Needs a little tarnish cleaning but otherwise original and clean tip/facing.
Author Archives: Horned Toad
Very Early Florida Otto Link Serialed 6* “Marinated” Restoration
This piece is a nuanced and complex beast. This is the earliest (non-double ring) “super tonemaster” still showing the serial number. These are both very rare and very very good playing models. This one, stamped 6* came to me in slightly disrespected condition and I have restored it to an amazingly rich and colorful ringing classic player.
Links like this are usually not bright compared to a Berg Larsen or modern rock/pop mouthpiece but this has a rather significant baffle and has a lot of presence and brightness for a Link. The old style chamber provides an extremely fat and complex sound character. It is not a shy piece and is great fun to play. The tip size is right around .098 on my tools with a clean and excellent facing and nice slightly flat baffle. This is a collector’s piece for a real player.
Beautiful Vintage Selmer Soprano Piece C*
Beautiful vintage Selmer Soprano C* on table. These have excellent tonal balance and color!
Early Selmer Fluted Soprano piece C**
Very vintage Selmer fluted Soprano mouthpiece, similar to Coltrane models, wonderfully balanced and colorful tone.
Otto Link Florida USA 6 Near Mint Original Tenor
Beautiful original Otto Link Florida USA 6. These are hard to find in excellent original condition, and later models with an extra bit of punch.
Selmer Soloist Original E Tenor
Otto Link Tonemaster 7 1940’s-1950’s Special Order Treasure
Well, again these are the Iconic large chamber classic jazz mouthpieces. Everyone from Benny Golson, Charlie Rouse, John Coltrane made their signature tones on these. They cover many album covers from the 1940’s to the 1960’s and beyond with good reason.
This piece is a very very rare original 7 table stamped facing. A piece like this would only have been a special order from the factory in a size this large. The facing tip and rails appear to still have a fair amount of plating cover, though there is some plating loss and wear. The tip measures for me at .110 (shocking I know). In my experience Links of this period are usually below .090 at stock sizes, though generally the measurements were not very consistent, so as unusual as this is, it is also not surprising that it does not correspond to what a 7 would be now, or then.
The biteplate shows some indentation, as evidence that someone loved this piece. it does play rather loud for me with a hard 2.5 strength reed on it, kind of unexpectedly edgy and aggressive but your response may vary depending on reeds and other factors. It does not visually appear to have a high baffle, yet the entire ramp and floor has a subtly curving angle which may have something to do with that power. TO me, for the size as well, it was really not hard to play. It actually felt pretty easy and I usually play around .098 or so.
Again this is very very rare. I have had a couple in my life and this table stamped 7 is the real stamp in the original gold plating. The mouthpiece HAS lived a life so it is not mint but it is very rare. This also happens to be the later (latest) model of Tonemaster, which we see in the Bluetrane, Soutrane and Giant Steps album covers. it is a slightly different design from the earlier ones, with inner contours a bit more similar to the early NY Double Ring “super tonemasters”, therefore I feel these are a bit of a transitional model as well.
Otto Link Tonemaster 5* 1940’s-1950’s legendary Tenor!
Well, these are the Iconic large chamber classic jazz mouthpieces. Everyone from Benny Golson, Charlie Rouse, John Coltrane made their signature tones on these. They cover many album covers from the 1940’s to the 1960’s and beyond with good reason. This one is a 5* and shows plating wear but structurally in great condition with original ligature and somewhat crushed cap. This has a buzzy woody and big-low-end sound.
Otto Link ‘Early Babbitt’ Original 6* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece, Excellent!
Here we have a VERY clean example of any early Babbitt otto Link 6* metal piece. This has the signature step baffle and slightly smaller chamber (than the FLorida and later Links) giving some extra airspeed and brightness. This piece is a very nice player in excellent condition.
Otto Link Florida ‘no usa’ 6 Tenor, Beautiful Original Condition
This is a very clean original example of an early Florida production Otto Link 6 Tenor piece. It obviously has a lot of plating, facing never altered, pretty big baffle etc. This is what the blue-note’rs played on and this is what people still go for for tone. It has plenty of metal on the tip should anyone want to customize or open it, currently measures at around .092 on my tools.
