearing was that there is only one guy at UMI who can make the knuckles for the valves -- apparently it is all hand work and very time and skill intensive. The guy is elderly and has arthritis, so production possibilities are very limited. I was told at the time that there was considerable backup in orders for 20K sousaphones, the only production horn with the short action valves. I don't know what the situation is now.

Originally, the design was a Conn patent (in the early 30's I think -- the 20K and 2XJ series appeared well before WWII -- by 1938 for sure as they were listed in a catalog that sold on e-bay a couple of years ago) , but those patents have long since expired.

Apparently, the cost of developing tooling and production facilities for the short action valveset would be signficant, and no one thinks the demand would be sufficiently great to justify the additional cost.

I always liked the short action valves on both the 2XJ series horns and 20/24K sousaphones I've played over the years. I have heard two significant concerns with them, however: 1) because of the offset valve stems some people are worried about uneven valve wear; and 2) some people are concerned about the negative acoustical effect (?) of the oval ports/passages in the valves.

Don't knock that King 4 valve .689 bore valveset, however, although the design has been around since the 20's, it is a case of don't fix what's not broken. Matt I think once told me it was the single most successful tuba piston valveset design.






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