Schilke E3L D/E-flat valve slide lengths

jcopella

For the 2nd valve slide, how much longer should the D slide be than the E-flat?

Don Herman rev2 · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:47 pm Post subject:

Given 12 equally spaced tones on 1/12 intervals about 6% longer.

Technically 1.0594623529956603583405297468406x longer.
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

dstpt · Heavyweight Member Joined: 14 Dec 2005 Posts: 1286

theslawdawg · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:11 pm Post subject:

Don Herman rev2 · Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:30 am Post subject:

It's an irrational number, so we should love it, right?

_________________
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

Mes90265 · New Member Joined: 21 Feb 2018 Posts: 5

Looks correct

jcopella · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:19 am Post subject:

The reason I asked is that the D & E-flat 2nd valve slides look (to me, as near as I can tell) to be identical in length. I haven't put a micrometer to them or measured with a flexible tape or anything, though. However, as you'd expect, the 1st & 3rd valve slides are noticeably different; but the 2nd, not so much. Even with the expected increase from D to E-flat only being a factor of 1.06 I'd still expect to see a very slight difference.

I'm wondering if just for practical reasons Schilke just used the same slide on both sides because there's not much "grab" for the slide anyway because the tubing is so short.

Either that or there was a mixup originally and somehow I ended up with two of the same slides rather than one each for D & E-flat.

dstpt · Heavyweight Member Joined: 14 Dec 2005 Posts: 1286

LittleRusty · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:42 am Post subject:

The second valve lowers the pitch a half step. The first lowers it a whole step.

I don’t remember all the math from my physics of sound class but the difference of the second valve slide lengths should be around, less than, half the difference of the first slide length.

Don Herman rev2 · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:21 am Post subject:

3% (the difference in length per side) may be hard to see visually. You could try standing the two slides side-by-side on a table top, open ends on the table, and eyeballing or putting a ruler or piece of cardboard (etc.) across them to see if the Eb is a hair shorter.
_________________
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

johntpt · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 6:17 am Post subject:

Could you post a picture? That would make it easier for us to help you.

The D and Eb 2nd valve slides I have owned are of distinct lengths, easily detectable to the naked eye. Also, Schilke often stamps Eb and D on them.

If they look the same, maybe they made a mistake and sent two of the same length slides?

JU

jcopella · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:13 am Post subject:

Don: yes, that worked. The E-flat slide is just a hair shorter, with the excess length coming out of the end of the slide with the bend, not the male end that slots into the valve body. My error was assuming that the curved end didn't have enough length for them to shorten it for the E-flat side. The exposed brass tubing on the male side *is* the same length on both slides.

John: yes, thank you. I see the "D" and "E-flat" stamps, and they are indeed different lengths.

Thanks to all.