As brass players progress, they start to look at instruments as pieces of visual art along with musical. How much they care for it's visual aesthetic becomes as important, if not more so, than how it sounds. Admit it, brass players. The extra engraving on the bell, the silver or gold plating, the satin finish, the combination of all three on just the bell. It does start almost every player to drool. There's something about seeing a horn in your hands that looks so cool that makes you feel like it's better than others.
For the sake of argument, let's say you buy the instrument that is silver plated, or has very ornate engraving. Let's even say it's got a gold wash inside the bell. It looks amazing. It looks beautiful. It cost more than other instruments of the same make, but that extra features make it pop when you walk on stage. People gasp when you show up because of how pretty the horn is. You put the mouthpiece to your lips, and start to play.
The one thing we all have to remember is that, at this point in any performance, the audience should be able to shut their eyes to enjoy every bit of it as much as if they were open. Once they do, all that precious metal means nothing. All that engraving is lost, and from farther than 10 feet, they couldn't really see it anyway. The sound is the important part, and not the look. If it's being recorded, even more so, because the person listening may never even have seen the horn prior to the recording. All they know is the sound, not the look. This doesn't even take into account the fact that you, as the performer, may also close your eyes, meaning the visual is lost even on you during that time as well.
There are several things to keep in mind. First, there have been blind tests done to determine all, if any, tonal differences between instruments. Multiple trumpets were brought to bear. All were exactly the same make and model, using the same mouth piece, same valve oil, even the same materials for felts. Everything was done to make the only variable between them the type of surface finish. Silver plated, gold wash bell, satin silver finish, lacquer: All were tested the exact same way. Not only could the audience not see the instrument, but the person playing them was blindfolded, so they could not put any extra effort into a horn they preferred the look of
When these tests were done, the player and the audience could detect no noticeable difference in the tone quality of the different instruments. I repeat, NO NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE. The difference in finishes didn't alter the sound in any way that any of the people involved could detect. When a different instrument model was brought out, they could easily tell differences in the tone and timber of the brass, but between the same models, nothing. It wasn't until they were able to see the instruments were they suddenly able to "hear" differences between them, but that was after they had already done the blind tests.
Once they could see them, the silver plated instruments were given a better review. Most people see silver plating and believe it's automatically a step up from lacquer. The truth is, the shape and size of the bore, along with the composition of the materials that actually make up the instrument, will have a far greater impact on the sound than the materials on the outside ever could.
The plating of precious metals is kept as thin as possible to save costs on them. They are plated as thin as possible while still covering the surface. Gold itself can be plated only a molecule or two thick and still look like gold. This means that the surface metal may be less than 1% of the total thickness, which means there's not enough of it to begin to affect the tone. Yes, student model instruments are made with thicker walls for durability, and are also made with wider tolerances between parts for the same reason. The difference here is that these differences between models is easily measurable. Sometimes the difference between the thickness of a student model and an intermediate step up is big enough to measure with calipers, not micrometers.
It is also important to keep in mind that people have different views on what makes a great tone. Just doing a general search on forums about "silver plated vs. lacquer" will yield pages upon pages of discussion and argument. People can both have heard the same instrument in both finishes, and completely disagree over which one sounded better. It comes down to personal preference on what a person hears, and don't be fooled into thinking one will sound better because of something that serves no function to affect the sound.
It's a lot like saying that painting a racing stripe or flames on your car will make you able to drive faster. Taking all credit away from the driver, the engine, the wheels, or any of the other thousand variables that would truly contribute. It has to be the super thin coat of paint on the outside that is doing it, yeah that's it.
If you like the silver plating or gold wash finish for the looks, that's one thing. It's something completely different convince yourself or someone else that it has some remarkable enhancement of the tone that it truly can't have. An instrument that is lacquered like any other can still be a phenomenal horn, if the player takes the time to learn how to play it at it's peak effectiveness.
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