1-piece or two-piece valve casing

[tpttpttpt]

Does 1-piece valve casing sound better than 2-piece valve casing? What is the benefits of 1-piece over 2-piece?

[David O]

What do you mean by one or two piece?

[ALaschiver]

You can repair a two piece, one piece more difficult. I have always been under the impression that quality casings were two piece. www.marcinkiwicz.com (two piece)

[ALaschiver]

make that [url]Marcinkiewicz.com[/url]

[Bill Bryant]

Xeno--two piece
Yamaha Bergeron--two piece
Mt. Vernon Bach--two piece
Modern Elkhart Bach--one piece
"True" Bach--?

[James Becker]

[_dcstep]

I suspect that mass is more important than the number of pieces. When Tanabe made his Chicago Brass Works trumpets he offered two valve block mass options and the response was very noticeably different.

I would not make one-piece/two-piece a selection criteria. Play the horn and decide based on the response vs. your needs.

Dave
_________________
Schilke '60 B1 -- 229 Bach-C/19-350 Blackburn -- Lawler TL Cornet -- Conn V1 Flugel -- Stomvi Master Bb/A/G picc -- GR mpcs
[url=http://www.pitpops.com] The PitPops[/url]
Rocky Mountain Trumpet Fest

[trickg]

[James Becker]

[trickg]

[straight talker]

Schilke has two piece valve casings, but they are all brass. Correct, no nickel parts.

[trickg]

[straight talker]

Schilke is just that good.

[trickg]

[aceswildtru]

[Ed Kennedy]

On a 2 piece when the top threads have been badly buggered you can easily replace the upper part (called the ballister). Also when overhauling a well worn instrument the ballisters can be rotated, so that the handworn parts are no longer exposed.

[James Becker]

[brtech]

Either design is acceptable providing it plays great for you.
Based on my experience over the years in trumpet building and design, I prefer the 2 piece when done correctly for several reasons:

-the slotting for the valve guide can be milled accurately and cleanly more easily as it is exposed prior to the balluster being soldered on.

-also the slotted exposed area is often used as a point of reference for radial and linear drilling of the ports. This area is shielded in the 1 piece design(you can't see it) so the operator needs to make sure there are no chips or other obstructions in that area that may prevent accurate and repeatable parts.

-the manufacturer has the option of different material compositions and weights for both the casing and the balluster.

-when the balluster is soft soldered separately to the casing,the lower temperature of soft soldering helps to protect the integrity of the balluster(in terms of overall hardness and the integrity of thread cut) 1 piece valve casing threads can be more vulnerable as they are heated to over 1100 degrees when silver soldering the crooks to the casing on the lower half. Not only do the threads become softer on a 1 pc. valve casing, the peaks of the threads can also deteriorate slightly when exposed to the high heat of silver soldering.

Bach and some other manufacturers stopped making 2 pc valve casings because of ongoing acid bleed problems and trouble soldering the upper and lower pieces straight to each other while maintaining that straightness throughout the process.


SETTING ALL OF THAT TECHNICAL STUFF ASIDE:
If your set up does what you want, sounds how want and provides for enjoyable playing that's all that matters. Have fun.

[supportlivejazz]

I have a very small amount of what appears to be acid bleed at the seam between the top and bottom halves of my 1940s Blessing Artist's valve casings. It's minimal, but it is there. Is there a way of cleaning it off or helping to control it?
_________________
Conn 6B
1940s Blessing Artist
Olds LA Special Model Cornet






"I'm not apologizing, I am what I am. There'll be no compromising, I don't give a damn."

[Irving]

I was told by Lloyd Fillio in the 80's that the reason that Bach changed to one piece valve casings was because they were having problems with "leakage". Believe it...or not.