Favorite valves

[catgrowlB]

Some recent discussion of valves have me wondering what ppl here prefer in valves. I know Tony C has stated he loves Miraphone rotary valves most, and others seem to agree.

I myself am delighted by many types/makes of valves. But I think my overall favorites are replated/rebuilt HN White (King) piston valves. The ones with the beefy, flared top & bottom valve caps, and the mother-of-pearl valve buttons with the knurling at the bottoms. The pistons themselves are tight-tolerance, fast and smooth and are a joy to play on
Second place for me would be the valves on my little Elkhart BBb tuba. They are also very nice.

So, the complete valve assembly -- the performance, the buttons, top & bottom caps (if piston), or the paddles & linkage (if rotary), and whatnot.

Discuss your favorite valves

[arpthark]

As a one-off, the best valves I've ever played on were on bloke's old Thor, which I got to borrow a couple years ago from the current owner.

In general, I think Miraphone rotors are really, really nice. I've played several over the years and they never fail to disappoint. My 186's valves were tightened up and restored by the people at the Colorado music repair school (CIOMIT) and they are lightning-fast, smooth and silent at 50 years old.

I'll put in a vote for vintage York pistons, though. My .750" bore BBb York features no distortions in the piston porting, which means a rather long valve stroke, but the valves are so lightweight and smooth that it completely negates it. Probably won't be playing Carnival of Venice on it anytime soon, but they're really satisfying to play. Early 20th century American engineering on these horns ...

[bort2.0]

Besides the Miraphone rotary valves, I'vep been impressed with the short action Miraphone piston valves.

Side story:
~20 years ago, I tried a Miraphone 1291 at the Dillon booth at USABTEC. It was loud, late in the day, and maybe the first time I had met Matt.

I loved the horn and told Matt something like, "this is such a good horn. I really like the short action valves."
Matt seemed to be done with the elephant room, and said "people always have a problem with something. You can't have it all.

I was confused and clarified, "I said I *like* the valves." Matt apologized, told me it had been a long day. Instant respect for him.

[MN_TimTuba]

On my current King 2341 5-valve the pistons and rotor are beautifully slick. I'm sure Lee did his magic on them. They are the nicest pistons I've ever played on a tuba.
My Miraphone 83 rotors are very smooth, but the clockwork springs are seriously strong, my forearm is actually sore after playing an hour or so.
Nicest, lightest pistons I've ever played were on my buddy's Bach Stradivarius valve trombone and the beautiful Olds Special trumpet I've had for over 50 years. Both are a joy to play.
Tim

[ronr]

The valves on my Lidl 701 are amazing! Put anything else I’ve played to shame.

[Snake Charmer]

From playing I loved the valves of my Besson 981 which I played for 25 years. After a few weeks of breaking in they worked smoothly and reliable in all conditions and made playing with all sorts of slow/half valve technique easy. Only minor wish would have been larger buttons but I never bothered to look for.
What I like even more are the Berlin valves of my 1909 swedish F-tuba. Light valves giving a light and short action, best feel I ever had. Airflow is perfect too. Downfall: the build quality of the sheet metal pistons gives wider tolerances, meaning more and thicker oil needed. It's ok for a horn this old but a reason not to play it daily (and F will never get my favourite tuning!)

[prodigal]

I'll probably need new springs on my 186 soon, but they still move pretty darn nice, considering that they're 64 years old.

All of the Mirafones I've played have had good to great rotors, but the B&S tubas I've played and owned have had great valves too, and they tend to get used pretty quickly.

I've never really had piston valves that have been good for me, I'm not saying that they're not out there, I just haven't experienced them. Most were slightly warped from the previous owners' finger placement.

My Cerveny 653's valves are still under 100k notes, so they're still breaking in, but I don't think they'll match up to her German neighbors in the basement.

[bloke]

I was going to mention the same exact King pistons from the 1960s and earlier, yet on instruments found to have been taken care of and with original (rather than rebuilt) tolerances - or very close to zero wear.

My 32-inch tall 19-inch bell Holton B flat instrument (which has been seen and discussed here, and which many believe the outer bows and bell were probably York manufactured, due to some pretty convincing evidence) features a 1990s highly adulterated 2341 (I believe it was during the UMI era) valve set.

It's a very complicated setup, which - by the time the instrument was completed would have been a nightmare to pull that valve section off and have it upgraded from A- to A+ via a rebuild (and I just don't know if I would want to send a valve section off these days, because I don't have any experience with anyone other than THE Guru who retired from Elkhart).

A customer offered to barter some fairly extensive dent removal from his 24J Conn tuba in exchange for a set of those Meinlschmidt custom ported aftermarket King valves. My previous experience with those was that - unlike the substitutes for the the larger B&S valves, those made for King are often just a little bit oversized (which - for me - was perfect). Therefore, I didn't have to pay for the valves with money, and - by the time I fitted those aftermarket pistons into my King valve section - I ended up with like new piston to casing tolerances. Sometimes I live the life of Riley.

A bonus has been that - over time - I've been able to sell those four OEM King pistons to schools whereby their young scholars trashed their sousaphones' pistons.

[Sousaswag]

The best valves I ever used were on my previous Hirsbrunner Hb-2P C tuba. I’m pretty sure Hirsbrunners used the same valve block as Nirschl’s tubas.

[bloke]

The most slippery pistons have always tended to be nickel plated pistons which are also built extremely well.

It's a ton of trouble to make nickel plated pistons into nearly perfect cylinders that match up nearly perfectly with nearly perfect cylinder valve casings.