Medium Shank Mouth Piece on a Small Shank Yamaha EP100?

[iiipopes]

I have to reply to the comment claiming a number American hybrid-bari instruments have "medium" shanks. NO. When I was a boy, a good family friend was the 2nd generation owner of a music store, whose primary business was school bands. We were all good friends and customers for two generations of his family and three generations of my family. NONE of the major manufacturers: King, Conn, Reynolds, Olds, Martin, Buescher, Blessing, etc., had strange receivers on their bari/euphs. ALL had regular trombone shank receivers, now known as small receivers, especially after all the manufacturers adopted the Bach Standard in the mid-'50's. Some of the manufacturers, including York and King, had their proprietary taper before then, and so it may have appeared they had "medium" shank receivers, when what was really happening is that they had a larger taper, and so a Bach taper mouthpiece would wobble in the receiver. This was the case with all of their valve brasses, especially York and King (remember - H. N. White lured Reynolds away from York to develop the King valved brasses). I have owned original York tuba, King trumpet and cornet, and other antique mouthpieces and can personally vouch for the difference in taper. Blessing was actually a slimmer taper, causing all sorts of grief to players.

The other item is that as these receivers became worn from using improper taper mouthpieces; that also contributed to the appearance of the receivers being "medium," when in fact it was nothing but simple wear.

[ChristianeSparkle]

I think I probably should have posted the question about 5G, 5AL and 4AL in one of the older threads. Haha may have confused people. The question wasn't related to my small shank Yamaha and medium shank bari mouthpiece I've been using.

I'm considering a typical Denis Wick large shank 5AL or Bach 5G for my future horn, a JP274. May be able to test out a 4AL on my section mate's horn, so I guess that's a good way to figure out how big it really is.

I did read Mr. Dave's recommendation in an old thread for 5AL over 5G, despite him using 5G, citing the ease of transitioning from 5al to 4al compared to 5g. Also read about Mr. Dave's and Mr Rick's(or was it someone else? Hope I didn't cite the wrong person), experiences where it took them quite some time to fully transition to 4AL. So I think it's safe for me to invest in a 5AL and probably using it for some time before I even consider 4AL

[ChristianeSparkle]

I tried to use that silver polish on my trumpet, but it didn’t work...presumably because of the apparent specific Bass clef formula. (I’m kidding.)

You totally need a polish for treble clef to work!

[Jasonium]

I see a lot of disagreements about American horns having medium shank receivers. I’m going off my memory of my last two “older” horns that I’ve tried. The Conn Connstellation and the Conn trombonium (trombone-euphonium hybrid). They both had medium shanks. They are probably outliers as most of the front facing American “baritones” I’ve tried were small shanked.

[daruby]

I see a lot of disagreements about American horns having medium shank receivers. I’m going off my memory of my last two “older” horns that I’ve tried. The Conn Connstellation and the Conn trombonium (trombone-euphonium hybrid). They both had medium shanks. They are probably outliers as most of the front facing American “baritones” I’ve tried were small shanked.

Jason,

I played just about every American baritone made as a student between 1960 - 1974. This includes all Conn's, Reynolds, Bundy, King, Olds, etc. ONLY the Conn Connstellation had a medium shank and all other Conn's were tenor. But a euro-medium shank mouthpiece (for a a Willson 2900 or Besson New Standard) will not fit directly. The Conn was a Remington-medium shank which is just slightly larger than but similar taper to a euro-medium so that a modern medium shank mouthpiece (Wick 5BM for example) will bottom out. To get a modern euro-shank mouthpiece to fit, you have to remove about 1/8" - 1/4" from the end of the shank. Then it will fit fine. I have done this to a Wick 5BM for my Connstellation.

Doug

[Jasonium]

Thank you for clarifying, Doug! Do you know if the Conn Trombonium also used a Remington-medium shank? I remember trying the horn and a large shank mouthpiece did not fit and a small shank was clearly too small.

[daruby]

Don't know about all Conn Tromboniums, but I played both Conn and King Tromboniums with small shank mouthpieces in HS.

[iiipopes]

Jason,

I played just about every American baritone made as a student between 1960 - 1974. This includes all Conn's, Reynolds, Bundy, King, Olds, etc. ONLY the Conn Connstellation had a medium shank and all other Conn's were tenor. But a euro-medium shank mouthpiece (for a a Willson 2900 or Besson New Standard) will not fit directly. The Conn was a Remington-medium shank which is just slightly larger than but similar taper to a euro-medium so that a modern medium shank mouthpiece (Wick 5BM for example) will bottom out. To get a modern euro-shank mouthpiece to fit, you have to remove about 1/8" - 1/4" from the end of the shank. Then it will fit fine. I have done this to a Wick 5BM for my Connstellation.

Doug

Doug's experience is consistent with my comment that each manufacturer at one point had a proprietary mouthpiece taper, but not what we now call the "medium shank" as on the pre-1974-ish Besson/B&H horns.