Borgani Finishes

[danielrorke]

Wondering if anyone has tried enough borganis to difinitvley conclude anything about the tonal characteristics of the different finishes.
It seems to me likley that being a hand made instrument the minor differences in production may effect the sound as much or more than the finish???? Anybody tried a whole bunch?

[Borgani Man]

While I haven't tried every finish, I have played a "vintage" finished horn, and I currently own a "pearl silver" finished Borgani Tenor. I would say that the vintage finish gives a slightly darker tone, and the pearl silver finish gives a slightly brighter tone. Though I do think the finish makes a small difference, the minor differences in each horn make a bigger difference in the final sound. Now if you through different mouthpieces into the picture, everything changes. If you are planning on buying a Borgani, try to play as many as you can so you can find the one that fits your set-up the best.

[Dr G]

Hmmm, I usually do just the opposite - find a great horn and then determine the setup that best complements it.

Oh, and I will attest that the silver pearl finish, in my experience (#J409) was indeed most briestly - as claimed by Borgani. ;)

[AlistairD]

I compared a load of tenors a while ago... As there was only one of each, I could not tell if the differences were due to finish or manufacturing tolerances... All I can say is that they were significant difference between them.

[nathan61]

I'm glad someone brought this up as I was wondering the same thing. Is there actually a place aside from the factory where one can try a lot of Borganis?
I've never seen one aside from my own pearl gold jubilee tenor. I have to say it is a great horn, but woefully I've never tried another borgani jubilee.

[AlistairD]

Allegro Music in Oxford, UK..... But that's not too near Dubai....

[brassnaked]

Does anyone have DIRECT buying experience with Allegro Music in Great Britan? Are they reputable to deal with? How is their Customer Service?
I'm seriously thinking about getting one those new Borgani "Special Editions" Tenors and prefer NOT to deal with the North American Distributor, after my last experience buying my current Borgani from them.
The horn is great...they........well let's just say....I wont deal with them...period! When I'm spending upwards of $5800 for a horn...I EXPECT to be taken seriously, not treated like some idiot just browsing.

[shmuelyosef]

I recently received a used pearl silver finish Borgani saxophone. The finish is obviously an applied finish and has worn off in the high touch spots, but the base metal is not brass...looks vaguely like cupro-nickel (nickel-silver). Does anyone know if this is true? It might just be oxidized nickel plate over brass, although again, it doesn't 'shine up' like I would expect from silver or nickel plate...just curious...

[griff136]

Brass naked,

Allegro music is a reputable music shop in Oxford, their customer service is not great, and the guy in the shop(proprieter) can be very rude and opinionated. take a look a the post below this one there are some comments about the shop and its owner. plus the saxes in there seemed not to be set up at their optimum. I have no experience with this shop re Borganis however when I was in my last of 3 years at college, learning saxophone repair, another student bought one from the shop and spend 3 hours setting it up after which it played great.

another member on this forum has a Borgani-Ponzol series bare brass tenor which is one of the best tenors I have ever played.

[Stephen Howard]

I have a client who owns a Borgani that was finished with their unlacquered 'vintage' finish ( i.e. chemically distressed ) and who had the misfortune to have it serviced by someone who thought the finish was grubby - so they removed it with wire wool.
Whilst it runined the cosmetic appearance of the horn ( and its resale value ) I'm happy to report that it had no effect on the tone.

I personally wouldn't buy a Borgani without playing it first, they are such unique and individual horns that they are likely to have significant tonal differences even between two apparently identical models.

Regards,

[clarnibass]

I compared three Borgani tenors. I have no idea if they are supposed to be the same except the finish, but one was the Vintage model, one was silver plated (I think it was Pearl Silver, but not sure) and one was a model I don't see on their website, with matt silver body and gold (lacquer) keys.

The instruments had some differences, not huge though. No difference could be definitely beacause of plating, since they were the same as differences I notice all the time between same model & same finish saxophones.

On the subject of Borgani finishes.... I recently needed solder on a Borgani. It was the 24K Gold model which I was told is gold plated (as opposed to lacquered). It had some wear on palm keys and under was what looked like silver plating (which I assumed the gold was plated over). I started soldering and VERY fast a chunk of the key turned black. Not just black.... blind crow on a lunar eclipse night black! Gold doesn't do this, so I assume it has some lacquer over it, but I've never had any lacquer do that, on any saxophone, and it happened so fast..... When I removed this black colour (and... that wasn't easy!) it was silver colour under it. So I am not totally sure it actually has gold plating and not just gold lacquer (but the name of the model... must be gold plating, no?).

[shmuelyosef]

If there was a thin 24K gold flash on a thick silver base, the Au will quickly diffuse into the silver and be gone, leaving the silver to quickly tarnish (hot and in air). Polishing this off will just leave silver. I have a Conn DJH 108M alto that was originally gold plate over silver on the body, and most of it is now silver, particularly where any repairs were done. The keys were gold-lacquered, however. Odd finish, but to the best of my ability, this is what I think the original finish was.