The Theo Wanne Mantra Mouthpiece for Soprano Sax - available only in Metal - Is a beautifully bright soprano saxophone mouthpiece. Super versatile in nature, the Mantra soprano sax mouthpiece has a bit of an edge to it that really brings a great texture to an already big-sounding mouthpiece.
This mouthpiece is a great choice for soprano players who like a bright and slightly edgy sound that has a great body to the sound.
If you're looking to buy one for yourself, you can get one right here for about $525 (Dec 2019 price) direct from Theo Wanne. Theo Wanne spends so much time and effort crafting great mouthpieces out of the finest materials.
Bright and cutting, with a great body of sound
For a soloist, this mouthpiece might make a great addition to your arsenal. By its' nature, the first thing you'll notice is that the mouthpiece has a good edgy cutting sound by design. This design was one of the first of the Wanne designs to incorporate the Shark Gill chamber (which also appears on mouthpieces like the Shiva), which adds harmonic content into your sound. To me, the Theo's mouthpieces that have the nicest sounds have this Shark Gill chamber. They just give you enough edge to have a husky sound without going overboard. This mouthpiece also has a step + rollover baffle which is also found on the alto/tenor/baritone version. This is a higher-baffle mouthpiece, so expect it to have little to no resistance when playing, and easier overtone playing.
If you're looking for a mouthpiece that blends well with a band, I'd probably consider a different mouthpiece. Although I'm sure that you can get a whole lot of warmth out of the mouthpiece (and I do!), as soon as you play into the upper registers, it's all bite. Perfect for a soloist, but not always great when you're doing section playing. The thing about this mouthpiece is that all it wants to do is sing! It has so much character on soprano - a voice which I think is actually very distinct from many other soprano saxophone sounds - but it works best when the sound of the soprano is being featured.
Theo Wanne Mantra Soprano Mpc
All-in-all, it's a great piece that does a great job. Just as you'd suspect from other Wanne mouthpieces, this has been designed and constructed to function at the highest levels. It has high quality materials that were put in place with precision. Looking inside on the baffle, walls, and chamber, you can see that every angle inside that mouthpiece was thought about. Knowing Theo, he probably had about 10 versions of it before he felt it was a perfect product to release.
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.
As per usual with many Theo Wanne mouthpieces, this comes with the Liberty Ligature, a leatherette case, a bite pad, a reed replacer cap, and a screwdriver which helps adjust the Liberty Ligature.
Want my thoughts?
If you're playing pop saxophone, smooth jazz, etc.- this will be a great choice for you. I mentioned above that it kind of has a personality that is unique (in my ears) to most other soprano sounds. If you want a bit of an edge and want to sound different than your other contemporaries, I feel like there's more of a color palette to play with on this mouthpiece than with other mouthpieces, including other Theo Wanne soprano sax mouthpieces.
The "Shark Gills" are visible in the chamber of the Mantra.
With all of that being said, I personally don't use this mouthpiece that much and I keep it aside for special sessions where it gets the perfect use. In my own playing, I prefer darker soprano sounds like the Gaia 2 soprano mouthpiece. I can make the Gaia cut through the music - just barely - if I need it to. With the Mantra, I feel like it's practically cutting through the music all the time.
For those of you who need a soprano saxophone mouthpiece that speaks very easily at any tip opening, this is a great choice. It doesn't take much effort to play through the volume levels on this mouthpiece. From my interaction with my saxophone player friends who use this regularly, it seems to work well with a lot of different reeds, too.
Our friend Adrian Crutchfield (Prince, Cee-lo Green) did the video for us for the Mantra. Outside of his pop gigs, Adrian has an exceptional career as a smooth jazz/contemporary jazz saxophonist and uses this mouthpiece primarily. Why? In those genres, this piece really speaks. It's absolutely perfect for a player like him where he's constantly standing out front and taking solos all night long. If you watch the video (above), you can see how much joy he has when he's playing it.
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.
The Theo Wanne Mantra Soprano mouthpiece has one of the most unique sounds of all of the soprano mouthpieces we've played. It stands out entirely from all the rest.
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