Alex Yates

I have a Yamaha Custom long bell piccolo that plays pretty well. However, I played it against a new one that a friend of mine owns and wondered if I could improve on mine rather than buy a new one. (which is not an option right now. LOL) Mine is 13 years old and has some intonation issues that the new ones do not. Will a valve alignment improve things? It blows fine and I sound fine on it, so I don't know if I want to mess with the lead pipe. What I am tired of is fighting the pitch on the darn thing. The new ones seem to have improved in that area. Also, I tried years ago to have a trigger put on the first valve (like the Butler/Geyer Schilke model) but it required replacing the entire valve cluster.....which wasn't worth it. Are there options available now that perhaps were not five or so years ago? Thanks.

Schwab

I have a Schilke that I bought used (Micky McCurdy's), it has a trigger on the first slide which is not original, as the horn is old, pre Butler/Geyer.

The top slide was reversed, it should be an easy process to do by a competent repairman, just have the outer tube moved from the valve section to the removable slide and attach the inner tube from the slide to the valve cluster. Add trigger, finished.

You shouldn't have to replace the valve cluster.

Alex Yates

Thanks Dylan. I checked into this about six, seven years ago and my repairman said he could not do it....but I am wondering if it is because the bracing on the Yamaha is in close to the leadpipe compared to the Schilkes? Then again, once you explained it, it doesn't seem impossible to have done on this horn. My next question.....whom should I trust to do the job and freshen my horn up a bit?

Thanks again!

Schwab

I like Jim Becker at Osmun in Boston, I have him do work on my horns. Wayne Tanabe, but I hear he is working for Yamaha now. I've heard good things about Charlie Melk.

Alex Yates

Yes, I heard the same about Wayne and that was who I was considering. I thank you for the other recommendations. Do you think a valve alignment is in order here? I honestly don't know much about it. My main horn already had it done before I played it and I have not felt it necessary to do with my other horns. Sorry to be a pest..... I play quite a bit of piccolo and after playing someone else's, I got "the bug". I want to improve my horn instead of buying another because I have always sounded good on this one.

Schwab

None of my horns are aligned. There is quite a thread about valve alignments, ask trickg about it, he recently had it done.

ROGERIO

Alex and all,

I have had great success with Charlie Melk and would recommend him highly! As a matter of fact I've been in contact with him to do a B/G type conversion on my P6-4.

I have another picc (a P5-4) with a B/G done by Schilke last year. Here's the good and bad: I love the conversion because it allows me to tune the picc on the go much like I tune my other conventional horns. The problem is the throw on the first slide is so incredibly short that the physics of it all allows it to catch in mid stream... then you’re stuck in the middle of a passage with the first slide out 1/4 of an inch. Not fun.

The conversation with Charlie: He is unable to convert the Schilke's with "male and female" slides because now that Schilke is doing their own repairs no parts are being sold to outside repairmen. But in your case with the Yamaha this is not an issue. What I would recommend though (if you want a saddle on the first slide and not a trigger) is to set it up like the conversion on older NY and Mt Vernon Bach's... meaning having the saddle on a piece that connects to the crook of the slide instead of on the top flat portion. Charlie seemed to be in agreement with me on this... it may eliminate the physics problem because the "pull" is coming from the crook area and not elsewhere. I may be sending him the P6-4 to go ahead and convert without using the “male / female” slides… still not sure… cash flow after the holidays… LOL

If you want, PM me and we can chat on the phone about this…

MahlerBrass

I would go ahead and get a valve alignment done. A lot of times that would do the trick. When I had a Yammie picc I bought some Blackburn leadpipes for it and they did wonders. Of course the valve alignment is cheaper so I'd try that first, best of luck!

ROGERIO

Now that Wayne is with Yamaha...

Other than Reeves, who else does good valve alignments?

Schwab

I believe Tanabe still does alignments.