Theo Wanne Wood Gaia Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Here’s another Theo Wanne tenor saxophone mouthpiece for you to check out. I just received a ton of these and I’m working my way through them as you might have noticed.   This is a wood version of the Gaia tenor saxophone mouthpiece. The Gaia is said to be a run at the florida link type concept.   It has a medium baffle that does indeed remind me of my florida links.  The difference hear is in the chamber. The Gaia looks to have a much larger chamber than the florida links I have owned.  It looks closer in size to my NY links.  This mouthpiece is a .110 tip opening. I was hoping for a .105 tip as that is what I liked the best when I tried the metal Gaia out. This tip feels a little larger than I normally like but it was still easy to play.

Theo Wanne Wood Gaia Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

• Appearance:

Again, as with all Theo Wanne products, this mouthpiece looks great. This one is made out of a wood compound that is a mix of wood and resin.  It is advertised as never warping or cracking which is a great plus in my book. It  has the logo and “Gaia” engraved on it in gold as well as a gold band around the end of the shank.  It also comes with a gold “enlightened” ligature.   The rails and tip are perfect and even. The chamber and baffle look as good as it gets.

• Tone:

The Gaia has a medium sound that is right in the middle of bright to dark.  I think it leans a little bit towards the bright side of things.  I found this mouthpiece to be vibrant and the tone was nice and thick sounding. The wood material seems to give it a little more textured sound that to me adds character to the tone.  At times i even felt like the tone was a little smokey sounding.   Up high the notes were full sounding as was the low end. The .110 tip opening felt a little too big for my tastes. I would have loved to try this in a .105 tip.

• Intonation:

Intonation was great with this mouthpiece and within normal limits.

• Control:

The Gaia was easy to play for me.   It played great down low and up into the altissimo and the tone was even up and down the horn.

• Volume:

I could get nice and loud with this mouthpiece.  I’m not sure it would be my choice for a loud funk gig  but it does have a beautiful lush sound to it that would be perfect for some straight ahead gigs.  I did find it louder playing than the Ambika.

This is another great mouthpiece by Theo Wanne. For more information on the Gaia tenor sax mouthpiece visit www.theowanne.com .