Mendini by Cecilio 16-Inch MA-Black Solid Wood Viola

My 5th grader decided to join Strings class at school this year. Rather than rent all the items for over $100 a month, we decided to just buy all the things she needed.
The positives: The case is sturdy and inside is soft for the viola. There were extra strings included.
Negatives: The rosin was completely dry and broken into pieces. The viola had to be tightened and tuned (as to be expected) but the biggest disappointment is that neither of the bridges are cut. We have to take it to an instrument repair shop to have them cut, which is going to cost more than the expense of the viola itself. And it takes multiple days to have done.

If the seller had mentioned that the bridges would have to be finished, it would have helped make it decision. Now my daughter will not be able to participate in strings because it is taking too long to have a working instrument.

Edited to add: I was able to find a local shop to help drill the bridge piece. (It was actually a quick fix at his shop.) Only to find out that the sound post had to be adjusted, the string posts and holes were not drilled correctly, and the strings all had to be replaced. (They were very cheap strings which would only give the screeching sound that you do not want to hear). We are now at a decent viola that can make a very pretty sound. But it was another $85 investment to get to this. It is still considered a “practice” instrument. If I had time to get a new one, I would have just returned this. But I was VERY short on time so we just sunk more money in it to make it workable.

Llego de acuerdo al tiempo previsto. El instrumento le ha funcionado muy bien para aprender a mi hija pequena de 10 anos. Me parece una buena compra por su precio

Let me preface this review by saying, this is written after a frustrating and enlightening few hours tuning my new instrument, on the same day I received it. Was ironically heading out the door when it was delivered.

I purchased the purple finished viola. Visually, looks great. Not much different from the viola I had in elementary & middle school. Aside from being purple, if you’re unsure about color options, you’ll fit right in with one of the wood vanish colors. I haven’t played much since I dropped the viola. [idiom] Saw this was on sale, I have amazon prime so the price was probably better than what non prime members pay. For under 100 bucks I was pretty enticed, so I went ahead and bought one.

A non-musically trained person might take one look at the bow and decide that the piece is crap. Yes and no. This is not as high quality as a 500 – 1000 or so instrument. There can be no debating that. But even with a high end instrument, (especially if it is shipped) your bow WILL have some loose hairs. Just cut them back at the tips carefully, this is normal. Not an indication of defect or poor quality. That said, as far as my semi-amateur eyes can tell, this is just as good. And it’s great for beginners, BECAUSE BEGINNERS TEND TO WRECK THEIR INSTRUMENT IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Not true of everyone, but a slightly lower tier instrument is in my opinion a better investment especially for beginners. If it gets destroyed, or it’s used for 2 years and abandoned. That’s several hundred dollars “saved.”

As far as the tuning. I’VE NOTICED A LOT OF NEGATIVE REVIEWS. Mostly around the change of seasons. I’m assuming most of these reviews come from north america. Thing is, when the humidity changes, (it gets cold outside and thus people run their heaters) it changes the moisture levels of the wood in the instrument. It is entirely possible that some people received an instrument that didn’t meet quality standards for one reason or another… But this seems unlikely, given the volume of negative reviews. It seems that these people didn’t know how or had little patience in tuning their instrument. I spent at leas 2 hours tuning mine, not even fine tuning pray mind. Towards the end I was getting frustrated, and was tempted to call the piece crap and send it back. Bit more time and research led to better awareness and a nearly perfect pitch.

Based on my impressions, I’d recommend this to any beginner or aspiring musician. It’s a very solid entry level instrument, but tuning and care lead this to be a FINE ART. Something most people seem not to have patience for. I’ll update this review in a few months should any of my feelings change significantly, else some material defect becomes apparent. I WOULD RECOMMEND however, a bit of time spent on YouTube and the internet researching the instrument. This is NOT A TOY and should respected. Like I said, string instruments are a fine art, the internet has lifetimes of experience and free information. Use it. Learn. Grow.

This product was purchased, shipped and received all in good order. For the price this is an excellent purchase for a student or beginner viola player. Sounds good and plays well.

I bought this item on Prime Day for about $70. The quality is definitely great for the price. This viola is very light weight and has a decent tone. I did have to replace the C string that came with it though since it couldn’t hold a consistent tuning at all. The other strings were decent quality, though the A string sounds a bit strained once you get past the 5th position. The quality of the fingerboard isn’t great. It’s already losing some of the black finish after maybe 10 hours of play time. This viola is certainly not for professionals, but is perfect for beginners, or even more intermediate level players who want to experiment with a different size viola.