Yah, I was around the $500 range in my head too: notwithstanding any gold plate or anything noteworthy about the horn.
As far as the sound of the Committee III vs. the Handcraft, I can only speak to the 2 I have very good personal knowledge of. I have what was a trainwreck of Handcraft. (
Story here is anyone is interested.) After being in pieces for 20 years, this Phase 2 tenor is arguably the richest sounding tenor in my 8+ strong tenor stable, which includes some heavy hitters like: a killer Mark VI, JK Toneking, a killer Zeph, as well as a Hohner President.
There is just something very special about my Martin that is hard to describe. The sound is darkly unique, but still has some overtones which are not found in my other tenors. It's almost as if you can hear the weight of the metal.
A good friend of mine has a
Committee III tenor that I had the chance to play again just 2 days ago. It doesn't have nearly the sound, tone, and not nearly the volume of my Handcraft. The Committee III's tone is similar to a Zephyr.
As far as intonation goes, I know Pete you and I differ wildly in our opinions on the old timers in general. My Martin Handcraft plays 100% in tune over 100% of the horn's range (as does my Committee III bari and my Zephyr tenor). I have no problem with tuning when I play my friend's Committee III tenor either. I'm not 100% in tune on all notes, but I could pass if I needed to. If I played it for an afternoon, I would be used to compensating for the horn's idiosyncrasies and it too would be 100% in tune for me.
Of course all of these are my experiences, while YMMV. The late Sarge Stransky and I had a number of conversations about playing vintage horns. These conversations happened while I was in his shop trying out a few of his horns prior to rebuild. I was looking for another tenor ATT. We discussed how to play them; why some people have no problems being able to play any of them; why others can only play one or two; etc. The uptick was he jokingly said to me I had chops of steel.
I don't know if that's a compliment or not. I'm going to assume it was, since I was play-testing unrestored, vintage tenors he had in his attic to try and find my next tenor.