Mendini by Cecilio MAS-L Alto Saxophone Review
Reviewed in 2026 by Jared Burchfield
Introduction: The name Mendini is one that strikes fear in the heart of anyone involved in the band world. Probably the most iconic generic Amazon instrument, Mendini and Cecilio branded instruments are widely considered to be about the worst instruments money can buy in the band community. They are known famously for poor build quality, bad construction, strange intonation and poor tone production as well as arriving new with missing pads and broken parts. I do not generally like to work on these instruments unless it is a simple fix, and I absolutely would not recommend people spend any money repairing a generic instrument such as this. However, the one pictured above is in relatively good shape and only needed one pad put back in that had fallen out, so I opted to do it for the customer. Since I finally managed to encounter a Mendini alto saxophone that was somewhat playable, I thought I would take the time to review this instrument and also do a little research on the brand in general. My goal with this review is to educate first time instrument buyers and provide a very real example of why you should never ever buy one of these instruments.
General information: The Mendini brand is often associated with the parent company Cecilio, which makes a variety of entry level musical instruments. Primarily sold through retailers such as Amazon and eBay, these instruments are often made in China and the saxophones base their designs off of the typical modern Taiwanese student saxophone with the high F# key, looking visually similar to instruments from Jupiter, Eastman and Conn-Selmer with their Prelude models, but significantly more cost reduced. There really isn’t much information about the Mendini brand history, and I tend to think that it is merely a name stamped on generic instruments instead of an actual manufacturer. These instruments appear under many names, including Glory, Hawk, Slade, Eastar, Eastrock, Yinfente and I think it is fair to say that most unbranded or oddly named brands of saxophones are probably equivalent to this. From what I have seen though, they are all based on the same general design and all have similar characteristics. At the time of this review, the Mendini retailed new between $260 on eBay and $330 on Amazon, which is incredibly cheap for a new playing condition student saxophone in any context. The Mendini is advertised as a complete ready to play beginners instrument and includes many accessories such as extra reeds, a songbook, a neck strap and an electronic tuner which on paper make it look like an enticing option. At the time of this review, the Mendini was still being sold through Amazon and eBay. Most of the listings on Amazon show these instruments in a variety of colors, and if there is one important rule that I can emphasize to all first time instrument buyers, it is this: colorful cheap instruments are never good. Do not buy them!
I decided to take a look at some Amazon listings for the Mendini alto saxophones in hopes that I could learn more, and just reading some of the descriptions make me worried about buying this instrument. On the first listing that came up in my Amazon search, the pictures show a red alto saxophone but the description says that the body is coated with a “colorfast, gold lacquer body.” Below this, the description says the “buttons” rather than keys are easy to play and that the instrument has “premium leather lining” rather than saying it has leather pads. As a saxophone player, this description is hilarious to me and it is also obvious that whoever wrote this didn’t take a beginning band class. If you go on Selmer or Yamaha’s websites, I guarantee that you will not see them talking about easy to play buttons and premium leather lining on their instruments. That just sounds ridiculous and is a pretty big red flag that the seller clearly doesn’t even know what they are trying to sell. I have had some young students who call the keys “buttons,” and I have to wonder if these types of listings introduced them to this terminology.
I strolled down a little bit farther from there and found product some review videos, and believe me, these were just terrible. The first video I found featured a person who held the saxophone very awkwardly, called the cork grease a “grease stick,” and put the mouthpiece on upside down. He never once played or even attempted to play the instrument though, which in my opinion is a pretty important part of an instrument review. In the second video, the reviewer calls the cork grease “tuning grease.” He then pulls out the neck and says that he doesn’t know what this piece is called, but quickly defends himself saying that he was “more of a trumpet player” and hadn’t seen an alto sax since grade school. Why in the world are you reviewing a saxophone if you can’t even play it? In that same video, he also holds up a blue Mendini alto that has a noticeable dent in the front of the bell, which really makes me think either this guy doesn’t take care of his instruments very well, or the instrument was damaged from the factory. I found another video of his where he reviews this blue alto sax and calls the cork grease “slide grease” then he tries to play it and the thing sounds just like a kazoo, and I don’t think this was because of his lack of saxophone playing ability. Below these videos was a picture that was titled “this teacher approved a saxophone student is the perfect instrument!” in big bold letters. Below that was a very stretched low resolution picture of a child holding a saxophone backwards. Seriously, these advertisements of people holding instruments wrong or assembling them incorrectly are very amusing, and are a clear red flag that the people selling this instrument have no idea how an instrument is supposed to work.
My point in including all of this in the general information section is to educate first time buyers and make you aware of some of the many red flags to look for when looking at these listings. Incorrect terminology, people who don’t know what they are talking about, instruments assembled wrong, and descriptions that are inconsistent with pictures all make me feel very uncomfortable about the integrity of the product, and should make you question it as well. Also, what is the deal with the white gloves that ship with these instruments? I never have understood this and there’s really no explanation in the product description as to what these are supposed to be used for other than keeping my saxophone “spot free” apparently. Isn’t that what the cleaning cloth is for? The only reason I can think of anyone ever using gloves while playing a band instrument is in marching band, but those gloves typically are a part of the uniform that the school provides to all of the students who are in marching band and are generally only worn during performances. I have never seen anyone, not even seasoned professionals play their instrument in a concert band or practice setting while wearing gloves of any kind, especially not white ones. That being the case, it is another good general rule that if you see an instrument being sold new with white gloves, you probably shouldn’t buy it. Now, let’s continue with the review.
Playability and Tuning: I played the Mendini MAS-L with my typical alto sax set up consisting of a JodyJazz HR 6M, a Rovner Ligature and a Rigotti Gold 3 1/2 select jazz reed. I would have liked to have played it with the original Mendini mouthpiece, which looks like a copy of a Selmer C* mouthpiece, but unfortunately the original mouthpiece was not in the case. First impressions aren’t too bad with the tone being decent and having a good amount of projection. I attribute most of that to the JodyJazz HR rather than the instrument though, which just goes to show that a good mouthpiece can make even the cheapest of instruments sound pretty nice. Though the tone is decent, I feel that it lacks depth and just sounds kind of thin, especially in the upper register and palm keys. It has this weird almost bright artificial edge to it that doesn’t quite sound like the kind of edge you would typically get on an alto saxophone with a jazz mouthpiece. Overall though, I felt that the tone was tolerable and perfectly fine for a beginner.
The keywork on the other hand was not even close to tolerable. The keywork felt very slow and awkward, and it is hard to move between pretty much any key that has a roller on it on either of the pinkies because of how they travel. The alternate F# key on the RH stack is placed very poorly, but I will touch on that more in the build quality section. For whatever reason, the low B to C# sharp movement on the LH pinky is almost impossible to do cleanly because the B key will stick down while the low C# sharp key is opening even though its spring is in place and functioning. The spring on the C sharp key didn’t seem to be as strong as it should be and when I went to adjust the tension, it fell out of the post which is interestingly something I have seen happen with this exact spring on another unplayable Mendini saxophone I have had the displeasure of working on in the past. Regarding the low C# key, I have also noticed that the key functions differently based on the angle at which the instrument is being held. At some angles, it has good action while at others it is slow to open or fails to open entirely even after the spring was correctly put back in the post, which is both pretty ridiculous and completely unusable.
In addition to the poor, slow keywork, intonation is pretty miserable on this instrument as you might expect. Assuming both F# in both octaves is in tune, the low D is 30 cents flat and likewise most of the notes on the LH stack trend flat as well and require a significant lip up to get in tune. It is also interesting to note that low B and low C are in tune but the low B flat is 30 cents sharp which I have never seen on an alto sax before. The middle register on the RH stack actually isn’t terrible for intonation and wildly the middle D and E were quite in tune. Things were pretty decent until you arrive at high B with octave key. From there pretty much everything is nearly 20 cents sharp and the palm keys ran so sharp that my tuner registered them as the next note up, showing variances in excess of 40 cents. I have no idea what note I was actually playing when I used the high F# key, because my tuner showed it as being between two notes and it just sounded so thin that I didn’t bother to try and figure it out. No amount of lipping up or down could fix any of the palm keys and adjusting on the mouthpiece would certainly affect the rest of the instrument negatively if trying to compensate for this extreme sharpness. I would definitely classify this as the worst I’ve ever seen on any alto I have ever played and completely unusable for any player at any level. The instrument was interesting with response too as some notes were very responsive and punchy, while others were incredibly stuffy and just did not want to speak well at all. There was a lot of noticeable variance between notes and overall I just felt like the instrument was very uneven to play on. It also just felt uncomfortable to play because of the way the keywork was laid out and the instrument just felt sluggish to respond to pretty much anything I tried to play quickly. Overall, I felt that the Mendini MAS-L was incredibly difficult to play and the intonation added to this difficulty. I couldn’t imagine a poor student having to struggle through band playing an instrument like this, and that is not even including the problems with the spring falling out of the low C# post.
Build Quality and Construction: This Mendini MAS-L is made of a metal brass alloy and is finished with a gold lacquer. Immediately upon handling this instrument, I noticed a strange chemical smell coming off of it that I can only assume is from the lacquer. It was pretty strong, and I can best describe it as one of those smells that you sniff once and it gives you a splitting headache. I couldn’t imagine that this chemical smell is something that you would want to breathe in, and I have never smelled this on any other saxophone either. The lacquer also has a strange finish to it. It looks very rough and it almost looks like someone tried to buff it with a very rough brush that left a bunch of small scratches all over the instrument, which looks incredibly tacky even on a cheap saxophone. Not to mention, I had a couple of pads out of this instrument while I was working on it and whoever installed these at the factory hardly put any glue in the pad cups. I’ve heard that it is a common occurrence with these instruments for the pads to fall out or be missing upon arrival. Given the lack of glue on some of the pads, I’m not surprised at all by this. The solder work on some of the posts also is also pretty sloppy, and you can see places where the posts are not lined up correctly and where the finish was not applied correctly around the solder joints. The post holding the LH pinky table almost looks like it is not soldered flush with the body and I don’t think it would take much force to break it off of there.
I also noticed while installing the pad that in addition to soldering the bell, the builders of this instrument smeared a huge amount of glue or some kind of sealant sloppily all over the seam between the bell and the bow inside the saxophone as you can see pictured above. From what I could tell, it didn’t go all the way around the seam and was concentrated to one spot. Not only was it very sloppy looking, I also didn’t really know what the point of this was and there were definitely enough of it piled there that it stuck out into the bore which I am sure didn’t help the already struggling intonation. In addition, the metal parts on this instrument generally are very soft and bend easily. For example, I can push on the key guards and they flex with minimal force. The same can be said for the keywork itself, which also bends very easily.
As far as the key work goes, the placement of the keys isn’t inherently terrible, except for the alternate F sharp on the RH stack, which is so comically far back that you have to move your hand out of normal playing position in order to reach it. This is not a good habit for young students for whom this was supposedly made to be moving their hand in and out of playing position to reach a badly placed key. While placement is mostly tolerable, key action is almost so bad that it is hilarious. Some keys feel reasonably responsive, while others are so tight that it takes a significant amount more pressure than it should to make them move which again has the potential to develop more bad habits in young players. The majority of the keys however are squishy, spongy, and very sluggish. The LH pinky table is very spongy, the keys squeak pretty loudly when actuated, and it takes a comical amount of pressure to get the low B and low Bb to seal well even after much seating of the pads to ensure they were sealing properly. A number of the keys bind as well and require a lot of extra pressure to get things to seal the way they are supposed to even when pads are seated right, which again is another bad habit that young students can get into. The octave key is also very slow and feels like the spring is not functioning at all even though it is attached properly. Overall, the keywork action just feels very spongy, it binds often and really is not responsive at all, even by student instrument standards. Combining that with all the build quality problems, I’m really not surprised that this instrument only cost $200 new.
Case: The case that came with the Mendini MAS-L alto sax is a soft case with a black exterior and interior, although it is described as a hard case according to the Amazon listing I viewed. The saxophone body fits in the case pretty well hardly moves left to right at all. There’s a little bit of side to side motion, but it is not terrible and much better than I would expect from a cheap case like this. The neck does have its own storage compartment unlike some older student saxophones I have reviewed, but it moves around quite a bit and has about an inch and a half of space that it can move freely in. The case has plenty of storage and a dedicated spot for the mouthpiece which is nice. That being said, I’m pretty sure this case is made of Styrofoam and is just wrapped in thin cloth as it feels in incredibly light and not really sturdy. The lid feels like it is about to come off and all of the zippers on the case that hold it shut are broken and the only way to get the case to stay shut is to Velcro the handle together, which doesn’t really work that well either. I know there are some weird old cases out there, some of which I have talked about before on this website, but for a new case that is designed to be a “pro deluxe durable hard shell case,” I would expect for the case to at least stay shut and hold up a little better than this. Though it is hard to say for sure, I would imagine this instrument isn’t even 10 years old, yet the case is already junk and completely unusable. Absolute fail on the case here, and to be honest, I wouldn’t expect much different. Even though it holds the instrument securely it doesn’t stay shut, it is made of flimsy materials, and it is quite literally falling apart.
Conclusion: The Mendini MAS-L is a cheap low quality instrument that certainly defines the term “saxophone shaped object” often used to describe these instruments in the community. Though you do in fact get a real brand new shiny alto saxophone that does play all of the notes a saxophone should play, it does so very poorly. Even with a good mouthpiece the instrument still sounds thin, intonation is terrible, and the build quality and value is atrocious. I would never recommend for a student to use one of these instruments, and I would beg and plead to parents never to ever purchase one of these for any reason. Between the waste of money, the numerous mechanical issues, awkward keywork and the amount of frustration this instrument would cause the student playing it and everyone around them if it did manage to work, this instrument is more likely to make a student quit band and hate music forever then to “inspire creativity and elevate performance.”
More than just a cheap instrument, I would almost consider a Mendini instrument like this to be a scam. While writing this review and researching the brand, I headed over to the official Mendini webpage to have a look at some of the official marketing for these instruments outside of Amazon. Immediately upon going on the website, the first picture that you see is a clarinet sitting upright on a table not on a stand with the mouthpiece put on backwards. Is that really the first thing you want people to see when you are trying to place yourself in a position of integrity? Those are two fundamentally incorrect things that you should never do with a clarinet. Anyone who plays clarinet or teaches band knows this. Reading on, the information about the instruments has some interesting grammar with commas and strange places and weird uses of contractions that don’t quite make sense in the English language. For example, with no editing the first box on the site quite literally says: “Whether you’re introducing a child to their first instrument or an adult pursuing a musical passion, offers high-quality easy to play instruments, design for learners and enthusiast of all ages.” I know that occasionally there are proofreading errors on websites, and I even have a couple on my website that I’m working find and to correct, but this is the very first thing you read on the official Mendini website yet it is missing words and grammatically makes no sense. This is really not a great case for trying to convince me that you are selling me a good instrument or that you are a reputable and trustworthy company.
Also of peculiar note, the only instruments shown on the website or a trumpet, a violin, and a drum set with no links to the other instruments that are supposedly offered. All of the “check prices” buttons below the instrument pictures link to Amazon listings with no direct option to buy straight from the company. There also is no contact information or company history anywhere, nor is there any location or address listed where the instruments are manufactured. The customer review section below that, which is wonderfully titled “our clients thought,” only show reviews for violins and nothing else. If Mendini truly sells a full line of wind, string, and percussion instruments, why are they only showing reviews on the violin and nothing else? Looking around the website more shows more grammatical errors, weird formatting problems, and generally a severe lack of information about Mendini as a brand and the full selection of products they offer, leaving me confused as a potential customer and thinking that this site was quickly and sloppily made by someone who can’t type in complete sentences or use English grammar correctly.
I also made the mistake of also watching the only sales video on the website, which once again is a review for a violin. The people in the video attempting to play the violin obviously cannot play the violin, and the instrument was so out of tune to begin with that it wasn’t even funny. And as a disclaimer, I am not a string player but I know enough to notice that most of the terminology the people were using was very, well, not professional. And on that note, why has Mendini never asked a professional player to review their instruments? Wouldn’t it make sense to have a famous artist review and play something on the Mendini like other instrument makers often do? But no, instead Mendini’s videos always feature someone who can’t even name all of the instrument parts right. In my research, I never once saw a reputable musician review a Mendini officially. All I could find were kids making videos of how cool their new Mendini product was or people who can’t even play the instrument they are reviewing. Back to the violin video though, the video was clearly done in one take with poor editing and the script just didn’t make sense, assuming of course that there was even a script to begin with. And then my favorite part happened: they were talking about the strings on the instrument, and the video cut to a random person in some instrument repair shop restringing a violin that definitely wasn’t a Mendini? And that person never appeared again in the video? Continuity errors are a running theme in all of Mendini’s marketing material so it makes sense that it would be in the videos.
After investigating this website, researching the reviews, and playing the instrument myself, I feel that I can confidently call these instruments a scam, not just a cheap instrument with weird tendencies. The website and listings are strange and poorly made, the sales videos are bad, the prices are way too low, and the quality of the instrument that I have in my shop is atrocious. If there ever was an instrument in the world that is going to hold your student back and make band more difficult for them, these certainly are it. And that aside, these instruments do not last very long and many repair shops won’t work on them because they use proprietary parts which can be hard to source when they inevitably break and because they are hard to keep in adjustment. To conclude this review, the Mendini MAS-L alto sax and just about any other Amazon instrument is a scam that is just not worth it. The people behind this mess prey on first time buyers and uninformed parents who don’t want to spend a lot of money on their child’s first instrument. Do not be deceived by bright colors, lots of accessories, fake flowery reviews by people who can’t even play the instruments they are reviewing and unrealistically low prices. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
So what should you do instead? You would be much better off to spend that $300 on a used alto sax like a Selmer USA, a Bundy, a Vito, any old Yamaha, a vintage Conn Director or King 613, a Selmer built Buescher Aristocrat, a late UMI Conn 24m or King Empire 665, or even a used early Taiwanese stencil from a brand like Jupiter. Sure it may not be shiny, come with a bunch of accessories and a cute little song book, and you might have to put another $200 or $300 into it to get it in playing condition and acquire a decent mouthpiece and real reeds, but these instruments will last a whole lot longer and will play much better for your student both when they start and as someone who has played all of the horns listed above, I can say confidently that they will continue to serve as the student advances. This will in turn cause less frustration for everyone involved, save you money over time, and your student will learn to appreciate their older instrument when theirs keeps right on playing while their classmate’s shiny Amazon horns are falling apart and they have no choice to buy another instrument.
Don’t be afraid to spend the extra money and get your student an instrument that works. It seems like a lot of money now, but it is worth it in the long run. And regardless of what brand you look at, always make sure to do your own research and ask people in the field if you are unsure. Talk to your student’s band director, reach out to a private instructor, or search the internet for real reviews written by experts who actually play and teach music for a living. The important thing to keep in mind as you research is to get several opinions and reference many sources. Don’t just take the first one you hear or believe the first one that shows up when you click on the reviews on Amazon. I hope that this article can give you some advice in order to help you get the best instrument for you or your beginning student, so that both of you will have a long and positive affiliation with band.