Odd Handcraft committee II alto

[russps]

I recently acquired a Martin Handcraft committee II alto (s/n 142xxx) and it is a little different than anything I've seen. I was under the impression that the commII horns had solid nickel silver keys. This one has Nickel silver key cups and hinge tubes. But the solid rods, key spatulas and key arms are made of brass. I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this before, and any input would be appreciated.

Russ

[Thomas]

are you sure those aren't just brass colored lacquer? Originally the Comm II altos did have a goldish/brasslike lacquer on the nickle parts. I had an alto on which some of the keycups still had a brass colored lacquer . When I had the horn overhauled what was left burned off easily so my teck just polished up the nickle

[russps]

No, it is very obvious that it is brass and nickel silver. I'm going to find a way to post the pics as soon as I can.

Russ

[russps]

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[Bootman]

Russ,
The horn is relacquered, you can tell by the engraving. It looks as though the various parts of the key work has been spprayed with lacquer at the same time. To check this out, you could take off one key and strip the lacquer off with a bit of paint stripper.

[russps]

I know that it has been relacquered (keys and body), the brass parts of the keys are brass, there is no question about it. I very highly doubt that the brass parts are replacements, because of the ammount of work that would go into replacing all of the key parts. I'm just curious if anyone has seen anything like it.

Russ

[Bootman]

It could be that the original keywork was nickel plaetd over brass, this isn't uncommon and you're seeing wear through the original plating. This doesn't affect how the horn plays, so I would worry about it too much. You should have a fantastic sounding horn there which will blow with a thick almost tenor like quality to the sound. Enjoy the horn. I really dig playing mine.

[rrex54]

There may be better informed Martin folks out there. However, as I understand it the early Martins with nickel key work had solid nickel key work -- greater strength and lighter as well. The Committee II horns had brass key work. So, I wonder if what you are seeing was the beginning of a transition in which Martin started using plated brass. As an analog, one of the transitions I've noticed in earlier horns was the change of neck on the Handcraft Committee tenors from the original Handcraft style to the one carried forward to the Committee Is.

And thanks, Bootman, I'd not thought about it before, but the Martin altos are more tenor like than other horns. I suspect that's why my Handcraft alto is still my main alto!

[Jorns Bergenson]

I just stumbled across this old thread, and I thought I'd add a recent discovery. I dug an old Comm II alto out of the closet and in the process of doing an overhaul found that they keys were solid nickel-silver with a coating of clear lacquer. Some of the smaller parts, like the feet on the RH stack keys, were solid brass. The horn mentioned above looks to have many larger key parts that are brass.