Bath Time 4 - Tuning Slide Grease & Valve Oiling

How to Oil your valves (trumpet, horn, tuba, euphonium, baritone) and apply tuning slide grease. How to clean your brass instrument. Best Practices, tools needed, and demo. Tricks of the trade from a pro- to make playing your horn more fun, and ensure it lasts a lifetime!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• education
• DrJ
• trombone
• trumpet
• french
• horn
• tuba
• baritone
• euphonium
• maintenance
• care
• clean
• cleaning
• Jon
• Brumm

[euphoniumification]

drjbonehead, You dont oil rotors like this. So it doesnt work for horn. To oil rotors you take out the slides and poor 5-6 droplets of valves oil and put it back in and tip it do it goes into the valve. And you dont put valve oil on spindles, you put spindle oil on it.

[drjbonehead]

@euphoniumification I do agree that most horn students are taught that way, but think about what I'm recommending below, and use logic and try it, I think you'll be surprised. At best it will work better. At worst, it won't harm anything. Over the past 28 years, I've found it very interesting observing and talking about maintenance with players and technicians- there is a LOT of mythology (both good, and bad) about maintenance.

[rushfreak127]

i know people are stupid when they put on valve oil

[EuphPlayer115]

I really cannot take out my bottom caps and I don't have penetrating oil. Can anyone please help?

[piplup10203854]

Will that Flitz Metal polish clean my old baritone mouthpiece, it's black cause like corrosion or rust

[drjbonehead]

@euphoniumification Sure, that's fine. For advanced players & pros, spindle oil is probably preferred, I'd use just a bit weekly, or bi-weekly as needed. For younger players who normally go 6-12 months without oiling at all (sigh) that's why I recommended the valve oil weekly, or every few days. It works fine, just breaks down more quickly. For both though, I would use a conventional valve oil rather than rotor oil- if applied daily, it works much better. (that's for the inside of rotors)

[euphoniumification]

@drjbonehead Alright. I think I will try it. But with spindles should I still use spindle oil?

[drjbonehead]

@euphoniumification Again sir, please read my reply below- there is a lot of "mythology" and "lore" about instrument maintenance- as I said, worst case scenario, it won't change a thing. Best case scenario, you will experience better rotor and valve action than before. Try it. You may be surprised.

[euphoniumification]

@drjbonehead I think I will try your method as you seem to have a lot more experience than me. And plus horn isn't my main instrument, so I don't know to much about horn and rotor valve maintenance.

[euphoniumification]

@drjbonehead I play horn and have had professional horn players tell that if you insert through the valve slides it gets it to the valve and circulate better.

[drjbonehead]

@euphoniumification With all due respect, you do. By placing the head of your valve oil bottle into the pipe leading directly into the valve, you get instant and direct oiling of the moving parts-if you put it into the tuning slide, you then have some stay in the tuning slide, and don't have a direct path. Using a heavier oil on the outer spindle is not a bad idea, and I often do so myself, but for younger students, if they simply use a conventional oil weekly, it has the same effect. :)