Hi Guys, This is my first post as I am a complete amateur to this refacing business.  I, like most Link lovers purchased a NY Link a couple of years ago from a batch of 4.  The sound of the Link was pretty good, but it was stuffy, resistant and some places on the horn would just  never sound great.  I first decided to flatten the thing since i could see that it was ridiculously concave.  Not having a glass gauge or feelers at the time I just "eyeballed" the curve.  Although it did improve somewhat... I could tell that the rest of the facing needed work too.  
Fast forward a couple of frustrated years... Recently I started looking at photos of the old Florida Links.  I quickly realized that this NY really had very few of the features that make Links sound good!  There was an essence of that Link sound, but it was far too much work to get it.  I could also tell that the darned lake, dent or whatever you want to call it after the baffle was probably just choking it off.  
Finally I busted out the glass, sand paper, marine epoxy and files and also made a glass gauge from the template on this forum.  I already had a bunch of feeler gauges.  My guess was that it would either get better from this "Floridating" process or if not, I would send it to someone that new what they were doing!  Regardless, I really didn't have any love for the piece any more in its current state.  
I have to say that after correcting the facing, thinning the rails and tip, opening up the window, changing the baffle shape and adding a bit of goo to fill that pond that I new have probably the best mouthpiece I have ever played.  I probably got lucky, but as a Pilot friend of mine once said... "If you have to choose luck or skill.. always go with luck!"  Now if I could have just done this a few years ago....  Thanks for all the data on this site.  I couldn't have done it otherwise!       

Great.  Let's hear it!   

--- On Tue, 2/7/12, Sunny <sunnystutzman@...> wrote:

From: Sunny <sunnystutzman@...>
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Bad Link... Good Link
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 8:47 PM
















 



  


    
      
      
      Hi Guys, This is my first post as I am a complete amateur to this refacing business.  I, like most Link lovers purchased a NY Link a couple of years ago from a batch of 4.  The sound of the Link was pretty good, but it was stuffy, resistant and some places on the horn would just  never sound great.  I first decided to flatten the thing since i could see that it was ridiculously concave.  Not having a glass gauge or feelers at the time I just "eyeballed" the curve.  Although it did improve somewhat... I could tell that the rest of the facing needed work too.  

Fast forward a couple of frustrated years... Recently I started looking at photos of the old Florida Links.  I quickly realized that this NY really had very few of the features that make Links sound good!  There was an essence of that Link sound, but it was far too much work to get it.  I could also tell that the darned lake, dent or whatever you want to call it after the baffle was probably just choking it off.  

Finally I busted out the glass, sand paper, marine epoxy and files and also made a glass gauge from the template on this forum.  I already had a bunch of feeler gauges.  My guess was that it would either get better from this "Floridating" process or if not, I would send it to someone that new what they were doing!  Regardless, I really didn't have any love for the piece any more in its current state.  

I have to say that after correcting the facing, thinning the rails and tip, opening up the window, changing the baffle shape and adding a bit of goo to fill that pond that I new have probably the best mouthpiece I have ever played.  I probably got lucky, but as a Pilot friend of mine once said... "If you have to choose luck or skill.. always go with luck!"  Now if I could have just done this a few years ago....  Thanks for all the data on this site.  I couldn't have done it otherwise!