PVA Guru?

kehaulani · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2022 5:20 pm Post subject: PVA Guru?

I've done my homework searching this topic and just don't find a current answer. And it's a simple question, sorry.

Who's currently The Man for PVAs? Thanks.
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Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
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Nonprokingdom · Regular Member Joined: 18 Nov 2021 Posts: 32

Bob Reeves and Jim Becker are two names that carry a great reputation for PVAs.

More and more smaller shops are offering them these days.

Rod Haney · Heavyweight Member Joined: 22 Aug 2015 Posts: 937

kehaulani · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2022 7:57 pm Post subject:

Charlie Melk, Bob Reeves, and Jim Becker. I won't be needing to look further than that. Thanks, guys!
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"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

adagiotrumpet · Heavyweight Member Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 903

Dr. Valve

Dayton · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:52 am Post subject:

I've been very satisfied with PVAs from Osmun Music (Jim Becker).

cbtj51 · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:23 am Post subject:

J. Landress Brass · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:40 am Post subject:

Every instrument that we clean in my shop receives a PVA as part of the cleaning. We go through cameras, measure, cut, shim and whatever it needs. If I were to guess we have aligned over 10,000 instruments.
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Mac Gollehon · Veteran Member Joined: 27 Feb 2014 Posts: 254

+1 here for Josh Landress Brass! Great PVA work for me for about 2 decades now.

Jerry · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:48 pm Post subject:

Wayne Tanabe did a fabulous PVA for me before he started working for Yamaha.

Does anyone know if he currently does PVAs on non-Yamaha horns?

J.D. Heckathorn · Veteran Member Joined: 16 Aug 2018 Posts: 124

Jim Becker at Osmun did the blueprint service on my Bach 43B and it solved the tuning issues I was having, highly recommended.
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larsken · Regular Member Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 77

FYI I have been doing valve alignments since 1991 at Bob Malones Brass Technology and my own company since 1997. Please understand that you are able to align one edge of a valve port to the corresponding port in the valve block. It is not an absolute, however creating a standard deviation allows you to balance the rest of the trumpet, without over compensating to correct a valve obstruction. Bob Reeves holds a patent for this procedure. Out of respect for Bob Reeves I measure from a different point, and I like the sound better. Every trumpet I build is aligned as a starting point. As a service I do discounted valve alignments at NTC, ITG etc... This saves allot of $$'s in shipping. Thx Ken

yourbrass · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:34 am Post subject:

All good replies, competent repair people. When I apprenticed to the trade in 1975, one of the first things me friend Larry Souza taught me was "porting the valves." this is now known as a "PVA." It's aligning the ports in the valves to their surrounding knuckles in order to have an open air flow.

I do it with washers, synthetic pads, or even old-fashioned felt, depending on the "feel" it gives the valve action. I'm picky about that, as one is striking the valves thousands of times in a practice or playing session, and it better feel good!
-Lionel
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lipshurt · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:00 am Post subject:

I always wondered what other people do when doing a Benge. On a Benge, the piston port is smaller that the casing ports in many places. I’ve found that lining up one edge, top or bottom, does not work as well as lining up the centers of the ports. That way there is more or less equal amounts of edge showing on the top and bottom. That is really hard to see with a mirror or camera so I do it by measurement, which also has its pain in the ass factor, but for Benge I don’ t see a better way. I drew up a device that will find and measure the distance from the centers to the top of the pad, and bottom of the valve cap. I’ve been slightly too lazy to actually make it though. I’m guessing that other people have such a device that aligns the centers as opposed to the top or bottom edge.
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Yamahaguy · Heavyweight Member Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 3992

Halflip · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:21 pm Post subject: