Originally Posted by
tbonesullivan
Most likely, his secret is a tech that lapped the slides for him, making them smoother and decreasing the diameter just a bit. That would make them easier to move, and then he probably uses "Slide Oil" instead of "Slide Gel" or "Grease".
Yes, this is what I did (i.e., I did it -- not a tech) to the 1st valve slide on my Cerveny 781 BBb horn. It's quite simple to do IF the slide legs are really parallel. I then used standard valve oil (Alisyn in my case) as the lubricant. Care must be taken in the lapping since you want it to work smoothly and easily, with virtually no effort, but to remain in place if you let it go or set it for "standard tuning". It should not be as loose/slick as a trombone hand slide. Finally, it's absolutely silly to do this unless you vent the valve for that slide. However, once all that's done on a standard German/Czech-style tuba, then your hand rests on the top bow and you can use the 1st valve slide to dynamically tune as needed. It worked so well that for any valve combinations involving the 1st valve I rarely used the 4th valve and confined it's use almost solely to the low range where it was really needed to lower the pitch. 4th valve combinations for "alternate fingerings" in order to adjust pitch in all registers except the contra one were generally eliminated.
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)