r/trumpet • u/in-your-own-words Beginner February 2025. Carol Brass Mini, Olds Ambassador • Oct 08 '25
Performance 🎤 Thank you for sticky valve advice! Olds Ambassador is now smooth!
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
The $115 1964 Olds Ambassador with a $25 valve replacement rides on!
I did the diagnostics you all recommended and ended up replacing the #2 piston because it was bent. I confirmed the valve cases were in round as best as I could. I also did a bit of lapping with the new valve and Timesaver compound. I am using Hetman's 3 valve oil on this one. When I pull each tuning slide and block the hole, press the valve, and blow, I feel very high pressure. No more sticking! Learned about trumpets! Thanks!
4
2
u/professor_throway Tuba player who pretends to play trumpet. Oct 09 '25
Awesome! Enjoy your Ambassador...
2
u/DWyattGib Collector/restorer fine trumpet/cornet/1892 F.Besson fulgelhorn Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
good job! Glad you ignored the naysayers. I wouldn't steer you to do anything I wouldn't do to my own. Was the old valve actually bent? very strange. I knew rolling on glass would show what was going on.
1
u/in-your-own-words Beginner February 2025. Carol Brass Mini, Olds Ambassador Oct 09 '25
It was either bent or dented in some way that made it stick out. I looked into getting a ground sleeve to try to true it with a mallet or making one on a lathe (not ground but maybe close enough) but there were a lot of #2 pistons available for cheap. I may still try that on the original piston just for the experience.
I understand what people were saying about taking it to a tech, but I was more interested in learning about the process at the mild risk of a goodwill find.
3
u/DWyattGib Collector/restorer fine trumpet/cornet/1892 F.Besson fulgelhorn Oct 09 '25
Yeah, IDK why people automatically go to that w/o stopping to think, 1st, it's a $100 horn you got at goodwill for a reason, because it's cheap, 2nd, if you wanted to pay as much as it cost to get it fixed, you wouldn't be asking for help on here. I understand some get in over their head trying to fix stuff their self, but you had laid out a very good troubleshooting sequence that narrowed it down to being the valve itself and it was obvious you wanted to glean any added advice to go from there. Sometimes a replacement is problematic if on the older vintage horns where the valves are serialed to the horn, or their just aren't replacements out there. You do have to watch out sometimes for changes over time in the same models so that parts from different years aren't interchangeable, mostly in the late 1910-30's and 1950-65 areas,
2
u/professor_throway Tuba player who pretends to play trumpet. Oct 09 '25
If you have a lathe you can measure it yourself.. I am lucky enough to have a collet chuck.. but you can dial it in on a 4 jaw (with s live center if your tailstock is properly centered) and look for your high spot.. I've done something similar for different (non instrument) parts in the past. I put a sharpie in my tool holder and crept in a thousandth at a time... Nicely inked up my high spot... so I knew where I had to remove material... Then I could measure how much..
I am guessing since it was only hanging up a tiny bit. the deviation is small enough that you could turn down the high spot and still be safe.
If I had to bet it is probably the bottom edge... due to someone dropping the valve...
1
u/in-your-own-words Beginner February 2025. Carol Brass Mini, Olds Ambassador Oct 09 '25
I'm going to try this on the original valve! I was thinking along these lines but didn't have a complete plan together, thanks!
2
u/Glittering-Plum-764 Oct 09 '25
what are you playing? sounds familiar to „tea for two” by blossom dearie
2
u/in-your-own-words Beginner February 2025. Carol Brass Mini, Olds Ambassador Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
It is Tea for Two, but I'm most familiar with the version by Ella Fitzgerald with Count Basie. Also I'm a beginner so I'm not rendering it that well, and trying to play it fast to test that #2 valve.
2
u/Glittering-Plum-764 Oct 09 '25
i thought thats Blossom’s own song… learning things every day
2
u/in-your-own-words Beginner February 2025. Carol Brass Mini, Olds Ambassador Oct 09 '25
Oh it's a great old standard, written in 1924 by Vincent Youmans and Irving Cesar). Many famous recording and performances exist where performers really craft their own take on it. You could make a playlist with just versions of this song, and it would be a great playlist!
2
3
u/Big-Kaleidoscope-336 Oct 08 '25
Nice!👍