Posted by Jay Bertolet on September 28, 2001 at 21:45:26:
In Reply to: Re: adding a fifth posted by Anon on September 28, 2001 at 20:33:33:
Despite Mr. Anonymous' suggestion (don't you just love credible advice?), I would suggest you call someone like Matt Walters and get a handle on what the parts will cost. I ordered parts for my 601 directly from the Cerveny factory and it was (I thought then, 10 years ago) relatively inexpensive. They made for me a complete first valve assembly, already assembled. I also ordered some inner and outer slide tubing, an extra first valve slide crook, and an extra leadpipe. In my setup, the fifth is added on top of the first, cut into the leadpipe where that last little bit of straight pipe is before it enters the first valve. You use the extra slide crook, the original valve slide, and the inner and outer slide tubing to make an overlap fifth valve, just like you see on Rudy Meinl's tubas. Then you just cut the assembled fifth valve into the extra leadpipe and attach to the first valve, where the leadpipe used to connect. The repairman who did the work on my horn fashioned the valve linkage from scratch, in his shop. After you have the valve functional, play on it and see what you think. If something is wrong or you don't like it, just remove the valve and resolder the original leadpipe. In this way, the entire operation is reversible. I seriously doubt you'll have any problems though, I've done this to two different Cerveny's and the results were great each time. Good luck!
My opinion for what it's worth...