Theo Wanne Durga 3 Bari Mouthpiece

When I bought my Couf Blackgold Superba II baritone from Paul at PM Woodwind in October 2018, I didn’t realize that it would send me down a rabbit hole of confusion when it came to mouthpieces.

I don’t like change. I find something I like; produces the sound I like; works across all my horns; so I stick with it. Period. Full stop. However, my closet queen Couf tested my resolve. After months of playing the horn with my SS Berg, I still couldn’t get the palm keys to speak unless I was running up a scale. My Runyon Quntum worked, but it didn’t have the overtones of the Berg. Yup, I actually wrote that…

So I decided to reach out to the good people at Theo Wanne. I’d heard so much about the brand, and about what the Durga mouthpieces can do for a bari, that I thought: What have I got to lose?

Although the Durga was originally designed for vintage horns, it had never been tested on a Couf before. The folks at Theo Wanne were reasonably confident the Durga would work though, and provide me with the performance I was looking for. They advised me it would take about 4 weeks to get a Durga made up for me.

The General Manager for Theo Wanne lives in my end of the world, and he was kind enough to meet up with me in person so I could try out the Durga not only on my Couf, but also on my Mark VI and on my Committee III. After only a couple of minutes I was hooked. The Couf’s palm keys played beautifully, and the horn was in tune over its entire range. And yes, the Durga absolutely rocked on the Selmer and Martin as well. I joked that I might be referring to myself as a former Berg player.