Keith,

I just looked at the HR Link refacing pics.  Thanks for posting them - 
very informative.

A question about chamber/baffle characteristics and tone quality:  I 
have several tenor pieces (HR & plastic with longish rollover baffles, 
ala Brilhart) that play really well after refacing, but I'd like to take 
a little of the edge off the sound - they're just a little bright.  I 
was going to take the baffle down a little, but wondered what the effect 
of undercutting the rails would be instead.  Could it round out the 
sound without affecting the good altissimo response I now have?

Dan

Since you have several of the, you might want to try side scooping on 
one and a baffle relief on another.  

You'll need a lot of side scooping to hear a significant change.  The 
chamber volume will be larger and this might drive the palm keys up in 
pitch as you push it on further to tune the mid-range.  But most 
players deal with this without noticing it.

Taking just a little material off the baffle near the tip will have a 
significant effect.  The altissimo response might suffer but the tone 
of the altissimo will become closer to the normal sax range and less 
like a semi-controlled squeek.  Altissimo response can be improved 
again by putting a slight flip in the facing curve in the tip rail 
area.  Gently lift the shank of the mouthpiece while drawing the tip 
rail across 1000 grit sandpaper.  Look at the way light reflects off 
the tip rail to make sure that it is a gentle curve without any 
facets.  This is not practically measurable, so you need to use your 
eye and artistic skill.