ashton

I have a Taylor trumpet and have been having trouble with my vavles. I have cleaned them and everything very thouroughly and they still stick every once in a while, but enough to cause problems. I don't know what is wrong with them, and when I bring it to a repair shop they never can do much to fix it. Are there any books around about trumpet repair? I am tired of trusting my trumpet into someone else's hands and want to be able to fix it myself. If anyone could let me know of any books that I could learn from on the subject that would be great. Also if anyone knows a lot about Taylor trumpets and could let me know what might be wrong with the valves, that would help a lot too. Thanks- Ashton.

Cornet1

"........ I have cleaned them and everything very thouroughly and they still stick every once in a while....."

Yes, but have you cleaned the instrument itself very thouroughly?......particularly the two small connecting tubes between the valves?......have you actually got a brush into them and removed the solids which build up in them and then eke out onto your nice clean valves when you start to put warm air and pressure thru the trumpet?

Tootsall

I think that if you do a "search" in various trumpet forums for posts that include the words "Taylor" and "valve", you might run across some. I've read (rarely) about folks with similar problems but cannot remember what the real "problem" was... dirt? distortion? extremely close tolerances? incompatible valve oil?

By the way, I would not hesitate to drop Andy Taylor an email with a problem like this; most of these custom guys are really interested in keeping their "reputation" as high as possible and will, I am sure, treat your problem with the utmost of seriousness.

trumpet4u

Hi:
Before I joined NAPBIRT, I was a self taught trumpet repairman and had a lot of trouble finding information about how to do trumpet repairs. If you are still searching for information on trumpet valve repairs, email me at ralphc@trumpet4u.com and I can send you some repair tips that may help.
Ralph

GoodMusic@PA

Yes, you definetly want to give him Mr.Taylor an email. If your valves have green or any visible build up on the valves, you need to clean it with brasso or CLR.


You also might want to consider changing vavle oils, some trumpets don't work with certain oils(my bach works horribly with bach valve oil).

Rushtucky

I have a Bach Mercedes and it started to give me the same problem. I tried everything and every once in awhile the 1st valve would stick again. Since the valves were nickel, I got some VERY mild silver cleaner and polished them and wiped them down with a micro cloth. Still had some problems. Then one of my friends put me on to a compound called "Magic Valve". This stuff is awsome! If you follow the directions you can do a mild lapping of your valve will come out working like new. Check out YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. and type in Magic Valve Trumpet Cleaning for a demonstration.

The product is called Magic Valve and can be obtained at: www.majicvalve.com

I got the .3 oz size and it is all you will ever need. Remember...start slowly and do not uses too much. It will probably take two to three applications to get the valve working smooth as silk.

As far as valve oil, I started using Ultra-Pure about a year ago and swear by it.

__________________
"Rushtucky"
Indianapolis, Indiana
__________________

Bach Instrumentalist
__________________

"It is not necessary to understand music;
it is only necessary that one enjoy it"
Leopold Stanislaw Stokowski

Brekelefuw

Lapping is not a good first solution to valve troubles. It removes material that you can't replace without replating the valve.

After watching the youtube videos, that demonstration worries me. He is lapping with a very rough and unsmooth motion. If not careful, he could bend the piston or distort the casing.

He also uses a metal tipped brush in his casings, which can scratch the inside of the casing causing burs. He is very rough with the brushes, and you can hear him banging the bell on the sink.
When cleaning valves try to get a plastic or rubber tipped brush so you reduce the chances of marring the casing.

samdaman

Try Using Binak PRO Valve oil. You can google it. Nannet Kappa is the creator of it. She knows alot about the working of moving metal parts (she has a degree in Tribology). You can email her and ask her about her product. Biank is a great valve oil and it also cleaned my valves too!

__________________
-Sam Tate

-Bach 43LR Reverse Lead
-Yamaha Chicago Artist Series C Trumpet
-Gold Schilke E3L Eb/D
-Schilke P5-4B/G
-Yahmaha 6310Z Bobby Shew Flugel
-Warburton 3 series and a GR67FL

When in doubt, go with the FLOW... it's all about the flow... musical line and tone production :)

www.samtate.info
www.music.psu.edu
slt5103@gmail.com

veery715

If you haven't had the whole horn ultrasound cleaned, and if it has any mileage on it, that is a really good way to be sure the interior passages, which can be hard to get to with a brush or anything else, are cleaned well. Have the valves done too. Then reassemble with a good light synthetic oil.
veery

Rushtucky

It is true what Brekelefuw stated about the video, but then he was probably an actor and was going through the motions. I have used the lapping solution on two of my trumpets and it worked great. Follow the instructions to the letter and you will do fine. I would rather work on my own trumpet if I can than have someone else do it since I put the TLC into it.

__________________
"Rushtucky"
Indianapolis, Indiana
__________________

Bach Instrumentalist
__________________

"It is not necessary to understand music;
it is only necessary that one enjoy it"
Leopold Stanislaw Stokowski