Here we have an Otto Link 6* no USA tenor piece. This is a middle or later design of the no USA period with the slightly longer step baffle instead of the earlier roll-over design. This is the archetypal blue note hard bop tone machine. I have done some gentle balancing and truing of this facing and tip rail. The tip is around .100 (where it was originally. It plays very clear and balanced and big with both definition and core.
Author Archives: Horned Toad
Otto Link FL Slant Sig Original 6 Rarity
Here we have an Otto Link early FL original 6 facing, untouched and in amazing condition. This is a wonderful rare and extremely fun and tonally complex piece in a very optimal size for the period these were made in. original examples such as this are so very hard to find now. Original milling on table and tip rails and baffle are just beautiful!
Otto Link Slant Signature FL 7 Original Mint Condition Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
This is as rare as it gets, Otto Link Original mint condition 7 untouched facing and table. Good luck finding this type of thing anywhere. Beautiful original tip, baffle and original milling on table. This is very very fun to play and a ridiculous find.
Otto Link Double Ring NY Original 4* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Otto Link Original 4* New York ‘long bite’ tenor piece. This piece is all original, unaltered rare and plays very nicely at this size with some harder reeds. Very hard to find unaltered Dr Links now.
Otto Link Slant Signature FL “W.T.” Tenor Mint Museum Piece
This is a once in a lifetime find, Otto Link Florida W.T. (Wolfe “Tayne” Tanenbaum) facing mint original condition tenor piece with original box. original milling marks visible on table and facing completely original and untouched without damage. It measures right around .085 as these should. There is nothing really needed to say about this piece, everyone knows, the WT facings were designed for extra bright and power at a smaller facing, they are brighter. It’s a super rare facing and a FL like this in mint condition, very few around.
Dukoff Hollywood V-series Round Chamber 6* Specialty Tenor
This is a very very special piece, one which I ‘Marinated” and set up to perfection some decades back. I used it as a main piece for gigging and recording on early MK VI and SBA which I was using at the time in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I hand faced this to .095 to optimize its response and used it exclusively for a number of years. This piece can be heard here, on 64xxx and 62xxx MK VI tenors for all except one or two tracks:
Two Otto Link FL no USA 9* Tenors
For those who like the larger sizes we have two examples of an earlier FL 9*. The one on the left is an original no USA 9* at .115 tip and the one on the right has been refaced by SK at .117 (on my measurements). Snap them up!
Meyer Bros. NY alto beauty
This piece has tip size .078 was professionally refaced and is in beautiful condition. These are rarities these days and their response is worthy of their reputation.
Yusef Lateef’s amazing 45xxx Super (Balanced) Action tenor, restored!
I was very luck to be able to purchase this amazing instrument from the estate of Yusef Lateef, along with the paperwork of provenence. I have some friends in the repair biz who were also around Rayburn’s music (in Boston) years back and remembered Lateef bringing this horn around for service more than 30 years ago as well, so we know he kept it for a long time.
This project spanned about two years as some parts of it were slow and time consuming and I was also busy with a move and some family obligations during that time.
It was in a bit of disrepair when I got it, with some kind of odd insults and injuries, but structurally it was in very fine shape. Somehow, somewhere, the neck receiver had been sheared into three pieces two of which were broken clean off the horn. The strangest part is that this break, did not effect the body tube in any way, in any area. It was very straight with only some minor dings, very odd. I have yet to understand how that happened and never will I guess. The pads were old and crusty of course, it was not playing. Some screws were missing or mismatched and it was at least as far as proper saxophone service is concerned, just rather insulted.
In my imagination, I can see Yusef Lateef buying this horn in Europe while on tour and either it already had the broken neck receiver or that happened while in his possession. I can imagine him thinking “this is one of those special horns that ‘Trane was bugging Wayne Shorter to get” (see the interview with Shorter where he tells this story about Trane’s insistence on him getting just such an early SBA.) and him keeping it until he can find the right person who could handle the weird repair.
Maybe he knew what a great horn it was, generally I would trust the judgement of instrument quality to Yuself Lateef above almost anyone. I imagine he had to know what a special horn this was to keep it for so many years.
Anyhow with a lot of specific work and time I have finally restored this to very nice working order, it feels like a Ferrari now, set up with rather hard-ish pads and a set of original American-market Tone-X metal SBA resos from the 1950’s that I had here. It just blew my mind as I just played fresh one day after the overhaul, while ti is still settling in. It is very compact and aggressive in tone, barks, is very powerful and has an otherworldly biting bright ring to the sound that makes it sound like it is amplified. This is what the rare and great SBA’s do. I was a little rusty on the video but at least it was fresh and surprised me more than you who will watch it I believe.
And here in a less boomy room:
Otto Link “Double Ring” FL Transitional Original 4* Tenor
Super rare Otto Link “double ring” original traditional. This has the short FL biteplate yet it is table stamped 4* (true Florida models were side-stamped). This piece is in very nice shape, I have not yet played it. Comes with original cap and ligature, slightly worn but present. The tip, side rail, and facing finish are all of the very early NY style, very thin and beautiful!
I have not cleaned this or done anything with it, just came out of the case of a 1961 Selmer tenor!
