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Thread: Freezing Valves: what can we do?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
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    3,853
    Hand warmers aren't that pricey. Amazon sells a ten-pack (20 warmers) for about $10.

    http://www.amazon.com/Grabber-Hand-W...s=hand+warmers
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
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    Intriguing ... for the adventurous and experimental-minded? I see a belt power pack and fully heated euphonium.

    12V DC Heat Tape

    But if this works, you'd probably just be out of tune with everyone else .
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by ghmerrill View Post
    <snip>

    But if this works, you'd probably just be out of tune with everyone else .
    You'd be the only one playing up to a 440 pitch.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  4. #14
    Cheap plug:
    Monster Oil has a freezing point of about 65 below zero.

  5. Odd and perhaps hypocritical.
    For about 10 years I served in The Salvation Army as Divisional Music Director and Bandmaster for the Northern Division Band here in Minnesota.
    Part of my job was maintaining an inventory of about 250 brass instruments for bandsmen and students. As players transfered in and out, instruments were shuffled from player to player.
    On one instance I remember opening a trombone case and finding in the spray bottle some unusual smelling water (well, was it actually water?)
    Turned out to be gin. And then I remembered those outdoor Christmas Kettle gigs where the temp was usually below freezing and valves would freeze and seize right in the middle of a tune.
    I never learned who had that trombone many years before I arrived and inventoried it and its case. But upon asking others, it was confessed that alcohol was frequently used by even the most devout Salvationists, but never consumed.
    When we stop to think about it, we don't consume valve oil so why would we even think they would consume alcohol (and at that from a bottle that small.)
    Nice to know some trombonist wanted to keep the music playing even in the frigid Minnesota winter.
    BMB F tuba 445s
    BMB CC (BAT) 865s
    Mack Euphonium 1150s
    Wessex F Cimbasso

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
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    2,369
    So one common and viable alternative seems to be the use of alcohol to prevent valves freezing. This will work for many of us, but may present problems for perhaps the largest group facing the problem: high school and college students needing to play (often at athletic events or other gatherings) in freezing weather. I guess the conversation would start like this: "Hey dad (or Mr. Band Director), can you get me a half-pint of gin -- for my horn, you know?"
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

  7. Ha Gary! Ya got a point there. Well put.

    Actually a petroleum based valve oil should not freeze either, but me thinks the issue is all the water in the horn. Perhaps a 'miracle' to change the water into ... never mind.

    I wonder how long one of those microwavable heat packs for first aid would stay warm. Held on the valve section by some sort of means I am not prepared to engineer at the moment.

    Living in Minnesota one has to contend with sub freezing (and quite often sub zero) weather for 4 or more months of the year. I had at one point thought of lining my gig bag with an electric blanket and plugging it in when I arrived to the gig. Even indoors in a heated concert hall, a tuba can take easily a half hour to warm up to room temperature and only a few minutes to chill just sitting on stage. I also thought it would be nice to have that electric blanket on stage to rest the horn upon when sittuing out those long movements of symphonies.

    Ah! All the inventions one could come up with - as if we really need something more to schlepp to the gig.

    But back to the "hooch" for the freezing horn. It worked on the trombone as it is easily sprayed on the slide. The problem with freezing valves is another issue. I suppose one could continually pour it down the lead pipe every couple of tunes. But that could really consume a lot and be rather messy. Simple solution - just don't play when it is freezomg. Then us "old geezer sages" won't need to try to solve yet another problem.

    Happy New Year. "We'll drink a cup of kindness yet, for Auld Lang Syne" Cheers!!!
    BMB F tuba 445s
    BMB CC (BAT) 865s
    Mack Euphonium 1150s
    Wessex F Cimbasso

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