Cutting a bell tail to fit

[roweenie]

Is there a method to accurately cut a bell tail to fit into a bottom bow ferrule (other than removing the ferrule from the bottom bow to put on the bell to check fit)?

I'm prepared to do it, but it will likely involve removing the wire and possibly the bow guard, which I'd really prefer not to do.......

[iiipopes]

When I changed my 186 bell to the Besson bell, my tech told me the only way to assure a proper fit was to remove the 186 bell, leaving the ferrule soldered to the bow, clean up all solder residue from its bell tail, then use a string to measure the circumference of the bell tail just far enough upstream to make sure the string did not slip off the tail, and mark the overlap of the string. Then we found the spot on my Besson bell that measured the same, allowed for a little longer tail so if we needed to we could trim a little bit more rather than get it too short, and allow for any difference in the overall taper, then cut and test fit. The first cut of the tail of the replacement Besson bell was the smallest bit loose at that point, so we trimmed one more time and got it to fit firmly into the ferrule before soldering.

BessophoneFront150Kb.jpg