Brass and Woodwind Repair Video Series #2 "Why Won't My Baritone Play?"


Recently, a Yamaha baritone came into my shop with a problem that I see quite often. There is a simple fix so I decided to make a video of the repair. This is a repair that you can safely do yourself if you use a little common sense and care to not destroy anything.

It usually goes like this: a customer comes into the shop and says, "I oiled my valves and now my baritone won't play." I immediately know what the problem is. The valve guide was rotated 90 degrees unbeknownst to the customer. Now, when the valve goes in, the flow of air meets the solid side of a valve and not the open port. The effect on the player is puffy cheeks, bug eyes and no sound.

Sometimes the customer knows what the problem is and says, "My valve guide keeps getting rotated and I need to fix it repeatedly." The same simple fix is applied to keep the problem from recurring.

The Fix: you just need to make sure that the valve-to-valve-stem threading is screwed on tighter than the finger-button-to-valve-stem threading. This way, when the finger button is turned, the valve guide is not loosened and allowed to rotate.      

If there are any repairs that you want to see me put on YouTube, make a suggestion and I will consider it.






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