Re: 5 valve trade off


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Ken H on July 23, 2002 at 16:05:19:

In Reply to: 5 valve trade off posted by Sam Gnagey on July 23, 2002 at 12:50:43:

Some years ago I had a Mienl Weston 32 CC which came with the variable length 5th valve which was located before the first valve. It seemed a pretty good instrument but just not quite what I thought it should be. It was definitely better used with the fifth set up for 1 whole step so I removed the extra tubing so it was not variable and it was somewhat better, but still not quite there. My benchmark was Bill Bell's personal MW "Bell" model, which was maybe not a fair comparison, but it still set the mark for the MW CC's in my mind. Being another of the "I think it would be fun to pull it apart and experiment club", I decided to go the whole hog and take the fifth valve completely off. The difference was very discernable. Suddenly the tuning and response characteristics improved immemsely and that was the way I left the horn, which got a lot of use in all kinds of ensembles.

In this case it seemed that adding the fifth valve had meant the addition of about two inches of straight tubing right at the end of the lead pipe which already had an amount of straight tubing before entering the valves and that it was just too much. (There would also be the fact that the extra valve meant other disruptions to a relatively smooth air path.) Possibly, had the straight tubing added with the fifth valve been compensated for by modifications to the lead pipe there would not have been such a difference.

I think your idea of a dependent fifth could be very well worth trying. A combination of 1/4 tone with its slide easily adjustable plus a fairly long and easily adjustable first vale slide - probably with the first valve vented - to be able to add up to a bit more than another 1/4 tone would give a good amount of flexibility in overall tuning. If the horn is a good one for intonation in other aspects you should have a really good thing.

The comparison of trombones with dependent valves is not wuite applicable here, in my view, as a trombone has so much more flexibility in tuning in any case. Good luck with it - I think you are onto something here.




Follow Ups: