Mendini by Cecilio MBS-30L+92D Yellow Brass E Flat Baritone Saxophone

Looks beautiful and has amazing tone! Buy a Rovner lig or something similar (approx $60) as the lig isn’t the best but the mouth piece is surprisingly toneful. Intonation is great if you have a strong omboucher I have recorded with this already and it did a fine job. Can not beat the value!

Gift for my son who loves the baritone and played both baritone and alto in high school. Glad he has kept up with his music.

Out of the box it cleanly played the complete range from a low A to the high F#. Good tone, rich sounds, a little out of tune between the lowest octave and the rest. After a careful internal inspection with a leak light, I discovered a significant (1/8″) metal burr where the collar for the the neck was attached to the top of the tube. After cleaning out the internal burr and polishing it up, the tuning problem between octaves was resolved satisfactorily. Next, I found the entire horn was at least a half tone flat from concert pitch with several different mouthpieces roughly in the middle of the cork. I began to think the supplied neck piece was the wrong length for the horn. (Maybe they shipped the wrong one?) With a lot of coaxing and cork grease, I was able to “jam” on one of my mouthpieces so that is was about a 1/2 inch past the cork and the horn played in tune with concert pitch. I even played the horn in a concert successfully.

I went back to the manufacturer (distributer is KK Music in LA.). They were very responsive by email and promised to get things right for me. Ultimately, I asked for a replacement neck piece, thinking if they sent me the same thing, I would cut one shorter and re-cork it with an appropriate taper so I could properly adjust the tuning with a variety of mouthpieces. After several weeks of email discussion, they told me “I am sorry to inform you that we will not have inventory soon for the new Bari Saxophone. We’ve issued a full refund for your order.” I did not want to send the entire horn back for refund. I was informed I could just keep the horn and they fully refunded my order!

I haven’t decided to cut the neck shorter yet but will likely re-cork the existing neck with a longer and thinner taper so I can use a variety of mouthpieces with sufficient tuning adjustment.

A few other comments on the Cecilio:
– The supplied mouthpiece was not very good – plan on purchasing a better one.
– The supplied 1 inch wide neck strap is not suitable for a Bari – purchase a good harness.
– The case is questionable for the long term but does come with rollers. I had a little trouble with the zipper but discovered the internal felt was not properly secured under the zipper. A little glue repair solved this issue. Would like more compartments internally for mouthpiece, neck, etc. Bought a bell bag for the neck and mouthpiece.
-The peg (see below) doesn’t fit inside the case but does fit in the external pocket.
– The Bari comes with an adjustable peg (to provide support from the floor.). This might be a nice feature for a newbie but a good harness is a better solution. The posts to receive the peg can get in the way of your stand – make sure you have one where you can adjust the bottom support to miss the posts.

I would buy this again, even if they didn’t give me my money back! I find the mechanism and manufacturing to be pretty good. I don’t have enough experience to say what model/manufacturer this copies but the mechanism is solid, adjustment points plentiful, guards well placed, joints apparently solid. I did not disassemble anything as it is in fine working order. Someday, I may have a different opinion when something needs fixing, but for now, I am favorably impressed. If I get 20 years out of it playing weekly in a college band, I will be very happy. My old Symphony Bari is on the shelf.

I am not recommending it unless the buyer is willing to work through some potential issues. I am a retired engineer and pretty resourceful and don’t mind getting my “hands a little dirty” so this was just another project for me. If that is not you or you don’t have a trusted sax technician, this is probably a risky path for you. Still, the flaws were easily fixed and the basic instrument is sound, plays well and has a pleasing tone.

This baritone was ordered for a beginning level band student (My little brother). He has played clarinet for about a year and wanted to move up to the Saxophone, he chose the baritone. After finding out that rental of a baritone would be upwards of 100 dollars month I decided to look into purchase. Since this was available from Amazon I knew that even if it did have problems I could return it without any hassle. I’ve played Tenor Saxophone for over 10 years now and was very impressed by the overall quality look and tone of this sax considering its extremely low price point. No, it isn’t a professional quality sax, if you look close you can find imperfections, but nothing that impedes function. Tone is much better than I expected, one or two notes come out a little flat, but nothing that can’t be fixed by the player. After playing it for a little while, trying some different scales and messing with some of the new keys on a Bari I was impressed. I’ve played much worse bari’s that cost much more. This is a marvelous student baritone and even a good intermediate horn. Unless you plan on playing professionally then this Sax should be fine.