TromboneChat

Have 2 opportunities to buy a single valve Bach 50. One is a 50A and the other a 50T. 50A is newer, factory. 50T looks to be a custom job. Old stainless casing / bronze plate thayer.

Is either one of these inherently easier to add a second independent valve to? If Thayer, which "flavor" would match that era Thayer best assuming it's not worn and leaky?

Better to sell / reuse the single valve section for parts and have a full 2 valve section built instead?

Imo, worth just having a new section made.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2024 11:13 am Imo, worth just having a new section made.

Agreed. My advice would be to buy whichever instrument plays better as is, then have a double valve section built for it of whatever type you like (I would probably have Matthew Walker of M&W install his valves), and finally sell the single valve section.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2024 11:13 am Imo, worth just having a new section made.

What Aidan said.

How important is price consideration? I doubt you’ll come out better off financially from building an entire new set of valves. The market for a single valve section is somewhat limited. Could be wrong about that ( in this thread like, half of the respondents have sold or purchased a single valve this year between each other ).

The wrinkle here is that you want it to be dependent. Hagmann would probably be pretty easy to get the necessary parts for if you wanted to convert. They at least used to sell basically everything you’d need to convert a 50. I would wager the Thayer is probably slightly harder with as many variations as there have been over the years and with how the parts are almost certainly not readily available that would be from whatever your particular era Thayer is.

I’d probably do what Gabe suggested. Get the better playing one as is now and figure out what to do with it.

The logical side of me says to get a valve section built or to do a shires conversion of sorts using a shires set.

The perpetual tinkerer wants to make things more difficult than things need to be .

You think I would have learned my lesson from the years long multiple revisions of my 42/36 build. Started off with the intent of making a poor man's greenhoe, sunk way more into it over the years than If I would have just had it converted somewhere and gone whole hog.

As I understand, T-bell section is convertible by its nature and A-section is fixed.
So, Thayer section needs much less work, especially, if connectors are genuine Bach's. You just need to unscrew 2 nuts and screw other compatible valve section to the bell.
With a Hagmann it's not so easy. A lot of work (unsolder braces and bell flanges then solder new with nuts, laquering etc.).