One of the many poorly documented facets of brass instruments is the importance of cup depth to throat size ratio. For most "normal" instruments, this has some interesting effects, but won't make or break intonation. For other instruments, not so much. In the case of this hateful instrument, literally changing the mouthpiece one size either direction (+/- 1 cup size, or +/- 0.4mm throat), 8th partial plays flat and tone quality deteriorates. Yes, you read that correctly. Increasing throat one size causes a flat 8th partial. So anyways. I bought a bunch of custom mouthpieces to make sure that I have something capable of playing an intune 8th partial on my menagerie of 9'Bb things.

In this video, I'm using both a JK Exclusive 12A 7.6 and 1A 7.6 with custom adapter (10.8mm @ 1:20 to 11.7mm @ 1:19). Not sure, but I think this should have the same behavior as a 6.5AM, but is roughly 2 or 3 cup sizes larger. If for some awful reason you think you need even more cup depth, you could probably order something like 5BK 8.0 or 5AK 8.4 on 11.7mm @ 1:19 shank. Guessing this would be highly regrettable because the AK cup is effectively deeper than the 51D.

For anyone wondering what the Besson 2-20 Baritone is about, it's a large-bore Baritone (not Horn). It's basically a French Besson Prototype Baritone (not Tenor nor Bass Saxhorn) converted to a .580" bore front action Baritone, and sloppily mated to the same 12" bell that the tilt-bell Euphoniums used. For this model, the main tuning slide comes after the valves and needs to be pulled roughly 1-5/8" to hit A=440. I guess this is so that you can tune sharp outside? No idea, but there's plenty of slide provided. It's not much of a looker, but the ergonomics are actually pretty good. No idea what the stock mouthpiece was like, but tough luck if you lost it or hated it.


A lousy Youtube video