Originally Posted by
davewerden
I see a difference in height, but that probably is not related to the noise. However, the 3 valve tops should align. If they don't, one of 3 things could be going on:
1. You don't have the same size pads on top of the pistons.
2. One of the valve caps (which hold the piston in) is not screwed down, but those look level.
3. The piston's stem is not fully screwed in.
4. (Maybe a variation of 2) One of the valve caps is cross-threaded.
Try switching the springs around in the pistons and see of that makes a difference. If it doesn't, then it's probably not the spring.
Some other possibilities are
5. Your horn is a Besson or a Besson clone and you dropped one of the rubber spring dampers out of the piston bottom and onto the floor. (Not true for your horn in particular, I think.)
6. When you replaced (or removed) the springs, you bent one.
7. There's something inside the horn that is causing the vibration (a little loose piece of solder, for example).
8. One of the valve guides is vibrating. Maybe you got it out of whack or out of alignment in the process of disassembling and reassembling a piston. This is fairly common among players who are inexperienced in disassembling the piston finger button, stem, and top pads on Yamahas. That plastic body on the valve guide has to go on so bump in its underside fits into a small hole in the piston top -- which prevents it from rotating back and forth as you play. Most people who haven't fooled with them previously and haven't looked carefully don't realize this.
9. Somehow in the process of cleaning you managed to loosen a solder joint.
10. It's not really your horn that's vibrating. It's something else in the room or nearby. (I have had this happen and it drove me nuts for a while. Wasn't the horn at all.)
It's unlikely to be the spring if it's only happening when the spring is compressed. But what COULD be happening is that it's ANOTHER spring that's vibrating on those notes.
With a careful approach to trying various notes and a "laying on of hands" (and maybe having someone else to listen to where the vibration is really coming from, you should be able to isolate it. Then you can figure out how to fix it.
To me, the second valve button looks higher than the others. Have you actually laid a straight-edge across those to see which one is out?
Last edited by ghmerrill; 02-07-2016 at 08:21 PM.
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)