Dealing with vintage besson intonation and response
First and foremost, you should be able to sing these pitches in tune (a good chromatic tuner is as essential as a metronome). If we can't center a pitch internally then we have no hope of getting an instrument to center it. Mouthpiece playing is also useful, but can be a bit harder to check on a tuner.
I own two older Bessons, a 3-valve 2-20 (c1970) and an Imperial (c1973). Both require lipping down on the 6th partial, and I find dropping the jaw a bit helps with the pitch. However, my experience is that the E requires less work than the Eb or F.
Along with the 6th partial, you may also find that the middle A (220) tends a bit flat (which may be why I have fewer issues with the E above).
But, as I said above, check your sense of pitch without the horn to make sure the right pitch is in your head before you attempt the note. I've known players who had to retrain their ear through singing to a tuner becuase they sang with the same intonation tendencies as the instruments they'd played when young. It can be a long, laborious and humbling process, but it's worth the effort.
Hope that helps.
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Dale Long
South Burlington VT
Willson 2900S/Denis Wick SM3M
B.MusEd, SUNY Potsdam, 1979
M.M., Northwestern University, 1980
USAF Band of the West, 1981-1985
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