Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here plays both Shires large bore and small bore tenors and can speak to whether the intonation is similar, both in the way the positions line up with the bell-mouthpiece distance, and if the partials line up similarly. Thanks!

Yes, unless you get one of the smaller tuning slides for the small bore, which is designed to make them respond and tune a little more "traditionally".

Older small bores had huge tuning slides on them, and partials lined up similarly to the large bore. Really open and played larger than their bore size. Some small bore guys complained that they felt "too big" and didn't play like a small horn so they designed smaller tuning slides to make them feel a bit more like a traditional small bore.

I have a .547 - used to have a .508 that I wish I hadn't sold. Great horn... it was big, it was the best salsa horn I've ever played. I sold it because I needed something smaller.

My experience is the same. They match pretty well. I ended up switching to a YSL356 and I really like it but I do occasionally have to correct my intonation quirks from working exclusively on Shires horns for so long.

Thanks, very helpful!