Theo Wanne has been designing and manufacturing some of the world’s finest saxophone mouthpieces for decades. Many esteemed players consider Theo’s Signature line to be among the most well-designed and precision machined mouthpieces ever made. The pursuit of this pedigree demands a significant investment; his premium mouthpieces command premium prices. Theo crafts his Signature pieces with precision, using pure brass bars and the finest hard rubber rods available. This contributes to their higher price points. And let’s not forget the costs of developing, CAD programming, and testing the mouthpiece designs. Playing perfection is not cheap!
Theo’s latest endeavor, the Essentials Collection, seeks to provide mouthpieces as masterfully and impeccably crafted as his Signature designs. However, they are offered at a more affordable price. Players on a tighter budget can now realize unsurpassed performance.
Theo’s Essentials Collection has a few key distinctions. These render this new combination of playing perfection and affordability possible. A groundbreaking food safe tested material forms the basis of this new mouthpieces line. Moreover, Theo has developed a proprietary Additive Manufacturing Process (A.M.P.™). This cutting edge technological development dramatically increases the scale of production. It also increases the accuracy of such. Theo’s dedicated team, as a final step, meticulously hand inspects each mouthpiece. When combined with insights from decades of research and development, these insights are passed down into this newest line. Thus, each customer receives the playing benefits and look of Theo’s Signature pieces at a previously unrealized price point.
The Theo Wanne Essentials Collection Jazz Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece in a 7* tip opening is aesthetically a beautiful mouthpiece. If I were not better informed, I would think it’s completely CNC’d and hand finished. Amazing work! Its break point is perfectly symmetrical as is the remainder of the curve. The tip rail is as perfect as the best tip rails I’ve ever seen. Also, the table is flat to my eye using a straight edge. The chamber is a little smaller than a typical Otto Link and smaller than Theo’s top Signature Jazz designs. A gorgeous gold band on the shank reads “Theo Wanne” and “Made in USA.”
The Essentials Collection Jazz tenor mouthpiece accepts my favorite ligature for hard rubber mouthpieces, the Selmer two screw ligature of days past. That said, I also tried playing with a Vandoren M|O ligature, but it was just a little too small to accommodate the reed. No big deal, the Essentials Collection Jazz tenor piece also accommodates the inverted two screw Ishimori Woodstone ligature I have.
This mouthpiece is tonally near the top of my favorite hard rubber tenor saxophone mouthpieces. Yes, but it’s not hard rubber. I primarily play on metal tenor saxophone mouthpieces, either Theo’s Lakshmi or Gaia IV. For that reason, I have a smidgen of difficulty switching to the wider mouthpiece and higher beak profile of standard hard rubber tenor saxophone mouthpieces. The only modern production hard rubber tenor saxophone mouthpiece that doesn’t create difficulty for me is the Theo Wanne Gaia IV in hard rubber. But that’s a different story—it has the same profile as the brass Gaia IV.
Further Reading
Please read about Theo Wanne’s revolutionary endeavor with JJ Babbitt: Innovation Meets Legacy
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