The ultimate powerhouse alto mouthpiece… is now even better in every way!
Totally new technology has been created for the Mindi Abair 2 alto mouthpiece, including a Swept-Step™ baffle, elliptical window, and a Small-Stadium-Chamber design. It still has the comfortable duck-bill beak, but the body is slightly bigger for a thicker sound and to fit ALL Theo Wanne alto ligatures. The result is the most screaming bad-ass alto mouthpiece ever made.
“This is the best mouthpiece I have ever played! I can honestly say it’s the powerhouse mouthpiece that I always dreamed of! It rocks!. You nailed our over-the-top-cool MINDI ABAIR 2 mouthpiece!”– Mindi Abair ( 2x Grammy Nominee, Aerosmith, American Idol)
Mindi is a 2-time Grammy nominee who’s toured with Aerosmith, been featured on American Idol, won a 2015 She Rocks Award for Mad Skills, and filled in for Clarence Clemons with Bruce Springsteen. She knows how to rock a saxophone.
Theo and Mindi worked together for ten years to finally create the Mindi Abair 2 Signature Alto Mouthpiece! They worked until Mindi could wholeheartedly say: “You nailed it!”
SOUND
The ultimate powerhouse alto mouthpiece, yet able to whisper quietly when needed.
DESIGN
Completely new design in high-step with roll-over baffle. Includes a Swept-Step™ baffle, elliptical window, and a Small-Stadium-Chamber design that projects like mad but with incredible body to the sound!
Collaboration between Mindi Abair and Theo Wanne ten years in the making!
Made byTheo Wanne, the foremost expert on the design and manufacturing of vintage mouthpieces and maker of the highest quality mouthpieces in history.
DETAILS
Plating: Reticulated Rhodium plating with Mindi’s signature on the back.
Box: A classy black box with Mindi’s signature in metallic silver, with a beautiful microfiber draw-string pouch.
Case: Beautiful Leatherette Case! Like the case? See our other mouthpiece and reed cases here!
Ligature: Our integrated two-point contact Liberty Ligature and Alive Gold pressure plate. To truly individualize your sound, try our premium pressure plates, which fit all of our mouthpieces and ligatures!.
“Theo and I worked on this mouthpiece for years, and somehow, amazingly, it kept getting better and better allowing me to express myself in ways I had never thought possible before. I can honestly say it’s the powerhouse mouthpiece that I always dreamed of playing! It’s even, free-blowing and so incredibly resonant in every register.” – Mindi Abair
” Wow” unreal. I absolutely love this piece. I just put my usual 21/2 Java on and played. It’s more of everything.” – Michael Ward
“This mouthpiece has so many great features. It really you whatever you need in jazz, whether it’s playing a nice blues piece to rock. You should define tally get this mouthpiece it meets your needs.” – Kyle B
“I’ve been playing the Mindi Abair mouthpiece exclusively for 6 months now, the short response is it has far exceeded my expectations, it’s immensely playable and flexible, I’ve used on acoustic jazz gigs, played lead alto, even playing along with students on classical repertoire. Tons of power, grit, intensity and so darn easy to live with! Thanks to you and Theo and the rest of the team, I’m sold on your stuff!” – Bruce Allen
“I’ve been playing since 1987, semi-pro since 1993, have bought, sold, and traded many saxes and mouthpieces! This mouthpiece, by far, is the best mouthpiece I have ever owned or played! I bought it as a backup mouthpiece, on my backup/beater Alto (1995 LA Sax Monochromatic White), but ended up putting the .087 Drake Contemporary (1st gen) in with that sax instead! The Mindi Abair Custom 8 (.086) turned out to be a perfect. pairing with my 1980 A880 Yanagisawa with 1st gen A9937 sterling silver neck 🙂 . This mouthpiece can truly whisper and roar, even with the BARI* Medium reeds I play on it. It definitely has lots of edge to it, not a mellow piece, but, very full in tone nonetheless. Similar pieces I enjoyed, either had too much resistance, or played to “dark” for my tastes.” – Izzy Armstrong
“The Mindi Abair mouthpiece is the best mouthpiece in my life, and I have been playing 25 years!” – Dejan Grujevski
“Really great sound out of it. Quite a range of dynamics compared to others.” – Gary Holland
“The Mindi Abair mouthpiece is really great. Good response in the low and high frequencies, modern sound, super light, great processing. Yes, working with the mouthpiece is worthwhile. It’s the best mouthpiece I’ve ever had the chance to try.” – Customer from Switzerland
“Hi Theo, I’ve just gotten my hands on the Mindi Abair 7 Alto piece and it’s fantastic. My sound is probably more Marienthal than Mindi, but the mouthpiece really frees up the horn. I don’t feel I’m restricted in any way at all it’s great! Well done and here’s a clip if you’d like a listen. https://youtu.be/sTLNfqCIjYk” – Dan Bray
Koh Mr. Saxman playing the Mindi Abair Signature Mouthpiece in Taiwan
The ‘Mindi Abair Signature’ Mouthpiece Story
In 2011 Mindi contacted Theo Wanne to make a backup mouthpiece. She was travelling extensively and had no other mouthpiece that worked for her in case something happened to her current mouthpiece. She had tried working with the original manufacturer of that mouthpiece, however the mold used to make that mouthpiece had been destroyed, and they were unable to make a duplicate to her satisfaction.
Theo says, “I had always been a fan of Mindi’s. I appreciated her unique voice and vast expression on the alto, so I was very happy to work her. Mindi is a fantastic person with a sincere desire to uplift her audience with her music, so our philosophies really worked well together too. More than building a mouthpiece together, our friendship really started at that time too.”
Mindi came to the Theo Wanne™ shop in Bellingham, WA several times in the following three years to work on the mouthpiece, and Theo visited her before multiple concert dates to further work on the mouthpiece. One of those meetings was backstage at an Aerosmith concert, whom Mindi was touring with at the time. Cheap Trick was the opening act for Aerosmith, and Theo and Mindi got a chance to work on their mouthpiece together during their performance. Mindi shared, “When I was a girl my father was a rock & roll musician, and I was really inspired by him. In fact, I really wanted to sing like Tina Turner, but I was just a little girl then so singing like that was rather impossible. HOWEVER, with the saxophone and the right mouthpiece (said with a big grin) I could sound like Tina Turner.”
In 2015, Mindi’s saxophone and mouthpiece were stolen. Theo received a desperate call from Mindi who needed her finished mouthpiece so she could continue playing. Mindi shared, “this must be the universe telling us to finish this project, and get our mouthpiece out to the world!” Fortunately the mouthpiece design was already close to completion, so Theo and Matt Ambrose (Theo’s lead machinist) stayed up for the next few days dialing in the mouthpiece until they felt it was even better than her original. They then sent it to Mindi and waited with baited breath to hear Mindi’s response.
Mindi & Theo Interview – Click to Watch
A day later Mindi called, “I can rock out like I never could before. Good job guys, the mouthpiece is better than I could have imagined! Also, my sound guy, whom I totally trust, just told me I sound better than I ever have too!”
Since then Mindi and Theo continued to further improve the mouthpiece until its now final production version. Their mission was to create the ultimate Powerhouse alto mouthpiece, and it takes just one listen to Mindi’s new album ‘Live in Seattle’ to know that they succeeded. You can listen here.
“This is the best mouthpiece I have ever played! I can honestly say it’s the powerhouse mouthpiece that I always dreamed of! It rocks!. You nailed our over-the-top-cool MINDI ABAIR 2 mouthpiece!” – Mindi Abair ( 2x Grammy Nominee, Aerosmith, American Idol) 
