Theo Wanne Battle Royal Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Showdown: Round One-Ballad

November 30, 2022 by Steve 35 Comments

Today, I am posting a battle royal, fight to the death, comparison between six Theo Wanne tenor saxophone mouthpieces that I have already reviewed here at Neffmusic. Here are the six Theo Wanne mouthpieces doing battle in round one today with links to their reviews:

Theo Wanne Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Lineup (From Left to Right-Ambika 3, Lakshmi, Gaia 3, Gaia 4, Durga 5, Shiva 3)

For this Battle Royal-Round One, we are starting with 8 bars from the ballad entitled “My One and Only Love”. Each tenor sax mouthpiece gets the opportunity to show off while playing the A section of this popular jazz ballad. We have asked the mouthpieces to retrain from their creative impulses and to play similar lines and ideas for this round so that they could be judged purely by their sound, tonal shade (brightness and darkness), tonal texture, power, articulation, intonation and all-round general vibe……..

Theo Wanne Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Lineup (From Left to Right-Ambika 3, Lakshmi, Gaia 3, Gaia 4, Durga 5, Shiva 3)

All six Theo Wanne tenor sax mouthpieces entered the ring using their corresponding Liberty ligatures. They were all recorded at the same distance from the mic with the same microphone and settings.

The Ambika 3, Lakshmi and Gaia 4 tenor sax mouthpieces all used the same Roberto’s Winds 3 soft tenor saxophone reed. Interestingly enough, that same reed would not work on the Gaia 3 tenor saxophone mouthpiece and a new Roberto’s Winds 3 soft reed had to be used on the Gaia 3 tenor sax mouthpiece.

The Durga 5 and Shiva 3 tenor sax mouthpieces played best with a Roberto’s Winds 2 1/2 hard tenor saxophone reed as the 3 soft reed felt too hard on the 8 tip opening of these two mouthpieces.

I rarely do head to head comparisons between saxophone mouthpieces so this Battle Royal-Round One between the Theo Wanne contenders was quite interesting. As a disclaimer, I will state that I spent very little time getting used to each mouthpiece before recording. I just put on a reed, blew on it to see if it felt good, and then recorded.

Theo Wanne Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Lineup (From Left to Right-Ambika 3, Lakshmi, Gaia 3, Gaia 4, Durga 5, Shiva 3)

If you like the sound and look of any of these beautiful tenor saxophone mouthpieces by Theo Wanne, you can find them at Theo Wanne’s website (save 15% by using this link). I have agreed to be an affiliate for Theo Wanne so if you purchase a Theo Wanne tenor saxophone mouthpiece from a link (save 15% by using this link) here in the review, I will receive a small commission on the sale at no extra cost to you. (This helps to support my site and keep the saxophone related reviews, articles and transcriptions coming to you…..).

Here are some of my subjective observations from playing these six great Theo Wanne tenor saxophone mouthpieces back to back:

Ambika 3 (7* tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece– This was definitely the darkest tenor mouthpiece of the six mouthpieces. The tone is rich and thick. It didn’t seem as loud to me but that is probably because there is less brightness in the tone. The upper range notes didn’t get a lot brighter in tone as they did on some of the other mouthpieces. The intonation was really locked in for me on this one. The tone had a nice dark focused core to it.
Lakshmi (7* tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece-The Lakshmi was brighter than the Ambika 3 but sounded more complex and rich to my ears. Like there was more complexity to the tone. The tone seemed like it had more diffused edges to it which makes it sound more spread and buttery sounding than the other mouthpieces.
Gaia 3 (7* tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece-The Gaia 3 sounds immediate fatter to me than the Lakshmi but there is a bit of edge in the tone I wasn’t a fan of. The runs seemed a bit more uneven to me than the other mouthpieces.
Gaia 4 (7* tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece-The Gaia 4 has the fatness of the Gaia 3 but some of the richness and complexity of the Lakshmi. It also loses that edge in the tone I didn’t like on the Gaia 3 track. The fast runs seemed more even and smoother than on the Gaia 3. It seems to have more solid stable core to the sound where as the Gaia 3 has a sound that felt like it might break at times. Perhaps not as stable of a tone when compared to the Gaia 4. The tone seemed more locked in as far as intonation and the center of the tone to me.
Durga 5 (8 tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece-The Durga is brighter than the first four mouthpieces and you can immediately notice a more in your face presence to the tone, as if I was standing closer to the mic, although I wasn’t. It does have some more edge to the tone especially in the upper register. The palm keys seemed brighter and bit thinner than I liked. I loved the presence of this mouthpiece though.
Shiva 3 (8 tip opening) tenor saxophone mouthpiece– The Shiva 3 is interesting because I think I subconsciously sub-toned more on it than the other mouthpieces to keep the power, brightness and edge in control. You can hear at the :14 mark where I put a little more air through the horn and the note gets much louder, brighter and edgier immediately. I found the Shiva to be too bright and edgy for my tastes on this ballad.

This is a show down, so for me, if I had to rate these in order of preference for this ballad:

Gaia 4
Lakshmi
Ambika 3
Durga 5
Gaia 3
Shiva

The Gaia 4 and Lakshmi are really a toss up. They both sounded great but had different tones. The Gaia 4 had a thicker core and heartiness to the tone and the Lakshmi having a more smooth and pretty tone. The Ambika was beautiful also but darker than I usually like. The Durga 5 sounded great but was brighter than I like. I did love the presence of tone with the Durga 5 and it reminded me a bit of Michael Brecker’s “in-your-face” bright tone when he played “My One and Only Love”. The Gaia 3 and Shiva just had more brightness and edge than I like. Edge is cool when I can turn it on and off but I am not a fan of edge popping up in the tone when I didn’t call for it. I do not like that at all.

I guess I could also see the Gaia 4 and Lakshmi tied for first place and the Ambika 3 and Durga 5 tied for second place depending if I wanted to go brighter or darker with my tone.

So, those are my personal impressions. Let me know what you think in the comments below whether you agree or disagree with my opinions.- Steve

Please let me know what you think in the comments below. Which one is the winner of this round in your opinion? Do you hear a difference? I would love to hear what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve

My One and Only Love (A Section)

Theo Wanne Ambika 3 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

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