13 yrs ago I loaned my H179 Farkas to an out of state relative. About 3 wks ago I recovered it and have been working daily on recovering my chops. Clearly, over the 13 years, the horn was not treated with the love and care that I had given it previously. It has a rather nasty dent in the last part before the bell, for one thing. The 1st valve is slightly leaky compared to the 2nd and 3rd, but I'm not sure how to judge it. If I remove and reinsert the 1st valve slide, wait 10 seconds, and open the valve, I get only a very, very weak pop.
Here is the problem. I can't get a good tone on a D, E, F, or G (just above middle C) on the F horn (open E and 1st valve F are the very worst). The tone from bass C up through G above the staff is good, with the exception of the listed mid-range. I can get the notes out, but they seem very unstable. If I try to play them louder, they fall completely apart into a sort of buzz. It's as if the horn's impedance shoots up dramatically at these frequencies.
Soon, I plan to start playing with a fine local community band, and then I should be able to let some other players try my horn and tell me its just me. Until then, anyone experience anything like this before? Is it a common symptom with an easy fix? Could it be I've forgotten how to play a flippin' F? Do I need to have that dent removed and and get the valves reconditioned? Or, if I just keep practicing will I be able to resolve this?
Thanks for any helpful suggestions! BTW the horn is about a 1984 model.
