Super Vintage

Tons of players love the full, rich sound of the vintage large chambered pieces that all of our heroes played on back in the 1950's and 60's. But a lot of us working players find ourselves in situations where those pieces, while they sound great, don't have enough edge to get an appropriate sound for modern idioms or loud stages, or maybe just not edgy enough for your particular combination of chops and sound concept. There used to be only one solution to this problem -- more baffle. Either switch to a high baffled 'pea shooter' or put an epoxy (or wax or whatever else) baffle in your old Link. This solution gets you the edge, but it comes at a great cost to the body, warmth, and flexibility of tone available.

I started wondering if there was a better way. I began by tweaking my CAD models. I started with the classic 'double ring' design (same as my Vintage series mouthpiece), then started to play around with everything else -- Table angle, beak angle, baffle angle, facing, tip rail, etc. -- everything except the chamber. What I was able to achieve is a piece that is acoustically the same as my favorite vintage pieces, but aerodynamically much different. As a result, we have the best of both worlds -- plenty of edge and super fast response without sacrificing any of the richness of tone and full range of expression.

I call it the "Super" Vintage -- its heritage is firmly traditional, but its heart is thoroughly modern.