Those of us who enjoy Theo Wanne's mouthpieces can be very thankful for the addition of the Elements Series- a line of lower-cost saxophone mouthpieces that have been made with the same care and attention that the rest of Theo's mouthpieces were built on.
The new Fire Alto Saxophone mouthpiece is an excellent addition for those of you who are looking for a paint-peeling alto saxophone mouthpiece to cut through (quite loudly!) at your next gig.
This mouthpiece is super ideal for people who primarily play rock, pop, and fusion as it easily cuts through any musical scenario.
If you're looking to buy one for yourself, the Fire is available directly from Theo Wanne for $275 (as of March 2020). The staff at TW are some of the most knowledgable people around and offer fantastic product support.
The brightest of the bright
Let's cut to the chase: The Fire is probably one of the brightest mouthpieces we've ever tested. Potentially (in my opinion) as bright or brighter-sounding than Theo Wanne's Mindi Abair model, and it certainly approaches Sanborn-like alto saxophone tones.
The Elements series has started to get really rounded out with the addition of the Fire (brightest), Earth (Dark) and Water (Classical). Where the Fire excels as a mouthpiece is in the long step baffle into a very small chamber. This is airflow focusing at its most basic, but it's super useful. You're going to get a super-focused column of air going through the mouthpiece that will give you that tight, smooth/contemporary jazz sound that will help you cut through the mix (probably even without a microphone). In our own testing, we found this to be a bit of a more narrow sound than many other Theo Wanne mouthpieces. Again, very similar to the Mindi Abair mouthpiece. One downside we found was that this comes at a price: It's a little bit difficult to stay in complete control with this mouthpiece. Both of us who tested it typically never play small chamber mouthpieces which can absolutely contribute to the instability I'm talking about. Even after some time, we had to give up knowing that this may never be ::our:: primary mouthpiece, but still a well-made, good-sounding mouthpiece. It's obvious when you look at it and play with it that it's made with a high level of precision, much like all of the mouthpieces of Theo Wanne's higher end designs. In fact, it would be difficult to tell that this is a more affordable model.
The Fire will melt your face off. No need for a mic with this mouthpiece.
The Theo Wanne Fire Alto Saxophone mouthpiece comes with a ligature which is fairly typical with almost all of Wanne's pieces. At the time of publishing this article (December 2019), the current price for a Fire mouthpiece is $275- which is significantly cheaper than almost any other alto saxophone mouthpiece Wanne makes, putting it in competition with more budget-priced mouthpieces.
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?
This is a super bright-sounding mouthpiece, and if that's what you're going for, this may be a great choice.
It's built just like any other Theo Wanne mouthpiece. There is a lot of care that went into designing this mouthpiece and the series it's in (years!), and to be able to offer a mouthpiece like this at a quality level that Theo is willing to accept is amazing. Theo's a very picky guy, and rightfully so. He doesn't ever like to release anything but an absolutely perfect product from top to bottom.
This mouthpiece doesn't particularly suit me. It's got this massive super-jet column of airflow that could potentially deafen someone (yes, a joke- bear with me). Choose this mouthpiece if you're a soloist on the smooth jazz/contemporary jazz/pop scene. It will do everything you want it to do. Still want a bright sound with a littler more control? I'd probably recommend you check out the Durga 3s for alto which are available in Metal, Hard Rubber, and Blue Art. This will have much more of a core to the tone- a fatter tone- and you won't have to change your breathing so much if you're used to something with a larger chamber. Are you a fan of the Dukoff designs? Then the Fire is probably the better choice for you.
Didn't realize the mouthpiece was this dirty until I edited the photo later. Look at that baffle, though!
Regardless, it's still a great 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.
“WOW! I can’t believe how good the FIRE is! It’s powerful and bright, yet with amazing core to the sound!” – Adrian Crutchfield (Prince)
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