{"id":14848,"date":"2014-04-30T21:34:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T02:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=14848"},"modified":"2020-01-10T16:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:00:04","slug":"phil-tone-theo-wanne-mosaic-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/phil-tone-theo-wanne-mosaic-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece (Updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Update: this original Mosaic review was of a prototype Mosaic mouthpiece but since the review Phil has tweaked and I think improved the original design of the Mosaic mouthpiece.\u00a0 He has been kind enough to send me a new model to try.\u00a0 I am updating this review and sound clip\u00a0 for the new production model.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, I am excited to review a new mouthpiece made by Phil Engleman and Theo Wanne. Phil Engleman is the founder of Phil-Tone mouthpieces and I have reviewed a number of his excellent mouthpieces in the past. The Equinox,the Eclipse, the Solstice, the Tribute, the Sapphire, etc…………… Phil contacted me a few months ago and said he was producing a new metal mouthpiece based off the classic Dukoff “Stubby” design.<\/p>\n

You might remember a few months ago, I reviewed the Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne\u00a0 “Tribute” mouthpiece.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This was a great reproduction of the classic Florida link design.\u00a0 That mouthpiece played great, so I was very interested in trying the “Mosaic” also.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outside of the Mosaic mouthpiece is immaculate and lives up to the Wanne standards of mouthpiece manufacturing.\u00a0 The one I am reviewing today hasn’t been finished yet and is bare brass.\u00a0 The finished production model will have a bead blast silver finish and texture to it with Phil-Tone and Mosaic engraved on the top of the mouthpiece. On the bottom of the shank is the Theo Wanne symbol and USA. There is no bite plate on the mouthpiece but it has a mouthpiece patch where the bite plate would be. The table and rails of the Tribute look perfect, not a blemish anywhere.\u00a0 The beginning of the baffle is a smooth\u00a0 finish and halfway down the baffle it transitions to the bead blast finish. The sidewalls are scooped out by the CNC process I believe. The scooped sidewalls don’t travel all the way to the tip but starts about half an inch from the tip. The transition to the chamber is smooth and subtle. The chamber is a bit larger than the Tribute model.\u00a0 It is also larger than the bore of the mouthpiece. It reminds me of the chambers from the NY Otto Links. Usually, a chamber this large gives a fatter, thicker and fuller sound to the tone in my experience.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outside of the Mosaic saxophone mouthpiece looks similar to the Tribute mouthpiece. It has the same basic design, but the Mosaic is in fact just a little bit shorter than the Tribute. The tip and rails look to be perfectly even and thin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Mosaic looks to have a\u00a0 similar baffle as the Tribute to my naked eye but Phil in fact tells me that the Mosaic baffle has a more gentle slope to it.\u00a0 The Mosaic I am reviewing today, is a 7* tip opening.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

My mouthpiece didn’t come with a ligature but the production pieces will be coming with a Theo Wanne Enlightened ligature. I tried this “Mosaic” with Rigotti Gold reeds first but found them overly bright for my tastes.\u00a0 I then switched to a Lavoz medium reed that played great on the Mosaic for me.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does the Mosaic play?\u00a0 Well, the Mosaic tenor mouthpiece has a very thick and fat sound. It can be lush and fat down low but has a nice brightness and crispness up high.\u00a0\u00a0 The intonation was great and the tone was very even throughout the range of the horn. With a Lavoz medium reed the tone was fat and clear.\u00a0 It had a very pleasant and beautiful tone to my ears when played at a soft or medium volume.\u00a0 I loved sub-toning down low.\u00a0 When I pushed it more it had a nice volume and toughness to the sound.\u00a0 It has a great mix of the bright higher overtones mixed with a fat thick sound which I loved.<\/p>\n

In the original prototype review I had commented that the Mosaic seemed to lack power and “Umph” to me.\u00a0 I’m not sure what Phil did to this new design but he seems to have overcome that.\u00a0 This new Mosaic has loads of power and “Umph” to the sound as you can hear in the sound clip.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Phil-Tone Theo Wanne Mosaic was a complete joy to play. If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then give it a try. You can contact Phil on his website at www.phil-tone.com<\/a>. Tell him Steve sent you………….Great work Phil and Theo!!<\/p>\n

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/MosaicFinal2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Phil-Tone & Theo Wanne Mosaic Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Update: this original Mosaic review was of a prototype Mosaic mouthpiece but since the review Phil has tweaked and I think improved the original design of the Mosaic mouthpiece.\u00a0 He has been kind enough to send me a new model to try.\u00a0 I am updating this review and sound clip\u00a0 for the new production model.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":14866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1121,45],"tags":[1131,1130,197,165,117,265,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-14848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tenor-low-baffle-reviews","8":"category-tenor-mouthpieces","9":"tag-dukoff-stubby","10":"tag-mosaic","11":"tag-phil-engleman","12":"tag-phil-tone","13":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","14":"tag-tenor-saxophone","15":"tag-theo-wanne","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}