The Stork Vacchiano 4FL is almost the same size as the Studio Master FL6 I tryed before. Its sound is perfect, just what one would expect from a flugelhorn, dark but not too dull sound, but that feeling of ease of sound emission that I experienced with the FL6 disappeared. As for the mouthpiece shank, Stork mouthpieces have the American standard one, 8mm Bach style, which work well on the 9mm bore, but perhaps the larger Yamaha style (Y version), which Thomann doesn't sell, would be better.