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Re: Oiling your keys: a cautionary tale

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-05-27 13:05

A BIG part of what made the overhauls done by Bill Brannen so special was how well he balanced the spring tensions with the overall feel of the key actions. The 30 weight machine oil was just thick enough to give the action some "body" without slowing it down too much. So Brannen was going for an overall result with the oil viscosity. He might not mind the synthetics as long as they have the same "feel."

And just to describe the philosophy: The rings can be very light spring tension (just slightly more than needed to make them spring back up - and this is where the 30 weight makes that feel more solid). The pads at the bottom that stay open are similarly adjusted with just a little more tension than is required to bring them back open. The rest only need have enough tension to hold them closed (which may be a lot less tension than many of you are used to). The only real tricky one to balance out is the RH pinky "Eb/Ab" key. This needs to have a bit more tension than you might like carrying through with this light adjustment philosophy. For some strange reason this particular key is easily 'blown open' under playing conditions (having its insidious effect on the 'sturdiness' of the sound of the entire lower part of the horn rather than changing one note). I've just never had the same problem with the "C#" cup.

................Paul Aviles

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