Mendini Euphonium Review and Guide

Summary: This Mendini Euphonium Review and Guide will review the pros and cons of the Mendini euphonium and whether it is the right choice for you. 

If you are a beginner musician and want a reliable, budget-friendly euphonium, this Mendini euphonium review and guide will explain why the Mendini brand is a good choice. The Mendini brand is one of the most popular brands for beginner and student models. For decades they have supplied reliable, affordable models of euphoniums, trombones, tubas, French horns, trumpets, and more. 

Bottomline Upfront

This Mendini euphonium review and guide has looked into the good, bad, and ugly, reviewing things like the performance, ease-of-use, quality of construction and materials, and of course, customer reviews. I recommend the Medini euphonium as the top choice for beginners. It is the most affordable and high-quality student or beginner model. 

Finding the Right Euphonium

To find the right instrument for your situation, consider your musical skill, budget, and any other personal preferences.

Skill

Skill is one of the most important factors when finding the right euphonium. This Mendini euphonium review and guide specifies that the Mendini product is excellent for beginners. You need to know whether you are a beginner or not.

Beginners and students who have limited exposure to music, are just starting, or have just a few months of experience with another instrument will find this particular model to be perfect. Students who have played the euphonium for a couple of years and are looking for an upgrade should steer clear.

Budget

Budget is equally important, usually more so for parents than for the children for whom they are purchasing an instrument. Have a reasonable budget in mind. A budget will help you determine whether the Mendini euphonium is affordable or whether it is cheaper for you to rent or buy used.

Personal Preferences

I categorize personal preferences as anything that is unnecessary for your musical skill or your budget. Still, it is something that you need or want for some of my students that is a hard case with backpack straps to carry their instrument around safely on their shoulders. 

For many parents, it is having all the accessories but keeping the instruments safe in their child’s bedroom and having extra pockets so everything can be stored in one place, ready to go whenever it is time to leave for music lessons. 

For many musicians, it is simple things like the finish or the color. Many younger players like the yellow brass finish on their brass instruments. It almost does not feel like they are playing a legitimate brass instrument if it is nickel-plated.

At the beginner level, this will not influence the sound or really matter because it is just aesthetics. Still, aesthetics can go a long way toward determining how excited students are to master their instrument. So, it is worth considering.

Mendini Euphonium Review and Guide

There are two Mendini euphoniums from which to choose. Both are considered a beginner or student instruments. They are precisely the same, except for the plating and color. One of them is a yellow brass lacquered finish, and the other is a nickel finish.

Mendini Nickel Plated B Flat Euphonium

Pros

• This model has Nickel plating
• It comes with accessories including a hard case, gloves, and cleaning cloth

Cons

• The valves stick even with oil

Mendini B Flat Baritone Euphonium

This is the beginner Mendini euphonium. It is $350, which makes it significantly less than most beginners. You can expect to pay well over $1,000 for beginner euphoniums but not with Mendini.

Pros

• It has stainless steel pistons
• It has a lacquered yellow brass body
• The bell is a standard size
• There is a silver-plated mouthpiece
• It comes with a chromatic tuner and metronome
• You get a hard case, polishing cloth, and gloves

Cons

• It is only right-handed

Now let’s look at the good, the bad, and everything in between. 

Features

There is a very reasonable cost associated with this particular brand, so, in all honesty, if you are looking for a high-quality instrument that you can play as someone with a few years of skill under your belt, pick something else.

Mendini is not meant for anything other than students and beginners, usually people who are in high school music groups for high school bands. There are two different versions: lacquered yellow brass or nickel. As a beginner, you will not notice any difference in sound quality between the two.

Most people pick the lack of yellow brass just because it looks better, but the mouthpiece is silver in color, so if you pick the nickel euphonium, the mouthpiece blends in perfectly. But that is entirely up to you. You get all the same accessories no matter which one you choose, the same design, quality, construction, and cost.

Sound

No matter which of these two you choose, it has a very accurate tone, a bright sound, and good projection. You might have to put in some concentrated effort to reach your higher notes, but it really plays all registers well. The bore size is 0.556 inches, and the upright bell is 12 inches. There are four stainless steel pistons. All three of these aspects and dimensions are exactly what you want as a beginner.

Reviews and Ratings

Customer reviews and ratings are always important for both models when evaluating different products. I particularly like that most of the reviews you see on Mendini products are from parents who purchased for their children.

Non-musical product reviews are usually limited in their scope; people do not add comments if they even rate the product at all. Worse, still, is reading a comment that you know was paid for. I do not see any of that with Mendini products. Instead, you get very comprehensive reviews. 69% of users give it a 5-star rating, with another 16% giving it a four-star rating.

Most people have acknowledged the affordability, the excellent sound, and how easy it is to play.  The top-rated features are how lightweight the instrument is, the sound quality, and the value for the money. 

Those who have complaints are things like problems with the valves after one year of regular play. Other people have complained that the pistons are noisy. Problems with the valves and pistons are sticking or generating noise common among most Mendini products.

However, with the right oil, the valves and pistons do not stick as much, and if you are playing loudly enough, you certainly will not hear the noise it makes every time you press down. I know for a fact that the audience will not hear it either.

Size

I highly recommend the Mendini euphonium for a beginner instrument. If you are a parent and your child is playing a brass instrument, this is a reliable manufacturer for any instruments, including the euphonium. The price tag is around one-third the cost of other manufacturers.

It weighs about twenty pounds which makes it very light for a euphonium. So if you have smaller children starting, they will not be weighed down by an instrument that can’t quickly move around.

I distinctly remember one of my classmates in elementary school decided that he wanted to play the upright bass when we got to Middle School, and he regretted that decision the very first week of school where he could be seen sweating profusely as he rolled his massive instrument around with him across campus. This will not happen with the euphonium from Mendini.

Accessories

Both models come with the same accessories:

• A hard case
• Valve oil
• Cleaning cloth
• Gloves
• Chromatic tuner with metronome

I always love anything that comes with a comprehensive kit, especially for beginners, because it means you have everything you need to start right away.

As a beginner, you probably do not know that you need things like a hard case, valve oil, or a cleaning cloth. But as you continue to learn your new instrument, you realize you need all of these other accessories. Thankfully, Mendini includes all of these accessories so, once you figure out that you need to clean your euphonium or you need to oil the valves, you have what you need to get started.

I particularly love that this comes with a hard case. One of the primary reasons I like the hard case is its security, but you can also bring it with you on an airplane. Today, most airlines require instruments to have a hard case, and they will not let you check any instruments without one.

The case is very lightweight, durable, and has plush nylon on the inside. This keeps your instruments safe, and the hard shell on the exterior prevents minor bumps, scrapes, or tumbles from denting the instrument. The case comes with a zipper pocket so you can keep sheet music and other small things with your instrument.

There are backpack straps on the outside which is one of my favorite things because I prefer being hands-free when transporting my instruments; it makes it less likely that I will bump into things when turning corners.

Rent or Buy?

Brass instruments are tricky because they are much more expensive than smaller, stringed instruments. Many of my students and their parents find that brass instruments have a bit of sticker shock. So, renting is usually a good option. You can generally rent an instrument and sometimes even buy a used instrument through local music schools or even music programs at high schools or middle schools.

However, I recommend you do the math first. Add up what it would cost to rent for a school year or full year and compare that to the cost of the Mendini euphonium. Sometimes the beginner Mendini brand is cheaper. If, of course, you cannot afford the upfront cost, you might consider buying a used Mendini euphonium if you can find one (though I recommend you change the mouthpiece). 

FAQs

Bottomline

The bottom line for this Mendini Euphonium Review and Guide is that the nickel-plated or lacquered yellow brass are both excellent designs. The key difference between the two is the sound quality you get, but all other features are the same. I highly recommend Mendini euphoniums only for beginners and students.

They are affordable models and the cheapest on the market. Advanced or intermediate players will notice issues with the valves or sounds from the pistons, but these will not interfere with a student who is just learning the basics of how to play.

For more interesting readings check out:

• Euphonium vs Tuba Explained: What’s the Difference?
• Mendini Valve Trombone Review and Guide
• Mendini Pocket Trumpet Review and Guide [2022]