Warburton A Series 16 Degree Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

This is a Warburton A series 16 degree tenor saxophone mouthpiece that I am reviewing today.  This tenor saxophone mouthpiece has an 7* tip opening which is a .105.   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   “16 degree” in the title refers to the angle of the baffle in the mouthpiece.   The 16 degree baffle is a lower height in comparison to the 12 and 8 degree mouthpieces. It still has a bit of a  higher baffle in it compared to other low baffled mouthpieces.

Warburton A Series 16 Degree Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

The Warburton 16 degree mouthpiece looks great.  The first thing I noticed when I opened up the package was that it was one of the longest tenor mouthpieces I have seen. It is really long. The table itself extends a good amount past the reed. This is a good thing for those of you who are worried about where the mouthpiece sits on the cork. This mouthpiece pushes about 3/4 to the end of the cork on my sax depending on the model I am playing. This 16 degree mouthpiece was almost to the end of the cork.

Like I said earlier, it looks great. The baffle, rails, chamber and tip are perfect. The sidewalls of the mouthpiece are straight. 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 baffle of the mouthpiece is lower than the 8 and 12 degree model but that is the only difference I can see with my eye.  The baffle seems to have more of a roll over closer to the tip rails than the others.  Probably to accommodate the lower descent of the baffle.

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

“The 16 degree model has the most traditional sound of the three. The sound is warm with a great core. Ideal for the player looking for the warmest and most lyrical sound.

Highly recommended for players of: Jazz “

When I played the mouthpiece for the first time it had a darker thicker sound to it. The tone still had that focused core sound that I believe comes from the straight sidewalls but it was darker and warmer sounding than the 8 and 12 degree.  The opening few measures of  “My One and Only Love”  I thought sounded beautiful as I listened back to the recording.

In my opinion, the whole range of the horn was nice and fat sounding. The high notes didn’t thin out at all and the low notes were nice, thick and sounded great. It didn’t have as much power as the 8 and 12 degree but what you lose in power you gain in warmth in my opinion.

Warburton A Series 16 Degree Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

This would be a great mouthpiece for you guys who are looking for a nice jazz mouthpiece.  It doesn’t have the brightness that you might need on a loud R&B gig but this piece would be great on jazz gig in my opinion.  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