sx90r finishes.

[Bluemilk262]

which finish for the sx90r tenor has the darkest tone? or do they not matter.

[Chris]

Go for black nickle or vitage gold.

[MB-913]

Go for black nickle or vitage gold.


Chris
Black Nickel plated horn may not has dark sound.
Nickel contains silver substance, which can sound brilliance & fairly bright. At least my Guardala Black Nickel tenor told me this.

[mostly alto guy]

Nickel is an element and cannot by definition contain silver or any other substance. If the "nickel" is an alloy, it could contain silver, but in this case it doesn't.

JKs are quite variable in their sound. I played four SX90R tenors in A-B-C-D fashion when I selected mine. As I recall, they ranged from dark to bright as follows: Clear nickel plate w/ clear lacquer (the one I bought), clear lacquer, black nickel plate w/ clear lacquer, nickel silver (which also contains zero silver) w/ clear lacquer. A different group of four JKs would probably have produced different results. That's because many factors affect the sound, finish probably being among the lesser ones, and the visual color of finish being no factor at all.

[Morry]

I spent an evening playing my dark gold lacquer over nickel SX90R alto alongside a black nickel model. I could hear absolutely no difference in the sound.

Either finish can sould dark or bright, depending on mouthpiece and reed setup.

[Riff]

Last summer I compared some JK altos, two black nickel and two clear lacquered.
There was some tonal variation with each, but oddly they ranged in tonal character from darkest to brightest:
1 clear lacquer
2 black nickel
3 black nickel
4 clear lacquer.
(#3 black nickel and #4 clear lacquer sounded virtually the same)

I also played a used YAS-62 (clear lacquer) that day that was darker than all the JKs. Go figure.

I own a JK black nickel tenor which is the darkest sounding tenor I've ever played, except for a Reference 54 and a 1949 Buescher Big B. I fully expected the black nickel altos to be the darkest sounding horns but the above comparisons showed me that individual sample variations can make as much difference in sound as the finish itself.

[Lenny]

I compared a nickel/gold vinatge laquer w a nickel/clear and the gold seemed a little darker, but it might have been the horns or my imagination. A copper neck will make more difference.

[mostly alto guy]

Lenny's right about the copper neck--I sometimes use a JK copper neck on my Anniversary alto, and it really pulls back and softens this otherwise very forward and spread-sounding horn.