I borrowed a trumpet off the head of music at school, and my friend who plays tuba oiled the valves for me at the weekend, and it hasn't worked properly since!!

The first thing it did was start playing at concert pitch, but it's stopped that now. Then it felt like the air was coming back through the mouthpiece. The other thing is, is that I was getting Gs above the stave with only little bit of effort, and now I'm really struggling to get Cs on the stave!

Does anyone know how to fix it? The valves were put back in the right order and the right way, because we olny took them out one at a time, and my teacher doesn't have a clue, even though it's his!!!

Any ideas?!
thanks

Wow, a trumpet playing at concert pitch!! How interesting!

Brass instruments always manage to confuse me. Jonny will know, I'm sure...he should be on in the next few days.

Your double-lipped clarinettist friend.

I got the ICT technician, who plays trumpet to have a look at it, and he thinks it's working now.

It was something to do about the valves not being taken out for 10 years or so and thennot going back exactly which was affecting the tuning! He says I have to polish them and then just tune it with the main slide!

Thanks for the reply oddball

the valves have to be exactly aligned and in the right chambers otherwise the air doesnt pass through properly. My son still has problems doing this on his own but you have to look very carefully. I think it varies from trumpet to trumpet as we now have 2 different ones and the alignment is different on both

Oh! How do make sure they're exactly alligned when they go back in? Did I tighten them to much/not enough than it should have been?

When you remove a piston to oil it do only one at a time, this aids in ensuring the piston goes back into the right valve casing, then after you place the piston back into the casing turn it in a clock wise direction slowly until you hear it click, when you hear it click the piston has secured itself into the correct position you can then push the piston completely down and tighten the other fixtures. This works with the trumpets i have had to correct for my students who either put them in the wrong casing or have put them incorrectly into the right casing.

Thanks! I didn't realise it had to click before you started tightening it! I'll check it tomorrow, when I won't be bothering anyone checking to see if it works better!

Elmo,

It's arguably not neccessary to remove your valves to oil them. I just lift them up far enough to expose the bit that has the holes in (sorry about the technical jargon), put a couple of drops of oil on and then pop the valve back down. This eliminates the risk of accidentally damaging removed valves.

Regards,

Mark.

Thanks! I just oiled the first valve, without taking it out, and it's still playing at normal pitch!

Hi,

Even if you take the valve out fully, you can see if the valves were put back right by fully removing the slides.

When you take the slide out, and fully depress the valve, the holes of the valves should completely align with the holes of the slide. If this does not happen, then it means the valves have not been fitted well.

Cheers,
M Brown

sorry i skimmed over the post a bit - i don't know if what i say has been said

make sure all the valves are back in the right place - there should be numbers on them if not it's trial and error -

make sure they are turned so the correct tubes are joined at the right place - it is possible to have tubes miss matched and still get some notes - iff a little odd

also - i dont know if your tuba playing friend took out the sldes- but makes sure they are in the right way and are with the right valve

hope some of these work!

You know i now tell my trumpet students not to remove the pistons at all when oiling them but rather encourage them to oil the valves by removing the bottom piston caps and by applying a few drops of valve oil from the bottom. This saves on so much confusion and works equally well to oiling the pistons from the top. Give it a go yourself.