To make sure your valves come back up after you press them down, manufacturers have furnished us with a set of springs which work very well for most of the time.
Sometimes we are faced with valves which seem to hang up every so often and it usually happens at the worst time. Hesitant valves can be a real headache as I remember when I was in fifth grade and performing cornet solos with the Moline Boys Choir, of which I was a member. I had two solos to alternately perform in our concerts. It was usually when we had to make a costume change from black and white cassock into red white and blue sport coats. More often than I would like to admit, my valve would often hang up on me during a fast passage in Let the bright Seraphim, or the end of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, my two specialty numbers. No matter how many times I cleaned those valves and re-oiled, I had the same outcome. If I knew then what I know now, I could have been a contender.
If the valve and its corresponding valve casing are in good shape, and after cleaning, they still cause you frustration you might look into stronger springs. Valve springs are available in various degrees of strength and by simple replacing your current springs with a set slightly stronger, you may be able to keep your sanity.
Each manufacturer seems to have their own ideas as to how long, wide, stiff, limp they think their springs should be and consequently you may be able to find an assortment of strengths as I did years ago in a small instrument repair shop. If the valve is the correct diameter, it should fit into your valve spring area. To remove and replace a set of springs, follow the following instructions-
• Carefully remove each valve and place them on a towel where they will not roll onto the floor.
• One by one, twist the area just below the valve stem and remove.
• Remove the old spring and replace it with your new spring.
• Replace the stem and continue with the other two valves in the same manner.
• Replace your three valves after oiling them into the correct valve casings.
• Move each valve up and down and if you hear any scratching noise, it will probably be a misalignment of the spring so you will need to go back in to make sure the valve spring has seated properly.
• When you have the valve out of its casing, it would be a good idea to put a small drop of oil on the spring before you replace the valve into its casing. The oil might solve the scratching sound.
If your new set of springs improve your valve action, it could be because the old springs had lost some of their springiness or the new springs have a better resistance than the old springs.
Another possible solution to your valve problem can sometimes be solved by removing your springs and evenly and GENTLY stretch the spring which will increase its resistance and give you more return power. This return power also means that you will have to depress your valves with more force so GENTLY stretch the springs, don’t demolish them.
Another customizing trick you should know is the addition of another set of springs along with your original set. I used this trick on one of my university students who did not move his valves as quickly as I required. During one of his lessons, we added an additional set of valve springs BELOW each valve thereby doubling the resistance when fingering. I had the student continue for that week with the double set of valves and the following week his finger strength as well as speed had increased substantially. This was not a permanent addition to his valves but the one week of struggling to pound down his valves did the trick and in his next lesson we went back to using only the original set of springs.
Changing valve springs with stiffer or even lighter springs may help you with your stuck valves and definitely will change the way your move them during your performances. Check with your local instrument repair shop to see if they have an assortment of spring that would fit in your valve casings and experiment.
