Floridating a Link

Here we'll look at the steps involved in my "Floridation" process.  I take the modern Otto Link "Super" Tone Master from the "Old vs New" article and make it play as well as the great Florida era STM next to it. 

Just to recap, the piece on the left is a great playing late Florida Otto Link "Super" Tone Master -- a piece with a big hollow center and a lot of zip around the edges.  Early 70's Steve Grossman kind of vibe to it.  The piece on the right is a typical modern STM, kinda plays, but response is sluggish, it's quiet, and doesn't really have much of a sound to remember.  I'm going to turn it into a great player by adjusting the interior dimensions to match those of the Florida blanks.

OK, the first thing we have to do is flatten the table.

That's flat enough.  I'm not going to get into the concave vs. flat table argument, suffice it to say that I prefer flat tables, but as long as the concavity doesn't extend inot the window it doens't seem to do any harm.

Now we need to widen the window at the tip, and to give us enough material to do that, we need to open it up a bit. Since we want to keep the tip opening a 7*, we also need to take down the table as much as we open the tip.  At the same time, the facing need straightening out.  Look how crooked it is.  Same as the baffle, and the tip is an uneven thickness (couldn't get a good photo of it).

There's enough tip rail there to widen the window as much as we need to.  The facing curve is still really short from taking down the table so much, but we'll fix that later.  Now we'll start on the chamber.  The chamber is much narrower and the floor much steeper in the modern STM than in the Florida.  In order to get the same great sound, we need to not just match the chamber volume, but the dimensions as well.  So we widen the chanber a bit, especially in the area under the facing.

And we raise the floor all the way back.

Yeah, the only way to do this is by adding some material.  I use a non-toxic self-hardening clay for this kind of work.  Although the chamber volume is similar, the shortness of the baffle and steepness of the floor in the modern piece is a dealbreaker.  So filling it in is the only thing for it.  Next we wait for the epoxy to cure and then start to define the tip rail.  After that's done, and I have adjusted the facing curve to compensate for all of the opening and table work, its a matter of playtesting and making adjustments to the floor, chamber, tip baffle, and facing to get the sound, response, and feel I'm looking for. 

Once it plays superbly, the only think left once that's done is to polish it up a bit.

Let's compare the finished product with the Florida Link again. 

Some minor cosmetic differences still exist, but not much in how the piece plays.  This is NOT your standard dark, dead modern Link.  It's a screamer now.  This particular one has a real early 60's Coltrane kind of a vibe to it, albeit with a slightly wider spread core than Trane.  The full range of the horn responds immediately, from the bell notes to the altissimo, articulation is clean and very distinct.  So there you go -- Floridated.  This dog of a modern link now plays miles better than many Floridas I have come across, and at a fraction of the price tag.

Here is an example of a simpler procces I have for Meyers.

If you've got a dud Otto Link you want to turn into gold, let me know.

Here is more about my refacing services.