Today, I will be reviewing the brand new and surprisingly affordable Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece made by Kessler & Sons music in collaboration with Theo Wanne. Dave Kessler of Kessler & Sons Music in Las Vegas, reached out to me in August asking if I would be interested in reviewing his new line of custom saxophone mouthpieces that he had designed and made in collaboration with Theo Wanne. Unfortunately, at the time, I couldn’t commit to reviewing them, but now, five months later, I am excited to try these new Kessler Custom saxophone mouthpieces. Dave Kessler sent me a Kessler Custom 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece (review here), a Kessler Custom NY7 alto saxophone mouthpiece (review here) and a Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece to try out.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
Here is some information about the Kessler Custom saxophone mouthpieces from the Kessler & Sons website:
Our Kessler Custom brand launched in 2005 in order to provide musicians with high quality, affordable performance instruments and accessories. Theo Wanne Mouthpieces are considered the highest quality and performance sax mouthpieces ever made. So as part of our Kessler Custom brand’s 20th anniversary in 2025, we reached out to Theo’s team to develop a new line of Kessler Custom saxophone mouthpieces to meet the needs of musicians while still offering exception value. That’s how the Kessler Custom by Theo Wanne mouthpiece line was born!
Built on Theo’s exceptional “Additive Manufacturing Process” or “A.M.P.”, which is similar to the concept of 3D Printing, but at a much higher quality level / resolution, these mouthpieces offer the most exceptional value (in our biased opinion) available on the market today. This isn’t your basic 3D printed mouthpiece – these are mouthpieces that rival CNC manufacturing at a fraction of the cost!
Kessler Custom by Theo Wanne
Jazz Soprano Sax Mouthpiece
“We have worked with Theo for long time and have always wanted to do a collaboration mouthpiece, but the concept of high performance at an affordable price is paramount to our Kessler Custom branding. While Theo’s mouthpieces are truly on a different level than the rest, they also sat at the upper echelon in price! That all changed in late 2024 with the Theo Wanne Essentials Series of mouthpieces. This new line of mouthpiece from Theo brings incredible quality and affordability. That’s when we realized that it was time for the Kessler Custom by Theo Wanne mouthpiece line to finally come to life! Introducing the Kessler Custom by Theo Wanne Soprano Sax Mouthpiece!
We worked with Theo and his team to create this new model. This is not just a standard Essentials Series model rebranded, but a unique model based around a specific concept of performance made for the modern player.
Kessler / Wanne Soprano Design
The single biggest problem with playing soprano is that people make wrong assumptions. They assume that what works on alto/tenor sax, or even clarinet, should work on soprano. This is flawed because soprano sax is a unique instrument. However, that doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be some sense to making a mouthpiece play like what customers expect… so that’s what we did!
We sought out to make a mouthpiece for soprano that plays the way that sax players assume it should coming from alto or tenor (sorry clarinet players – but we do have recommendations for you if needed).
The chamber, baffle and reed window are all designed to make soprano FEEL more like the blow of the larger sax. This allows for a much more natural breath support for the alto/tenor player on soprano. We are using a large chamber, but a longer rollover baffle so you have power but also low resistance. This combined with a super thin table floor to keep the resistance at a minimum.
The mouthpiece is also left intentionally on the short side (length wise) so that the player is somewhat “tricked” into pushing their mouthpiece on further than than they would otherwise. This is actually the biggest assumption that people get wrong on soprano is not pushing on far enough. Modern sopranos are actually longer than older horns which requires traditional mouthpieces to be pushed on further… but many players do not know to do this and instead end up pinching their embochure. So instead of trying to teach you to push on further and fight your instincts, making it shorter gets the player to push on where it needs to be without thinking.
The end result is an affordable performance jazz soprano sax mouthpiece with great tonal body and warmth that is combined with a free-blowing, easy response.
Kessler / Wanne Soprano Facings
Currently, we offer 2 facing options:
-
- 5: .060″
- 7: .070″
To some, these seem bigger than they should – which is true. Most companies call a .060″ closer to a 6 or 7… but remember, we are trying to make these FEEL more like what the alto and tenor player assume that a 5 or 7 should feel like on soprano. Plus, combined with the larger chamber, the slightly larger tip opening is really needed in order to obtain proper response.
Ligature Bundle
Your ligature makes a big difference in performance. So it is important to us that you get the right ligature for your new mouthpiece to fit your desired performance. We offer 3 ligature bundle options with the mouthpiece:
- Rovner Light Ligature
Due to the perfectly flat table (instead of a concave table), the Rovner Light ligature works really well with the mouthpiece to produce a mellow, but responsive tone. Additionally, customers can find that inverting the Rovner ligature (placing the screw on the reed side of the mouthpiece) can actually add a little richer tonal core to the setup as well. So if you test and don’t love the ligature with the screw on top, then simply flip it around and test it out with the screw on the reed side. Trust us, it works! - D’Addario H-Ligature
If you prefer the quickest response, the D’Addario H-Ligature is a great option for performance. An inverted metal ligature, 24k Gold plated, these offer minimal reed contact for as much vibration as possible. The only draw-back to the H-Ligature is that it can scuff / scratch the mouthpiece’s textured exterior. So if you choose the H-Ligature, make sure to be careful not to damage the mouthpiece during testing. - Rovner VERSA-X
Based on the heavy mass concept of the original VERSA model, the VERSA-X offers a dark, rich tonal core with exceptional response and versatility. The X model integrates the “Mass Loaded Resonating Ribs” into the ligature to simplify its use. The original VERSA model allows for the customer to change out how much weight is present, but those weights can fall out… so the VERSA-X model eliminates that issue. - No Ligature
You can also opt for no ligature if you prefer at a small discount.
Reed Preference
Our soprano sax mouthpiece is pretty reed friendly thanks to the quality of Theo’s manufacturing. However, we do find that it prefers cane reeds with a thicker hearted / thicker vamp – due to the larger reed window and thin rails. Synthetics also work VERY well with the design due to the perfectly flat table. This helps to eliminate some of the “buzz” that some mouthpieces get from synthetic reeds.
Cane Reed Recommendations:
- Vandoren: V16, ZZ, Traditional
- D’Addario: Jazz Select, Reserve, Hemke, Plasticover
Synthetic Reed Recommendations:
- Legere: American Cut & Signature Cut
- Firbacell
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece was shipped well packaged and protected. The mouthpiece comes in a Kessler & Sons designed box with stylish printing on it with all the details of the mouthpiece inside. Inside the box, the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece is wrapped in a soft white material to protect it during shipping. The ligature (four choices listed above to choose from: Rovner Dark, Rovner Versa-X, D’Addario H Ligature and no ligature) and cap you select is included in the box with the mouthpiece.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece Box
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece I received came with a Rovner Versa-X ligature and mouthpiece cap. On the Kessler Custom tenor saxophone and alto mouthpiece reviews, I did not use the Rovner Versa-X ligature because I tend to use ligatures that I don’t feel change or impact the tone too much and I wanted to keep the variables between reviews as consistent as I can.
With the Kessler Custom soprano saxophone mouthpiece, I decided to use the Rovner Versa-X ligature because it sounded so much better than my other soprano saxophone ligatures. I tried a few of my metal soprano sax ligatures on the Kessler Custom soprano mouthpiece and they did their job and sounded fine, but at one point I decided to try the included Rovner Versa-X and the tone just sounded so much bigger and fatter in comparison to my metal soprano sax ligatures. I was so surprised by this that I went back and forth changing ligatures and every time I went back to the Rovner Versa-X ligature, the tone just sounded so much fatter and warmer that I decided to keep the Rovner Versa-X on for the sound clip recording.
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece is similar in size to a standard hard rubber soprano saxophone mouthpiece and all the ligatures that fit a standard hard rubber soprano sax sized mouthpiece should work on the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece material is the same black AMP material that the Theo Wanne Essentials saxophone mouthpiece line are made of. In the description of the AMP material, it is describes as a “proprietary bio-safe polymer”. Regardless of the materials name, the material the Kessler Custom 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.
On the body of the Kessler Custom soprano saxophone mouthpiece is engraved “Kessler Custom by Theo Wanne” on the top of the mouthpiece body. Beneath the table on the shank of the mouthpiece is engraved “7”. This 7 tip opening equates to a .070 tip opening.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece tip, rails, baffle, table and chamber all look well crafted, symmetrical and even. The side rails and tip rails are precise and thin near the tip. The table looks flat, even and well made although the reed does hang off the rear of the table slightly. The tip rail curve lines up perfectly with the soprano saxophone reeds I tried on the mouthpiece.
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece has what I would describe as a long curved baffle that you can see clearly in the photos. The last stage of the baffle has a pretty substantial side to side curve making the sides of the baffle higher than the middle section as it enters the chamber area. This gives the last stage of the baffle as it enters the chamber a scooped out design.
I would describe the chamber as a large chamber which, if you didn’t already know is my preference on soprano saxophone mouthpieces. When I hold the Kessler Custom 7 soprano mouthpiece next to my Theo Wanne original Gaia and The Wanne Ambika 3 soprano saxophone mouthpieces, the chambers look very similar in size with the Theo Wanne chambers looking a tad bit larger to my eyes.
The sidewalls are scooped out slightly for almost the whole length of the sidewalls distance from the tip to the chamber entrance. The bottom of the chamber floor is scooped out smoothly so that the sides of the chamber floor are slightly lower than the bore of the mouthpiece although the middle of the floor of the chamber is even with the bore floor. The roof of the chamber is nice and thin under the mouthpiece table.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece played great with a variety of reeds and passed the suction test with every soprano saxophone reed that I tried on it. I gravitated to the strength #3 reeds which in my opinion were the perfect strength on the Kessler Custom soprano saxophone mouthpiece. I ended up recording with a Roberto’s Winds 3 Soft soprano saxophone reed which I think paired perfectly with the Kessler Custom soprano saxophone mouthpiece.
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece had what I would describe as a tone that leaned to the brighter side of that dark to bright soprano saxophone tone spectrum (not as bright as my Theo Wanne Gaia soprano sax mouthpiece and not as dark as my Theo Wanne Ambika 3 soprano mouthpiece but the tone was right in the middle of those two mouthpieces in regard to brightness). The large chamber of the Kessler Custom soprano mouthpiece seemed to give the tone a fuller and fatter soprano saxophone tone that balanced really well with the brightness in the tone.
With some reverb added to the mix the tone really becomes even more beautiful and elegant. My favorite places to play the soprano saxophone are in areas with a natural reverb like a bathroom, garage, large empty room, parking garage, large hall, gazebos with lots of windows, empty churches, stairwell, etc…… (Ok, I’m just naming places where I played my sopranos sax and loved it), so my natural tendency, is to want to put some reverb on the sound of the soprano saxophone. The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece sounded great with reverb added, in my opinion.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
The intonation of the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece was excellent on my Yamaha YSS-62 soprano saxophone. All the notes seemed in-tune without any major adjustments needed on my part to tame the intonation of any notes.
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece had a good amount of power and volume available to it. I would rate it as a 8 on my 1-10 volume scale for soprano saxophone mouthpieces.
The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece performed great in the higher range of the soprano saxophone as it allowed the notes to still sound fat and round sounding. The low notes were easy to play and nice and fat sounding as well. The low notes could be sub-toned easily to produce a beautiful lush sound down low.
The articulation was clean and crisp and the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece performed well on fast jazz lines while applying articulation. The notes could be easy manipulated and shaped to be expressive with vibrato, bends and dynamics.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
On the sound clips below, I try to give a good range and variety of soprano saxophone sounds and textures so that you can hear how the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece performs in different styles. I demonstrate the sound of the Kessler Custom 7 saxophone saxophone mouthpiece with all my usual lines and melodies so if you want to compare it to my other soprano saxophone mouthpiece 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 some reverb added on a Roberto’s Winds 3 Soft soprano saxophone reed. I put this sound clip with reverb first just because I love the sound of soprano saxophone mouthpieces with reverb added so much. The reverb seems to fatten up the natural brightness of the soprano saxophone.
The second sound clip is the same as the first clip with no reverb added to the mix. It is a “dry” recording meaning no effects have been added at all. I like to always include a dry recording so that you can hear how the mouthpiece sounds with no reverb added to the clip.
The third sound clip is a clip of me playing the simple melody of “When I Fall in Love” with reverb added.
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
In my opinion, the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece is a fabulous budget friendly soprano saxophone mouthpiece for those looking for a large chambered soprano sax mouthpiece that delivers a medium bright and powerful room-filling tone that sounds big, full and fat sounding. The Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece allows the player to shape the tone of their soprano saxophone to be expressive and beautiful on ballads and/or smooth jazz or more aggressive and edgy when needed for other types of music.
Earlier in the review, Dave Kessler described his goal of creating a soprano saxophone mouthpiece that played and blew like a larger saxophone mouthpiece and I think he achieved that goal. The Kessler Custom 7 soprano mouthpiece feels and plays like an alto or tenor saxophone mouthpiece in that the amount of air you can push through the mouthpiece doesn’t feel like it encounters a constriction, restriction or bottleneck point like I have felt when playing other smaller chambered soprano saxophone mouthpieces.
I am very impressed with the unique design of the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece by Theo Wanne and give props to Dave Kessler and Theo Wanne for creating a different soprano sax mouthpiece design that allows the player to get a fabulous soprano saxophone sound that is easy to blow and expressive.
Kessler & Sons and Theo Wanne and his team have done a terrific job designing a versatile soprano saxophone mouthpiece perfect for jazz soprano saxophonists and doublers while still being relatively affordable compared to most of the other options out on the market today. Dave Kessler tells me that these new Kessler Custom saxophone mouthpieces are included as stock saxophone mouthpieces with all the Kessler Custom saxophones they sell and that many customers have been very happy with the pairing of these excellent Kessler Custom mouthpieces included with their saxophones.
If you like the sound and look of the Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece by Kessler & Sons Music and Theo Wanne, you can find them at the Kessler & Sons Music website.
If you are lucky enough to play a Kessler Custom 7 soprano saxophone mouthpiece or have any other thoughts or comments, I would love to hear what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne with Robertos Winds 3 Soft Soprano Saxophone Reed-Rovner Versa-X Ligature
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne – Reverb Added-Robertos Winds 3 Soft Soprano Saxophone Reed – Rovner Versa-X Ligature
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne – Same Clip as Above with No Reverb Added-Robertos Winds 3 Soft Soprano Saxophone Reed – Rovner Versa-X Ligature
Kessler Custom 7 Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Theo Wanne – “When I Fall in Love” Melody with Reverb Added – Robertos Winds 3 Soft Soprano Saxophone Reed – Rovner Versa-X Ligature
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