stinky

I'm new to the forum and thought perhaps you can help me out. I recently decided to end my 35-year playing hiatus (I played in HS) by buying an old Vega Chas E George model trumpet and starting to practice (ouch!). It's a cool old small-bore, silver-plated horn and in really great shape, but the valves won't even keep up with my out-of-practice fingers. I have cleaned, and cleaned, and oiled, (Hetman #3) but to no avail. I have even polished a little on the valves themselves, but I don't want to do much of this because the valves already have some "side wiggle". What options are there for this sort of problem? I have heard about several but am not really up-to-date on the effectiveness of the various options. I don't want to spend a fortune, (the horn cost me about $100.00) but I'd like to put it into as good shape as possible. Any suggestions? Also, if the suggested fix is something only available through a shop, can anyone recommend one in the Virgina area?

Liad Bar-EL

First, in a trumpet, everything relates to each other. The action of the valves are also related to the slides in that if you have dirty slides, the valves are not going to work properly; so, you have to thoroughly clean the entire horn.

Second, I don't know how old your horn is nor how much you used it in the past but for a $100 horn, one can not expect to have high compression valves nor a valve block lining that would last for a long period of time after a lot of use. The amount of money to have a shop fix it could cost as much as another $100 horn.

Third, I am sure that you could find a better horn on e-bay.

Forth, you might enjoy this old horn of yours better sitting next to it while reading the newspaper or your favorite book while it provides light from your "new" trumpet lamp.

Good luck and welcome back to the trumpet family,

Liad Bar-EL