This is a modern Super Tone Master Otto Link tenor saxophone mouthpiece. Everyone knows that buying a modern metal Otto Link is pretty much a roll of the dice. I remember going to a music store and trying 10 of them and not liking any of them. Many times over the years I have stopped at different stores just to see what they had for Otto Link mouthpiece and I was almost always disappointed. Some of them were just horrible to play. I have had students come in with metal links that had crooked facings, uneven tips, and horribly uneven tables. Many of these mouthpieces were causing the students to really struggle for months if not years.
The best think you can do for a link like this is send it to get refaced. There are many great refacers out there. They measure your mouthpiece to see how it measures up and then fix it so that it plays as well as it can. This mouthpiece was refaced by Brian Powell who opened it up to a .115 from it’s original .095. A friend of mine sent it to me to see what I thought of it.
I have to say upfront that I think this is one of the loudest metal links I have ever played. This mouthpiece has some serious volume to it. It’s not that bright kind of loudness that a link with a baffle might have but more of a medium husky kind of volume. I think because of the .115 tip I could put a lot more air through it than my other .105 and .110 tips. It felt that way anyways.
I played this mouthpiece for a few hours and it felt really comfortable to play although I did notice that my embouchure was getting mighty tired by the end. I think I was subconsciously putting more pressure on the reed to push it closer to the tip of the mouthpiece so that it felt more like a .105-.110 tip to me. That can sometimes happen when you move to a bigger tip.
The mouthpiece has what I consider a brighter than average link sound to it but not overly bright. Like most mouthpieces with a bigger tip, it tends to have a bigger more spread sound to it that has a little more of a hollow quality to it. (As opposed to a smaller tip that to me has a more focused, compact and centered sound to it.) This was a great mouthpiece and I’m glad I had a chance to try it. I think I will still stick with my .105 tip openings though………..Let me know what you think.
Hi Steve
I’m about to buy one of this mouthpieces and willing also to send it to Brian because I know they come in a very bad quality. Do you know what’s the diference from this mp and the one called OTTO LINK STM-NY? is the NY model more dark or bright? does it have more baffle?
Thanks!
The NY is darker. The chamber is larger so it sounds fatter and darker. I prefer going with the regular STM as there is more to work with with a refacer. They could always open up the chamber if you wanted. If the chamber is big it’s a lot harder to add material to make it smaller.