Medium Shank Mouth pipe

[pastordale]

I see tht the Besson tuba has a medium European mouth pipe and of course requires a mouthpiece to fit it.

I've never played a tuba with a medium shank.

My question is "what is the effective difference between the medium shank Besson and a tuba with the large shank.?"

Thanks for helping,
Dale

[MikeW]

This was discussed in a recent thread in the main forum.
It depends on which Besson you have...

Since about 1982 they mostly use American Standard shank ( 0.520" at the narrow end )

Before that they used Small European Tuba shank ( 0.490" at the narrow end )

I have heard of (but never seen) Eb tubas from around 1900 that used Medium European Euphonium shank ( 0.470" at the narrow end ) - there may be a few of these instruments still in circulation.