Today, I will be reviewing the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece from the new Theo Wanne Essentials collection of saxophone mouthpieces that was released in the fall of 2024. I recently posted a review of some of the other Theo Wanne Essentials saxophone mouthpieces so if you want to check out any of those reviews you can click here.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Essentials Collection of saxophone mouthpieces by Theo Wanne are described as offering “exceptional quality and superior craftsmanship, while still being affordable”.
The Theo Wanne Essentials collection includes three models for alto and tenor saxophones including the Concert, Jazz and Contemporary models and two models for soprano and baritone saxophones including the Concert and Jazz models.
Before we get to the review, here is some info from the Theo Wanne website on the Theo Wanne Essentials collection of saxophone mouthpieces:
“Traditionally, saxophone mouthpieces were either budget-friendly but low-quality, or high-quality but expensive. The ESSENTIALS COLLECTION changes all of that, by offering exceptional quality at an accessible price point. Theo’s lifelong goal has always been to deliver the best of both worlds—superior craftsmanship and affordability.”
The ESSENTIALS COLLECTION features a comprehensive range of saxophone mouthpieces designed for Soprano through Baritone, catering to every type of player. Each mouthpiece is meticulously crafted side-by-side with Theo’s renowned Signature Collection at our state-of-the-art factory in Bellingham, Washington, USA.
Key highlights include:
- Industry-First Additive Manufacturing Process (A.M.P.): A breakthrough in Additive Manufacturing, our innovative process ensures precision and consistency.
- Proprietary Material: Our new material delivers outstanding tone and response, with a resonance, density and feel reminiscent of hard rubber.
- Rigorous Quality Control: Unmatched consistency in manufacturing eliminates the need for extensive trials, as you no longer need to try ten to find a good one.
Theo Wanne Essentials Saxophone Mouthpieces for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophone
Introducing the ESSENTIALS Collection
About the Essentials Collection
A Mouthpiece for Everyone:
- Concert model: Designed for classical and band use, featuring a warm round tone, and easy playability.
- Jazz model: Perfect for most genres of classic and modern jazz. It has medium projection and brightness.
- Contemporary Model: A high baffle, edgy, mouthpiece for when you need lots of projection and edge.
Quality and Innovation:
- Crafted side-by-side with Theo’s SIGNATURE mouthpieces at our factory in Bellingham, USA
- Made with our proprietary, industry-first, Additive Manufacturing Process (A.M.P.™).
- The material is also proprietary, producing an incredible resonance and has a similar density and weight to vintage hard rubber.
- Quality control is held to the same high standard as our most expensive SIGNATURE models. Unlike most other affordable mouthpieces, the ESSENTIALS Collection is consistent, eliminating the need to try ten to find one “good one”.
- Advanced Technology: Designed by Foremost Expert Theo Wanne: these are most consistent, advanced, and high-quality saxophone mouthpieces ever made.
- Made to fit every budget: The ESSENTIALS Collection was engineered to be high quality and affordable, all at once.
- Made In USA: Theo Wanne is known for making the world’s best mouthpieces, and many of the top saxophone players play his designs. They are manufactured using only the best materials and the most advanced machining.
Theo Wanne Essentials Full Line of Saxophone Mouthpieces
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece was shipped with the usual high standards of the Theo Wanne company. The Jazz 7* tenor sax mouthpiece comes in a perfectly designed box with stylish gold printing on it with all the details of the mouthpiece inside. Inside the box is a black velvet drawstring bag that holds and protects the Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece during shipping.
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece doesn’t come with a ligature included. I used a BSS (Boston Sax Shop) gold Superlative tenor sax ligature that I have in my collection of ligatures that worked great as well as a Francois Louis Ultimate ligature. The Essentials Jazz tenor mouthpiece is similar in size to a standard tenor saxophone mouthpiece like a hard rubber Otto Link and all the ligatures that fit a standard hard rubber Otto Link sized mouthpiece should work on the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece (Pretty cool surprise! You can see how the material is a bit translucent when a bright light is shined from behind it. The sun is behind the mouthpiece.)
The Essentials Jazz tenor sax mouthpiece material looks and feels similar to the Black A.R.T. material that the Theo Wanne Water classical alto saxophone mouthpiece are made of. I’m not sure if this is the same material or something different because “Black A.R.T.” is not mentioned in the description of the Essentials line of mouthpieces. It sure looks very similar except that the material of the Water mouthpiece is more shiny so maybe it is different. In the description later in the review, the material is describes as a “proprietary bio-safe polymer”. Regardless of the materials name, the material the Essentials mouthpieces are made of looks and feels solid and stable. Theo describes the material as having a similar weight and density when compared to hard rubber.
The shank of the Essentials Jazz 7 tenor sax mouthpiece has a gold band around it that has “THEO WANNE” engraved into the top of the band and “Made in USA” on the bottom of the band. The Theo Wanne logo is painted in gold on the top of the mouthpiece. Since it is painted and not engraved, I would think it would wear off over time from the frequent placement of the ligature on the mouthpiece every time the mouthpiece is played.
*The gold band on the shank did start twisting and eventually came off the mouthpiece. Nothing some glue won’t fix, but I was surprised when it came off.
On the body of the mouthpiece is engraved a serial number on one side of the table, and “JAZZ” on the other side of the table. Beneath the table is engraved the tip opening of 7*. This 7* tip opening equates to a .105 tip opening.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Here is some more information from the Theo Wanne website on the new Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece:
ESSENTIALS: Jazz Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
In the past, low-cost mouthpieces were low quality, and high-quality mouthpieces were expensive. However, the Theo Wanne™ ESSENTIALS COLLECTION brings you incredible quality and low cost, at the same time!
The Jazz Tenor brings back that classic, vintage jazz sound that you love. The tone isn’t too dark, or too bright, it’s responsive and it plays evenly from top to bottom. If you are playing tenor in any kind of jazz setting, this is the model you want.
It is available in 2 popular tip openings:
Size 5: 0.080″ or 2.03mm
Size 7*: 0.105″ or 2.67mm
Material: A.M.P. – Proprietary Bio-Safe Polymer
Baffle: Roll-Over Shark Gill™ Baffle
Chamber: Medium Chamber
Ligature Fit: Standard Hard Rubber Tenor Ligature
What’s Included
- ESSENTIALS Collection Mouthpiece
- User replaceable Bite Pads
- Velvet Mouthpiece Pouch
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece tip, rails, baffle, table and chamber all look well crafted, symmetrical and even. The side rails and tip rails are surprisingly thin considering this new A.M.P. manufacturing process that Theo is using to create these Essential saxophone mouthpieces. The table looks flat, even and well made although the reed does hang off the rear of the table slightly.
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece has what I would describe as a medium baffle. The baffle is at a medium height for about 1/2 an inch (where the second line is) and then it rolls over gently to descend at a great angle towards the medium chamber.
The sidewalls are scooped out nice as they approach the chamber entrance. The bottom of the chamber floor is scooped out smoothly so that the chamber floor is beneath the bore of the mouthpiece. The roof of the chamber is nice and thin under the mouthpiece table.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece played great with a variety of reeds and passed the suction test with every tenor saxophone reed that I tried on it. I ended up using a BSS (Boston Sax Shop) #3 1/2 silver box reed and a BSS #3 silver box tenor saxophone reed for the sound clips below.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece had what I would describe as a tone that sat on the brighter side of the dark to bright tone spectrum I write about so often. When I played at a more medium volume, I felt like the tone leaned to the middle of that tone spectrum but when I pushed the air more forcefully, the tone leaned to the brighter side of that spectrum with more brightness, buzz and edge in the tone.
The tone was full, and rich sounding to my ears. It seemed a little more dark, rich and textured with the harder BSS 3 1/2 silver box reed and a bit brighter with more buzz and edge in the tone with the softer BSS #3 silver box reed. Still, the softer BSS #3 reed could be played warmly when laying back on a ballad and sub-toned exceptionally well.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The intonation of the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor sax mouthpiece were within normal parameters on my Selmer SBA tenor saxophone. I would say that the intonation was excellent.
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece had a substantial amount of power and volume available to it. I would rate it as an 8 on my 1-10 volume scale for saxophone mouthpieces. When compared to a typical hard rubber Otto Link tenor sax mouthpiece, the TW Essentials Jazz mouthpiece definitely has more power, volume and brightness than a typical hard rubber Otto Link. I would perhaps compare the brightness level to an Early Babbitt Otto Link level of brightness although the TW Essentials Jazz tenor mouthpiece played very differently than a hard rubber Otto Link design in my opinion.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece performed great in the altissimo range of the saxophone and the low notes were nice and fat sounding and could be sub-toned easily to produce a beautiful lush sound down low. The notes could be easy manipulated and shaped to be expressive and bluesy sounding.
The articulation was clean and crisp and the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz model performed well on fast jazz lines while applying articulation.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
On the sound clips below, I try to give a good range and variety of tenor saxophone sounds and textures so that you can hear how the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece performs in different styles. I demonstrate the sound of the Essentials Jazz tenor mouthpiece with all my usual lines and melodies so if you want to compare it to my other sound clips and reviews, you should be able to find many of the same lines to compare this sound clip to.
The first sound clip is recorded with no effects on a BSS #3 silver box tenor saxophone reed. The second sound clip is a clip of altissimo playing with some reverb added so you can hear how the mouthpiece sounds in that range of the saxophone with reverb. I am using the same BSS #3 silver box reed for this sound clip. The third sound clip is recorded with a slightly harder BSS 3 1/2 silver box tenor saxophone reed.
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
In my opinion, the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece is a great medium baffle tenor saxophone mouthpiece for those looking for a beautifully solid sounding tenor saxophone tone that is well rounded and versatile. The Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece gives the player a focused fat sound that can be warm and lush while also giving a good amount of brightness and power when pushed harder for more modern music. The Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece is a great choice for jazz, big band, small group settings or contemporary music. This is a great saxophone mouthpiece choice for any professional or student who needs a tenor sax mouthpiece that can cover all the bases!
Theo Wanne and his team have done a terrific job designing a versatile mouthpiece perfect for jazz tenor saxophonists while still being relatively affordable compared to most of the other options out on the market today.
If you like the sound and look of the Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece 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 Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece from this link (save 15% by using this link), Neffmusic will receive a small commission on the sale. This helps to support my site and keep the saxophone related reviews, articles and transcriptions coming to you.
If you are lucky enough to play a Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece or have any other thoughts or comments, I would love to hear what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece with BSS #3 Silver Box Reed
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece – BSS (Boston Sax Shop) #3 Silver Box Reed – No Effects
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece – Altissimo with Reverb Added – BSS (Boston Sax Shop) #3 Silver Box Reed
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece with BSS #3 1/2 Silver Box Reed
Theo Wanne Essentials Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece – BSS (Boston Sax Shop) #3 1/2 Silver Box Reed – No Effects
If one is playing in a pop band this surely will help carry the section. Our Bari guy just bought one and it works great. -Ted
It seems to sound really good, it’s cheap and it’s also available in size 5.
It seems great to me.
Giuseppe.