Besson 5 mouthpiece

[royjohn]

Hi gang,

I've been playing my 1975 Besson 3+1 euph for about six months now. I've used a Kanstul 6 1/2AL and a Kelly 51D, but neither of these seemed to sound very good to me. After trying a Yamaha 51D, and a Bach 1G and 2G and a "no-name" Holton from the "used bin", I settled on a Besson 5. This mpc seems to require less air and be easier to play and it has a nice smooth, hornlike quality to me. Though it's smaller than what I was playing, the lower register seems to come out fine on it and possibly the horn is in better tune overall. It is hard to tell since I've evidently been compensating for the other mpcs I've been using.

I didn't know that Besson had made euph./trombone mpcs and I can't find any stats on their size, etc. Does anyone know about these pieces? I read somewhere that the Besson 5 is similar to the Wick 5AL, but I don't know if this is true. If it is, I might try a Wick 4AL sometime. It sure is nice to sound decent at least some of the time without so much effort!

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

[prototypedenNIS]

I've played one, one of my friends played one, and my student who my friend sold her old euph played one... I loathed that mouthpiece.

Good tone and all, but intonation!