I played the trumpet as a teenager and still have my old trumpet which I think was a reasonable one. It has not been played for over 25 years so the valves have siezed up solid. Is it likely that it would be possible to release them and get it working again as my daughter wants to have a go playing it?

Does anybody have any suggestions on what to try to free them up - maybe penetrating oil or something? I haven't even tried washing it through with water or anything yet as I thought I would get some advice first.

All advice welcome, thanks

You could try running water through both ends (bell and mouthpiece)......then block the holes under the valves (if u dont know where i mean please say and ill try to explain better). When I did it i stretched a little bit of bluetack over them.

Then get a bottle of full fat cola, not the diet stuff. Any brand, it doesnt matter. Then pour it into the bell, and fill the trumpet with it, making sure the valves and slides get filled with it. Leve it for a 3-4 hours, then rinse it thouroughly with luke warm water.


Hopefully this should do the trick, it loosens any grime inside the trumpet, then when u rinse it out, all the much comes out. I think this should help free up the valves.

When the trumpets dry, perhaps give it an encouraging squirt of valve oil up the holes i mentioned earlier.

Good Luck!

Ive never heard that before, its sounds like a good idea. When my valves got stuck I had to take it to Myatts (my local-ish woodwind and brass specialist) they did it for about £30 I think

Cola sounds a bit drastic - it is pretty harsh and I would be afraid of damaging the internal bore, making the instrument prone to red rot. I think you'd be better consulting a repairer.

Thank you all for the advice. I have given it a was through with warm water and put valve oil in from the top of valves. I will then turn it over tomorrow and put some valve oil in from the bottom and see how far I get before trying anything more drastic.

Good Plan

After a few days for the oil to penetrate a bit I got them moving by running a bit of water from the hot tap over the outside of the valves. They still feel a bit slow moving so now I have taken them out I will try to give them a really good clean.

Thanks all for the advice

Well done! Glad you didn't have to resort to brute force!

Following good polish up on the valve inserts and insides of the valve cases (sorry don't know the proper terms) they are now in full working order.

Purchased second hand copy of Tune a Day and she started looking at it at the weekend. I can't afford a teacher at present which is far from ideal (particularly as I remember lecturing a tumpet teacher on how he couldn't teach his daughter violin a few weeks ago on the viva strings forum) but just wanted one piece of advice. I have in the trumpet case a Vincent Bach 7c mouthpiece. Is that OK for a beginner?

Thanks for all your help.

I'm not a trumpeter but no-one else has answered yet, and I have learnt a bit about mouthpieces on my trials with ones for cornets, so......

As far as I understand, the Bach 7c is the standard one recommended for beginners, and lots of people stick with it as it is a good general purpose one which suits many players.

Hope she has fun with it.

Thanks a lot. She seems to be having a ball! I was thinking of changing my user name since my children's music making had got better but it is now more appropriate than ever