Warburton A Series 12 Degree Alto Sax Mouthpiece

This is a Warburton A series 12 degree alto saxophone mouthpiece that I am reviewing today. This alto saxophone mouthpiece has an 8 tip opening. It is silver plated and came with a Rovner light ligature. These are made by the great mouthpiece refacer Eric Falcon down in Florida.

I received a few of these last week and have had a lot of fun playing them since then. The  “12 degree” in the title refers to the angle of the baffle in the mouthpiece. The 12 degree baffle is a lower height in comparison to the 8 degree mouthpieces but not as low as the 16 degree.

Warburton A Series 12 Degree Alto Sax Mouthpiece

The Warburton 12 degree alto mouthpiece looks great.  The baffle, rails, chamber and tip are perfect. The sidewalls of the mouthpiece are straight.  The tip lines up perfectly with the shape of the reed tip.  The beak of the mouthpiece is probably one of the lowest that I have played in all my years.  You can really feel the vibrations through the beak of the mouthpiece, even with a patch on it. I really liked that.  The beak even felt smaller to me than my soprano mouthpiece.  It might take some getting used to for those of you who are playing a mouthpiece with a high beak.  I had no problem with it after a few minutes of playing it.

Here is what the Warburton website has to say about this mouthpiece:

“The 12 degree model is a good choice for the player looking for a mouthpiece to cover as many styles as possible. Players can shape the timbre most easily on this piece from a beautiful subtone to a screamin’ R&B solo if needed.

Highly recommended for players of: Studio work and Jazz players looking for a warm sound with more projection “

The mouthpiece has what would consider a brighter sound but not like a Dukoff bright. The brightness is countered by the thickness of the tone.  I don’t normally like mouthpieces on the brighter side for alto but this one was fun to play for me.  At the end of the clip I play a little of “Cherokee”.  It sounds fine in that setting I think.  The tone is easy to manipulate and bend which I really like.  The altissimo and intonation were also very good.

Warburton A Series 12 Degree Alto Sax Mouthpiece

This would be a great mouthpiece for you guys who are looking for a nice all round mouthpiece. I could do a pop gig on this no problem and  I think it would handle the “Sanborn” type sound well.  It would also be great for a straight ahead type gig if you were into that bright alto sound for that.  If you want to find out more about these great mouthpieces visit the Warburton Website for more info. Let me know what you think below. Thanks, Steve