I’ve always heard that a NY Link saxophone mouthpiece is the holy grail of mouthpieces so I picked up this piece from eBay at a nice, rather low price. I figured that if I didn’t like it, it still would be a nice art piece.

The piece is a very nice looking alto sax mouthpiece, wide open with no baffles. Even though I’ve cleaned the piece (with warm water and soap and a liquid spray cleaner called Mi-T-Mist) it kind of tastes metallic in a way my other Otto Link pieces don’t. Maybe it’s because of the age, or maybe there is more lead in the brass. It has a series DD 34 on the side and facing number 3 on the other side.

I normally play a number of other pieces but my favs are a Ralph Morgan, Meyer G, and Otto Link Tone Edge, all around a 5 or 6 opening in size. This NY Otto Link plays a lot stuffier especially on the low and high end of the instrument range. And there are some intonation challenges for both me and my wife. But the sound is closer to that of a tenor sax that my other pieces.

Interestingly enough the modern pieces are much louder with more edge than the NY Otto Link. I’m toying with the idea of having one of the legends in mouthpiece refacings take a look at this piece. What do you think; is this sacrilegious?