The Shiva 2 mouthpiece - available in both metal and hard rubber for tenor sax - is currently the brightest and most high baffle mouthpiece in a lineup of great Tenor Saxophone mouthpieces. Featuring both a rollover and step baffle, with their proprietary shark gill chamber. This very thoughtfully designed chamber helps to add a few extra overtones into your sound.
This mouthpiece is super ideal for people who primarily play rock, pop, and fusion as it easily cuts through any musical scenario.
A edgy, bright-sounding mouthpiece
You can get a really wide palette of colors with this mouthpiece due to its' fantastic design on the interior. With the combination of the two different baffle types (rollover and step baffles), there's a really unique airflow in this mouthpiece. Playing this mouthpiece is a breeze. The airflow feels controlled with little to no resistance. It's exceptionally easy to play and get great sounds from. As per usual with Theo's metal mouthpieces, the ligature is built on to the mouthpiece, and can be moved to 5 different places for varying levels of control and feel.
The Shiva 2 mouthpiece is a gift to the tenor saxophone world. Each mouthpiece is made with a premium hard rubber or metal, and comes with Theo's "Liberty" ligature, a cap, and a bite pad, and they come presented in a leather carrying case.
If you're looking to buy one for yourself, you can get one right here. Be assured, the customer support from Wanne is second to none.
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 mouthpiece has long been a part of my arsenal because of its surprising versatility. Yes, I use this on a rock 'n roll tour and I use it additionally on my own music (fusion)- but with the addition of having a hard rubber version of this same mouthpiece, I feel like I can use both across every style of music without compensating. The hard rubber version is obviously the same cut, but the rubber brings a certain warmth to the sound that the metal doesn't have, and this really allows me to play a much wider variety of music. The hard rubber has enough edge to cut through the mix on my rock gig (although I do still prefer to use the metal version on stage for the show), and it has enough mellow qualities to be used on a ballad set at a jazz club.
Hands down, I feel that this is one of the most versatile mouthpieces in the tenor line up for Theo Wanne. Neither the metal or hard rubber versions have left my tour case since they came out - and for good reason.
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 Shiva hard rubber that I am currently playing is a little large (for me) at an 8* but in contrast, definitely gives a more focused tone center with the shark gill boring inside the piece. It’s a free-blowing piece so there will most definitely be an adjustment period for anyone playing it. Once dialed in its applicable for any situation- much like most Wanne pieces. -Tristan Burns (Contributor to SaxophoneCentral.com)
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