The Theo Wanne Gaia 2 for Alto Sax - available in Metal and Hard Rubber- was quite an update to an older Theo Wanne line. The Gaia mouthpieces have been around (I think) since the beginning of Wanne's business, and has continued to grow well with it because it fits the needs of a lot of players. This is a great alto mouthpiece with a dark and smooth tone that suits the jazz soloist well. Think Meyer or Otto Link, but with a much more clear and defined tone that has more body.
This mouthpiece is super ideal for people who primarily are looking to blend with a band, or as a jazz soloist.
If you're looking to buy one for yourself, you can get one right here, direct from Theo Wanne. They're not cheap at $650 (Dec 2019), but you're getting one of the best mouthpieces money can buy.
Dark and Smooth tone with a lower baffle
The Gaia has just an absolutely beautiful tone to it. Being a True Large Chamber mouthpiece, you immediately notice a real difference in airflow in comparison to a lot of similarly-designed mouthpieces. This one is one of the easiest-playing dark mouthpieces I've found yet, and I could easily say the same thing about the Soprano version of the Gaia 2. It's just effortless to play. The rollover baffle that Theo so beautiful sculpts certainly helped in the tone department. It's no secret that Theo's pieces are practically works of art.
I spent some time recording some saxophone section material for some big band recordings recently and decided that this might be the perfect situation in order to really understand the Gaia 2. Immediately when listening back to the recordings, you can hear how well it blended into the section, coming out just enough when I pushed it. I have a feeling that this piece will be an excellent choice for lead alto players in the big band situation. At the point where I had to take a solo, you could really tell how much of a personality the mouthpiece had. It was defined in tone, unlike many other mouthpieces I've tested in this vein. The sound was robust, but not over-done. I feel like this is just such a balanced mouthpiece.
If you're looking to buy one for yourself, you can get one right here, direct from Theo Wanne. They're not cheap at $650 (Dec 2019), but you're getting one of the best mouthpieces money can buy.
Shaping your tone
The Gaia 2 comes with the "Liberty" ligature, which is a unique low-point-of-contact ligature which allows you to change its' plates out in order to sculpt your sound a little more. Although the mouthpiece comes with a gold plate, there are four more available which have different characteristics to each of them.
Also included with the Gaia 2 are the usual run of Theo Wanne accessories: A mouthpiece cap, a bite pad, a screwdriver for ligature adjustment, and the it all comes presented in a leather carrying case.
Want my thoughts?
For most of my saxophone life, I've tended to stay away from lower-baffle mouthpieces. Earlier on, it was just because it wasn't "my sound". Later on, it was because most of these were painful for me to play following a series of dental surgeries I had.
The thing that always bothered me was that I noticed that with the lower-baffle mouthpieces, I had a lot of airflow issues. In particular, there was a back pressure in most of those types of mouthpieces that was painful for me. This is one of the first designs (on alto) where there was so little "bad" back pressure, that it was super easy for me to play and enjoy.
I'm usually pretty particular about playing my hard rubber Theo Wanne Kali (no longer made), which gave me a nice fat dark tone, but because it was higher baffle, I could cut through a little more, and my altissimo was obviously a little bit easier. I pulled out this Gaia 2 during my testing period for this article/video (which I've had for quite a long time), and admittedly I had to grow into it a little bit. Listen to the beginning of the video where I play, and then go to the end. You'll hear a massive difference. The more and more I played through this piece, the more I started to love it. I think I had this weird mental block where, at first, I felt I had to fight the mouthpiece without realizing that it was doing so much of the work for me. It just really started to line up beautifully with my playing style.
I mentioned in the video that I was considering changing from my Kali over to this Gaia 2. Although I didn't quite do that, I have some plans for it. The Kali is still "my sound", but for some of the session work I do, it's undeniable that the Gaia 2 is a waaaaaay better fit. It just blends so well in a section. I get a lot of Cannonball Adderley vibes from it, and I think it might be fun to play some straight-ahead jazz stuff on it too.
If you're looking for a beautiful dark alto sound with a lot of character, make it a priority to play test this mouthpiece.
Why Theo Wanne?
Aside from making really great mouthpieces, Theo's quality control is fantastic. He begins by hand-picking materials from around the globe, and only the materials that he feels like represent the quality of his products. The build accuracy of his mouthpieces (side by side comparison) is remarkable. He's achieving absolute perfection with each mouthpiece. How? Theo's spent most of his life working through every design of nearly every mouthpiece ever made to understand why they function the way they do. With this knowledge, he developed his own concepts for his mouthpieces. Today, Theo is regarded is the foremost expert on saxophone mouthpieces across the whole world. This becomes apparent when you play his mouthpieces.
This mouthpiece is super ideal for people who primarily are looking to blend with a band, or as a jazz soloist.
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