Just when I was ready to toss my Link into my "used" pile I sent it to Ed Zentera where he sprinkled his magic dust on it and made it work. It was money well spent and if I had to do it again, I would. Love the Link and Ed.

The newer Links are very material heavy and not finished to a great level of precision. HOWEVER, not all Floridas are killer pieces, either. Be careful of the hype. Before dropping mega bucks on a piece, you should play it first - or your mailbox will become a revolving door for mouthpieces. A modern STM can be whipped into shape to be an excellent player at a total cost of around half of what you would pay for a Florida Link that may or may not be all that great. And yes - there are some modern Links that really do play well fresh out of the box.

If you want to avoid the customization cost of a current mass production mouthpiece, you could try Parick Springer at www.springermpc.com or Fred Rast at www.rastmusic.com or Dave Jary or Jody Espina or Ralph Morgan. I think all these are quality hand finished hard rubber pieces. Phil Barone makes a carefully crafted hard metal mouthpiece, for one.

If i can add my 2 cents. The older links from florida and before are the product of artistry in design and most of them were very well finished. They are kind of individuals but the core sound is usually very centered and some of them are very very beautiful sounding. The very first ones made when the company was sold to "that other evil company" (1974?)are exactly like the florida ones but need to be finished and faced properly. After that "the other evil company" began to mess with the design in a seemingly random way and totally destroyed the design of the mouthpieces. As others have said however you have to know what you are doing to get a good older one. Alot of the older ones being sold now have been misused or messed up by bad work done on them and are now worthless junk.