You're getting two different things confused here.

Student horns from the 1960s through 1980s or so, plus some pro models, have had nickel PLATED keys. The keywork underneath is the plain old brass. These I believe were offered so the keywork would stay shiny longer under heavy use (stripping polishing and respraying just the body is a lot cheaper for the school district than doing the keys too). There's no functional advantage or disadvantage beyond that.

Martin saxophones for a period in the 1930s had the keywork made of SOLID nickel alloy. (Most unfortunately this is often referred to as "German silver" or "nickel silver", but it has zero actual silver, element Ag, in it.) This makes the keys more resistant to bending than brass keys of the same dimension (higher yield strength), more resistant to wear so pivot points etc. get loose more slowly (higher hardness) and might even give it a small amount additional stiffness (higher modulus of elasticity). I believe that Martin actually lacquered over the nickel alloy keywork to prevent it from the discoloration and greyish appearance that "nickel silver" will take on with time.

Some people will refer to "nickel silver plating" which basically doesn't exist. If it's nickel plated it's elemental nickel.

Other manufacturers at times have used nickel alloy for some components, especially either touch pieces (Buescher used it for some thumb hooks) or long long rods (Buescher, King, and Selmer have all done this at some time). I'm not aware of any manufacturer other than Martin using solid nickel alloy for the complete keywork of saxophones. That's a little strange, because almost all silver plated flutes use nickel alloy for keywork and tubes rather than brass, and at least a very large fraction of clarinets use nickel alloy for keywork whether they plate the keywork with nickel or silver (I have an older clarinet with unplated nickel alloy keywork as well).

I know Keilwerth made a few saxophones with nickel alloy bodies in the 90s or so.

The "German silver" nickel alloys and elemental nickel plating are visually distinguishable from each other pretty easily (and from silver) when polished, but when tarnished it might not be so easy.

 

Here is “cheap student” horn with nickel plated keys. . I think it is plated given it looks like a couple of key cups have brass underneath. So even the “best” got the nickel plated key treatment.

My mark vi has a couple of nickel silver rods on it. If you are going to have nickel silver rods why not plate them keys as well if they are made of brass.

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Here is “cheap student” horn with nickel plated keys. . I think. So even the “best” got the nickel plated key treatment.

My mark vi has a couple of nickel silver rods on it. If you are going to have nickel silver rods why not plate them keys as well if they are made of brass

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Well, plating isn't free, you know.

 

King had solid nickel silver rods and tubes with their pro models and plated keys for their student models:

 

I have owned several vintage saxophones. Buescher, Conn and want to think most Yamaha 21, 23, 31,32 models have had nickel keys...don't know if nickel plated or solid nickel. Reason and possible advantage is maybe more durable, cheaper and harder metal equating to less chance of bending, breaking or having to replace on horns that are made for school band programs usage/abuse by students that aren't all that concerned. I don't feel any the nickel keys are any less or don't perform as well as their brass/lacquered counterparts. No issues with my Buescher 156...it plays like butta!

 

I'm not certain, but suspect that my late-50's TH&C has nickel keys, while later models had nickel-plated keys.

 

believe you are correct here sir

 

Conn started offering nickel plated keys on a lacquered body (Finish 25) as the standard finish on their entire line in 1955. 1955 Conn Band and Orchestra Instruments | Saxophone.org See pages 18-21. You could opt for silver plate for an extra $12.50. My '55 10M is Finish 25.

I kinda blame Conn for the whole "nickel keys=student horn" thing. When they started production of the Director models they came standard as Finish 25. They made a TON of them and marketed them specifically to schools.

It's a stigma. Nickel plated keys are certainly more durable. I can't see how they equal "cheaper". I mean, it's an extra step in production to plate the keys. Wouldn't it be cheaper and quicker to not plate them?

 

I recall reading somewhere that some manufactures issued horns with nickel plated keys for use in military bands. Why? I don't know. The only way to know for sure would be to talk to the designers and engineers that developed these models.

 

I guess what I was missing here was solid nickel vs. plated, and the consensus seems to be solid nickel, if anything, is superior to brass. Since I'm looking at vintage horns from the 30's/40's it seems a pretty safe assumption they were solid at that time. Good to know!

 

You can't assume that all instruments from the 1930s that have "silver" colored keys have solid nickel alloy keys. Martins, yes, but nickel plating of saxophones, partial or complete, exists way back into the 20s and 10s. If you see a two tone sax from a maker other than Martin it's a safe bet that the keys are plated brass, either nickel or silver plated.

 

Thanks everybody. It does happen that this whole question was prompted in a way from some Martin's I'm looking at (although from a general standpoint I've always been curious about it). Sounds like I'm safe there (Martins) and if it's any other maker, I'll have to do some homework if it's a horn I'm interested in.

 

Or…

If you are looking at vintage horns and find a horn that is good playing condition, don’t bother asking whether it’ll last. It already has.

 

At any rate, if you see a two tone horn, you can rest assured there's no downside to the color scheme except that it'll look, to some people, more like a student horn. It'll play the exact same.

Interestingly enough I find that my $100 Mexi-Conn with the nickel plated keys plays just about exactly like a $2000 gold plated Conn New Wonder or a $3000 silver plated Conn 10M with rolled tone holes and all the goodies, or a $4000 Conn 30M Connqueror.

 

I admit....so much of it is "mental".

 

Aren't some of these keys that we're talking about CHROME plated?

 

I don't think so. It's possible but I believe anyone who wanted a bright white finish on plated keys would use the nickel plating process they already had access to and use that. Don't forget, Ni plated horns (completely plated) were around since the 1910s. I think that Cr plating would be a lot more complex and costly on brass than Ni plating, but I don't actually know that for a fact.

A lot of people use "chrome" to mean "any shiny plating no matter what the actual metals are" - thus the plethora of aluminum vacuum metallized plastic components on modern automobiles get generally and loosely referred to by lay people as "chrome".