As you said you need the space not to slam into the bumper and damage your emboushure.ģ You need the space to allow for slide vibrato on first position.Ĥ You need the space to be able to fine tune your instrument depending on what note in the chord you are playing. The Bb must be out from the bumper to allow for the which is flat.
Notes on the same position is not lined up at the exact same spot, some needs to be raised against the fundamental and other lowered to be in tune.
There are several reasons for not tuning the Bb to the bumper. Also to consider is if you use a bigger mouthpiece lets say a Bach 2G which is a bass mouthpiece on a tenor or some other real large mouthpiece then the horn plays more flat compared to a Bach 5, Bach 6 1/2 or smaller mouthpiece. I play with a Hammond 12M mouthpiece which is like a Bach 5. Seventh position on my horns is just before the slide falls off. There are a lot of chopped tuningslides on Bach 42's and Conn 88h's. I push tuning slide all way in if A=442 which it is over here in a lot of Symphony orchestras. I play my horns with the tuningslide out about 1/2 inch and the slide at least 1/2 inch out for tuning A=440. I play every one of my horns with the tuning slide all the way in.
