rogmc

I sure hope someone can help me here, I am totally frustrated. Got a Yamaha Xeno RGS professional horn,about 3 years old, and I can NOT stop valves 1 and 2 from dragging and sticking. My local repair shop hand lapped the valves, no improvement, the tech spun the valves through the casings with a high speed drill, no improvement. The valves were soaked in venigar overnite, no improvement. The horn has been throughly clesned numerous times, no improvement.
Anybody out there got any suggestions?

tatakata

Ouch. Sounds drastic. Where did you have that work done.

What valve oil are you using. And has the horn always had this problem?

TopGun

Try a new tech and maybe leave the drills alone.

rogmc

Thanks for replying. I work part time for a musicstore and the repair tech there did it. He mostly works on school rental instruments. I don't think he knew what to do with this type horn. I have owned the horn bout a year and the problem seems to be getting progressivly worse. I have bathtub "super" cleaned it several times to no avail. I don't know what to try next.

TopGun

Make sure when you clean it there is no fibers from a drying or polishing cloth. Also you might try a synthetic oil like Zaja Blue or Ultra Pure. Sometimes after cleaning a horn the valves will stick just a bit for the first day or two afterwards.

Have you ever dented or dropped the horn? It sounds like the "body" might be torqued a bit.

rogmc

U B right about the tech. When I walked back to the shop he had the drill in high gear. Told me he knew what he was doing. What do I know, my last horn cost 50 bucks at the pawn shop. However, I don't think he did any damage to it that I could tell. Still plays the same and the valves stick the same way. I'll try the different oils and if that don't work, guess I will have to find a tech experienced with the pro horns.

Toobz

... and then whack the tech in the head with the drill gun.

rowuk

A sticky valve is a mechanical problem that can have many causes. Lapping the valves removes material and makes the valves seal worse. It also does not necessarily fix the problem and now you have less tight valves AND the stickyness is still there. What he did with a high speed drill I can only guess, but it probably means even MORE material was removed.
Your problem now is not only how to get the stickyness attended to, but also whether the valves need replating. I would first check if your shop is insured and then send the horn to Yamaha or a very well known specialist. In Germany we say "Dumm gelaufen" - not really translatable!

If all of this has happened recently, you need to think about what you are doing differently - a change of slide grease perhaps - not all greases get along with all valve oils and because the 1st and 2nd slides are shorter, the problem would show up there first.

I got som mil. spec silicone grease once and the slides worked better than ever! The grease unfortunately worked its way into the valves (during a gig) and I used a whole bottle of Al Cass in 4 hours even although I swabbed out the valves during each break - what a pain in the @xx! That stuff was not easy to get out of the horn either. Now I only buy products designed for trumpet!

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Brad

I have nearly an identical horn. Whenever my valves are sticky it is because something is in the valves. Sometimes a hair from my dog shedding or sometimes a bit of grease from the slides. I would try giving your horn the bathtub treatment once again and when you reassemble the horn be very careful to use the minimum amount of slide grease. Also carefully examine the valves when you reassemble the horn to check for foriegn matter.

Brad

mike ansberry

I've seen a lot of Yamaha valves stick. Actually, I don't like any of the monel valves that are out now. But then this has been discussed here before. I teach band in middle school and have been a technician since the 70's. I've seen lots of monel valves that had problems. I've seen extremely few nickel valves with problem. If I was going to have valves overhauled I'd definitly have them plated in nickel.

A couple of guys mention trying different oils. This is a good place to start. Some oils (esp. Al Cass) will react with your saliva and the monel to make greenish brown places on the valves. That will cause your valves to drag. I found that my Yamaha 6335 worked best with the yellow Yamaha (skunk) oil.

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"Music is a fire in your belly that has to come out of your mouth, so you'd better put a horn in the way before someone gets hurt" (paraphrase of Bleeding Gums Murphy)