Changing the receiver to fit your mouthpiece?

[jon112780]

It seems like all of the 'student' euphoniums only come with a receiver that will accept the tiny shank mouthpieces, and the 'professional' euphoniums only come with either Euro or bassbone sized receivers.

What if I don't want to switch to a tiny mouthpiece that has the tiny shank just so I can play a cheap three banger? I like my current mpc (Euro shank), and the change in mouthpiece size (diameter mostly) discourages me from playing the tiny mouthpiece.

Is it a good idea/even possible to swap out the tiny receiver on any of those 'student' euphoniums for a Euro or bassbone sized receiver? How much might this cost?

Looks of the instrument are not the greatest now, so a big patch of laquer disappearing is no big deal...

[PMeuph]

Every student model Besson I have played comes with a medium shank mouthpiece. I think that is the norm for their horns.

I don't know what mouthpiece you play with, but some mouthpieces are available in small/medium/large shank. In that regard, Schilke makes a 52E2 in small shank which is a pretty large mouthpiece.

Truthfully though, If you have a mouthpiece that you like it can make sense to swap the receiver. While I can't tell you for sure how much it will cost it's probably more or less in the same range as getting a new mouthpiece ($50-100). I was charged recently $75 to swap the receiver on a tuba.

[PMeuph]

bloke "I suppose (and this is nothing new...) I'm not charging enough for repairs (again). A very handsome (and fits many mouthpipes nicely) brass Yamaha standard shank receiver can be had for about $15 (full retail), and I can usually pull a "small shank" receiver and replace it with one of these, shine it up all purdy, and spray on a bit of lacquer over it in less than *a half an hour. ...Of course, those B&S-made (plain cylinder-lookin') receivers are a good bit pricier."
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*yeah...I charge a good bit more than "minimum wage", but I'm not quite up to $135/hr...yet.

It should also be noted that he did have to cut 2 cm of of the leadpipe as there was originally no receiver. There was no polishing and lacquering afterwards, though. I won't complain about the price or the time it took the tech to change it. The guy I went to is probably one of the better techs around here. He's a very popular tech in town and usually has a backlog of 4-6 weeks or so. FWIW, his hourly rate is probably around the same as many other techs. ($60)

[Doug Elliott]

The situation of needing to use different shank sizes - which is an issue for all low brass instruments - is one of the main reasons I started making all of my mouthpieces with screw shanks.