Posted by Mark F. on January 31, 2001 at 22:00:53:
Just got the parts in for the latest project of mine. I wanted to add enough length to my 4th valve tubing to make my low F# play in tune using just my 4th valve. This way, I not only had an in-tune F#, but I would be much closer to being able to play a full chromatic down to Pedal CC without haveing to install a 5th valve. Here are the results.
Tuning is about what I expected, I can play G 1-3 pulling the first slide just a little, and F# is centered and solid just using 4th valve. the rest of the notes chromatically down are all there, with C# being about 20-25 cents sharp with the 1st valve slide pulled. Not a triumphal sucess, but if I play a song with a lot of low F#'s or one with low D's or c#'s, it would be worth it to me to put in my tubing extentions. (they are easily and quickly removable)
Now for the strange part. Almost immediatly I noticed that ANY mid-range not that is played by using the 1st valve is slightly suffier with the 4th valve extentions in. I know this does not make any sence at all, because no air is passing thru the 4th valve tubing whil I am just using the 1st valve alone, but I went back and forth taking out the extentions and puting them back in, and every time I noticed the stuffiness returned as long as the 4th valve tubing was "supersized" I guess the nice thing is that I can save my new tubing for low register emergencies, or if nothing else it never hurts to have a few extra parts on hand, but I won't be using htem for everyday playing, like I had imagined doing.
I know this sound crazy, but I thought I would share my experince with the group.