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I know that some people wrap the shank of their mouthpiece, but what exactly is the effect of this? Does it raise or lower pitch or what?

Makes it fit snugly. Not ideal, but rarely a major detriment.

KiltieTuba wrote:

Tubadude999 wrote:I know that some people wrap the shank of their mouthpiece, but what exactly is the effect of this? Does it raise or lower pitch or what?

What they're doing is increasing the distance between the end of the shank and the beginning of the mouthpipe inside the receiver - the GAP that people often talk about. There's an Adjustable Gap Receiver (AGR) that Dillon Music used to sell (that might still sell them, I don't know). This gap can change the response on notes.

I would come closer to believing they are wrapping the shank to keep the end of their mouthpiece from 'bottoming out' on the leadpipe and consequently falling out.

Changing 'the gap' isn't as magical as some might want you to believe. The fact is that the tolerances on shanks isn't that close and the AGR is a good way to compensate for that.