Anybody valve swapped a Gen 2 88H and enjoyed the results?
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:09 pm
I have owned a Gen 2 88HO since being gifted the horn new in 8th grade...and have been playing on it consistently for about 15 years excluding my last couple years of college where I was only in Jazz/Marching band.
I studied Trombone through my first couple years of undergrad, but was in school for Engineering, write software for a living, and nowadays just play principal in a community orchestras + the odd Christmas or chamber gig. Despite it looking atrocious from a couple dents and my skin eating through nearly all the lacquer, it's mechanically great, I love the sound I've developed with it, and I've never been able to justify getting anything else. It's more than enough horn for my needs.
That said, one of my, and perhaps my only real long standing complaint with the 88H, and maybe it's just my horn, is the valve register. I know the Gen 2 valves are leagues ahead of Bach's standard rotor, and generally don't get upgraded, but mine feels disproportionately resistant and hard to slot on that side of the horn. It has amazing action, and sounds fine, but just nowhere near open horn. I recall playing on a used Besson 944R back in the day, with a Hagmann valve, and marvelling at how comparatively open the valve register felt. Other aspects of the horn including the slide action and overall sound I didn't care for as much, but it felt like an improvement. I haven't played many Thayer derivatives, but at conventions I was always very impressed at their openness too. Even my friend's similarly specced Yamaha Xeno felt like an incremental improvement in the Valve over my 88H, though still not so much more open I'd upgrade for it.
Perhaps besides practicality the thing that's held me back from ever horn shopping is that my 88H holds a lot of sentimental value. Even though it's risky, and not cost efficient, I'm considering getting it restored (or at least relaquered), and am not opposed to modifications. I have gotten a lightweight slide mod done by BAC (inspired by the slide on my Elkhart 48H, which I love, and wish I had more excuses to play), and that turned out fantastic.
Has anybody ever done a valve replacement on a Gen 2 88H with good results? If so, what did you switch to? I've only ever heard of it being done on Elkhart models, which had presumably stuffier valves to begin with. Could I have just gotten a badly assembled horn that would stand to benefit from a full stress-free rebuild from a competent tech?
I studied Trombone through my first couple years of undergrad, but was in school for Engineering, write software for a living, and nowadays just play principal in a community orchestras + the odd Christmas or chamber gig. Despite it looking atrocious from a couple dents and my skin eating through nearly all the lacquer, it's mechanically great, I love the sound I've developed with it, and I've never been able to justify getting anything else. It's more than enough horn for my needs.
That said, one of my, and perhaps my only real long standing complaint with the 88H, and maybe it's just my horn, is the valve register. I know the Gen 2 valves are leagues ahead of Bach's standard rotor, and generally don't get upgraded, but mine feels disproportionately resistant and hard to slot on that side of the horn. It has amazing action, and sounds fine, but just nowhere near open horn. I recall playing on a used Besson 944R back in the day, with a Hagmann valve, and marvelling at how comparatively open the valve register felt. Other aspects of the horn including the slide action and overall sound I didn't care for as much, but it felt like an improvement. I haven't played many Thayer derivatives, but at conventions I was always very impressed at their openness too. Even my friend's similarly specced Yamaha Xeno felt like an incremental improvement in the Valve over my 88H, though still not so much more open I'd upgrade for it.
Perhaps besides practicality the thing that's held me back from ever horn shopping is that my 88H holds a lot of sentimental value. Even though it's risky, and not cost efficient, I'm considering getting it restored (or at least relaquered), and am not opposed to modifications. I have gotten a lightweight slide mod done by BAC (inspired by the slide on my Elkhart 48H, which I love, and wish I had more excuses to play), and that turned out fantastic.
Has anybody ever done a valve replacement on a Gen 2 88H with good results? If so, what did you switch to? I've only ever heard of it being done on Elkhart models, which had presumably stuffier valves to begin with. Could I have just gotten a badly assembled horn that would stand to benefit from a full stress-free rebuild from a competent tech?