New Valve Oil to Test!

[mbrooke]

Is the "Slide Oil 5" appropriate for trombone slides? (or do they have a product for such usage?)

Also, on my Adams E3, the second valve slide is loose enough that it has simply fallen out a couple of times while playing. Would you recommend the (what I assume to be) thicker tuning slide grease (as opposed to the gel)?

Hi Larry,

With regard to Hetmans, the Hetmans 7.5 is better than Hetmans 8 (which is the grease). The 8 is more solid, but it is much less sticky and much slicker than the 7.5. This Houghton product appears to come in only a 7 and 8 (which supposedly corresponds to Hetmans 7 and 8), so I would go for the Houghton 7 or just use Hetmans 7.5.

Mike

[enhite]

Are you saying that you do NOT get the gunk with petroleum oil? For me it seems able to show up with either.

The "gunk" I get from using synthetic oils is more immediate. Of course petroleum based oils can cause build up, but, for me at least, it occurs over a longer time period.

[davewerden]

UPDATE, AND CONCLUSION.

This has been somewhat confusing, but I untangled everything finally (more at the end of this post). In short, the #1 oil is the best synthetic I have tested. It is very smooth and very thin. Valve action is great, and there is surely no more gunk deposited from this oil than from the Hetmann I was using for so long. For those who like synthetic oils, you really should try the Josef Meinlschmidt oils.

On the other hand... Gail Robertson tested the same oil and reported lots of gunk (more at the end of this post).

The slide grease is also very nice, and is my first choice now. I will say I don't think it lasts quite as long as others I have tried, like Monster & Hetmann. But, probably for the same reason, the slides seems smoother now.

That's the end of the review. Now...

After years of suspecting something I have concluded I'm right. FOR ME, no synthetic seems to work when I get lots of moisture in the horn. The last few weeks my basement has been pretty cool, so I get lots of condensation. And along with that, the valves get sluggish sometimes between my daily oiling. My conclusion is that synthetic oils can't handle a lot of moisture. And maybe that is the problem for Gail as well.

For the time being, I'm going to test Al Cass, which I have not used for a couple decades or more (I bought new bottles!).

ALSO, I'm officially no longer recommending Blue Juice. I switched to it a week ago, and today I had quite a bit of gunk to clean out of the bottom caps. That is not conclusive - some may have started to happen at the end of my synthetic round. However, in a conversation with two very sharp sales folk at Schmitt, I have a better handle on the problems some people have with Blue Juice. They reported that over time it can cause wear on the brass (probably not on stainless steel, but maybe on monel??). It has a detergent that could help with some things, I suppose. On the other hand, if the detergent really is removing impurities, what happens to them? I suspect the end up in the bottom cap. There is some kind of anti-bacterial agent according to Blue Juice. I'm not sure if there are drawbacks to that, but I am pretty sure that I'm less in need of its help because I'm cleaning the horn every day. So we'll see if Al Cass satisfies my cool-room needs!

[davewerden]

Oh, and in addition to bringing home 3 bottles of Al Cass from Schmitt Music, I also bought a bottle of Monster Oil's organic oil. At some point I'll do some testing on that one.

[Arnbone Euph]

This seems like an older track. When I got my virtuoso, I switched to Blue Oil; no issues so far, but the previous owner was using Resilience Oils "True Synthetic Valve Oil #1 Light". Wondering if I shoud maybe go back to that since it was his choice oil and I have about a quarter of the bottle left. Anyone have an opinion on Resilience Oils?

[davewerden]

This seems like an older track. When I got my virtuoso, I switched to Blue Oil; no issues so far, but the previous owner was using Resilience Oils "True Synthetic Valve Oil #1 Light". Wondering if I shoud maybe go back to that since it was his choice oil and I have about a quarter of the bottle left. Anyone have an opinion on Resilience Oils?

There have been some discussions about this oil, with overall positive impressions as I recall. Here is a very thorough review:

http://www.dwerden.com/forum/showthr...lve-oil-review

[davewerden]

FWIW, here is the oil that I am waiting to test (until the temperature in my basement gets warmer!):




https://www.austincustombrass.biz/mo...ite-valve-oil/

[Arnbone Euph]

Wow. very detailed. Ording some today.

--Arnie