Amado water keys

[Mary Ann]

I need to put some water-release thingies on two or three tuning slides because I am not physically capable of spinning this tuba. I was assuming Amado keys are my best bet.

So, unless someone thinks otherwise (in which case inform me,) where would be my best (cheapest) source of Amado keys, and are they all the same size, i.e., the tuba ones are not bigger than the horn ones? (I have two on my horn.)

I have found them at Ferree's Tools for $35 ea plus shipping.

And then this tuba can pee the chair.

[LeMark]

I bought two of these, but I had to alter the radius to make it work for tuba

Amado Water Key Waterkey Universal Spit Valve Complete Set Silver Plated https://a.co/d/ijDVIjh

[bloke]

If it is silver, that Allied company - that you have to ask a repair shop to purchase stuff from for you - has lever-style water keys which are identical to B&S, so they have a German appearance, and are designed to fit on rounded slide bows over to one side, as your instrument is front action. And it's nice to be able to empty them without tilting the instrument away from playing position. They charge too much more for this, but they can be ordered pre-silver plated over the brass. For the plain brass version, they have raised the price on them considerably, but they are still less expensive than the nickel version that you see on all of the B&S instruments, though they are identical and made in the same place. If you take this suggestion, there are two styles and one has an overbuilt saddle. You should avoid that one. Amado water keys are things that I personally find to be a nuisance, but - if you think well of them - go with the previous link.

(I'm assuming this is for your Miraphone E-flat...?? ...I may have missed a subsequent purchase that you made...??)

Lately - with some of their more recently-developed models with more water keys - Miraphone has gotten into this thing of taking their sturdy water keys (designed for 180/4/5/5/8 horizontal main slides) and kinking them to conform to slide bow installation. Doing that is (in my view) ugly, and - further - they're tending to mount them in the centers of bows - rather than off to one side, whereby the bottom the nipple is located at the lowest point - in playing position.

I tore all of those all my model 98 and replaced them with those which I described above (again: European-made, but BRASS versions of the NICKEL ones used at the B&S factory).

yeah...and I admit to slicking them out to the next level with the mushroom-style corks...



Your repair guy (if you choose this route) would order this:

BRASS M-W B&S - style water key.png (128.51 KiB) Viewed 1241 times

[The Big Ben]

There is also the Pollard water key. I believe Le Elephant used them in his Holton reconstruction.

The advantages the vendor touts are they are simpler, easier to maintain and won't stick open. I don't have them on any of my instruments but they look like a good solution to the problem.

Available in raw brass, silver plate and gold plate.

https://www.prestovalves.com/pollard-water-key

[York-aholic]

I used two Pollard ones. I was quite happy with them.

[Mary Ann]

Thanks. The Star has no water problems. The Hagen is brass. It has to be turned upside down, and 3rd and 4th slides pulled out and dumped, or a difficult (for me) series of "make the water run the direction I want it to" angles to get the water back into the valves and down to the spit valve. That is pushing it for me physically. Water keys on those two slides would solve the problem.

[bloke]

LIKE !!!

[bloke]

If you approve of the appearance/style, a standard mark-up would probably be $30/set.

me...??
It would probably take a half an hour to mount the parts, drill the hole, shine up stuff, add some rattle-can lacquer, and stick it together.
I have no idea how long it would take someone else, and obviously have no idea what others hourly rates are...but you didn't ask about that stuff, which I'm just offering as prattle, and don't even know if you like the looks of them.


I can't blame Miraphone for shipping basic versions to American retailers (who order basic versions).
Miraphone makes it pretty clear that they'll stick most anything on most any model.

This is the same with the 5-valve B&S Symphonie F tubas (when they were first being imported from communist East Germany).
The overwhelming percentage which were ordered (by two or three American importers) were imported with only 5 valves, because (I'm thinking...) the 6-valve versions cost them an additional $50.

[Tubajug]

I found Chinese knock-off Amado keys on ebay that I put on my King to eliminate the "spin" to empty the water. So far so good!

[Mary Ann]

Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks.

No thanks button any more -- I think that's all of them.

[bloke]

[Mary Ann]

So I just bought two raw brass large Pollards. I think based on where they need to go, that is my best option.
Being raw brass, I guess I'll put clear nail polish on them before I take them to the tech. Can't have anything grungy looking on this tuba YET. Although they are so small I doubt that bit of tarnish is going to frazzle the audience.

[York-aholic]

I would think the nail polish might burn as your repair person solders them on.

Better to shine things up and lacquer/nail polish them afterwards.

[Mary Ann]

Yeah. Maybe I'll use bright pink or white or something, anyway, just to make people ask questions.

[LeMark]

The repair person will probably want to shoot it with clear lacquer, which will make it look closest to original

[BRS]

.

[bloke]

So far, I haven't heard of a water key that doesn't require drilling a hole.

Regardless of simple/reliable or complex/gadgety/proprietary parts, if the person who drills the hole leaves an interior drilling burr (basically a wall/dike around the hole on the interior), none of them are going to work very well.

Also (this: taught to me several decades ago by a bad-player/good-water-emptier) blowing GENTLY breaks the surface tension, whereby blowing HARD blows the water past the hole.

back to hole-drilling:
The temptation is always to drill the hole AFTER the nipple (or - if a gadget - "base" or "body") is installed, but it's really best to drill it first (again, so as to be able to more easily remove a drilling burr).

Of course there are better drilling techniques which discourage forming a burr in the first place.

Yes, this is wood, and - with wood - it's referred to as (hole on the right-hand side) "blowout", but it's the same thing, and SOME OF the same good techniques prevent it.