first valve slide ss an air pump

[bloke]

It's impossible to keep track of how many videos I've watched of players (usually 6/4 C yorkaphone players) who seem to use the first valve slide as some sort of pump (??) rather than for tuning.

They move the slide a lot, but it never seems to be in the same spot as before when they play the same pitch again.

When I decided to take on this huge rotary B-flat kaiser / 6/4 crossover instrument, I played it for a few weeks to figure out all of its mechanical shortcomings for tuning, and then I got to work.

I'm not going to go into all the other things I did, but one of the things I did was to remove the first slide (slide tubing only) assembly so that the ends of the 90°, tubes that feed it were exposed (remember: rotary). Rather than shortening the first valve slide tubes, I shortened the upward ends of those 90° pieces by about 5/8 of an inch, because - prior to that - I wasn't able to tune first valve c up to pitch with the first slide pushed all the way in.
The way it's set up now, the first valve slide is pushed all the way in for second space c, it's pulled out the furthest for 1-3 C an octave lower (as fourth valve always plays C flatter than low F). I have the fourth slide tuned to play B natural 2-4 only a tiny smidge sharp, low F only a tiny smidge flat (as the correct spots for low F and 2-4 B-natural are nearly in the same spot), and low E is 523.
All of the other first valve involved pitches tune somewhere between the position for second space c and the position for 1-3 C an octave lower.
I really worked diligently (when learning to play this instrument and when working to master playing a B flat instrument) at positioning the 1st slide for the various pitches to become second nature, and to not use the slide as (again, what it seems that many others use it) as some sort of an air pump.

It seems to me that if someone's going to use the first valve slide consistently consistently, they should absolutely know where each pitch belongs and drop it into place for each pitch, but - if not - they might as well just pull it out an inch or so and leave it alone.

I just happen to prefer the wonderful physical feedback of blowing right through the center of the instrument's tuning (set for each pitch) and that wonderful feeling of that resonance actually being in tune with everyone else (so as to get the physical thrill of resonance in two different ways). I do realize that some people snicker at people who mess with their first slide all the time. I guess I snicker at people who seem to move it randomly and end up with it in all sorts of different positions while playing the same pitch. It takes a lot of courage to post a video, I guess, so perhaps I should be complimenting people's courage rather than the noticed nonsense. Just to be clear, I don't know any of these people and I don't know any of their names, and I wouldn't identify any of them if I could.

[Wilco]

Agree . As a trombone player I can’t really tolerate lipping up or down.

I have a modification planned for my Besson 983 Eb tuba in a month or 2.

There are 3 pitches (yes, it really is that in tune) that need a slide adjustment.
- low E (easiest is to pull the 3rd slide to the max). For this the 3rd comp loop is pulled out to full. I will have slide legs lengthed for stability)
- the F (1st valve) and E (1+2) in the staf. Alternates are there (4 and 2+4) but they sound different and are close but not exactly in tune. These two notes require a push in all the way. The solution for that (because first slide is hard to grab) will be a spring loaded thing. So a light push down manually and a smooth auto return.

[JC2]

Amazing.