Yanagisawa B901/2 versus B991

[Steve]

I'm curious on the gold plated horns what karat they are.

For instance, some modern gold plated horns sell for less than an ounce of gold. I seriously doubt that they are a high karat gold.

24k is pure gold. but as the karat goes down other metals are added such as copper. In the jewelry world there are standard mixtures .... in the instrument world .... who knows.

In the US a certain content around 10k is the minimum to be sold as "gold". But that's for jewelry. I think that would still be too expensive for the price difference between a bare brass and gold plated horn. I'm guessing the gold karat is far below 10k

otherwise i'd be buying up all the gold plated horns from Taiwan/China melting the plating off and building a collection of bare brass horns whilst making a ton of money.

 

[pete]

I have heard some manufacturers advertising "24K Gold Plate". I haven't kept a lost, so I couldn't say how many.

While melting down a horn is always an option, I bet that there is less than 1lb of gold on a plated alto. Probably significantly less. I base this on how much metal is generally left in the jar when you do simple electroplating.

Hey, if any of y'all have plated a horn, it'd be interesting to know how much metal is needed for plating.

 

[Steve]

..... I bet that there is less than 1lb of gold on a plated alto. ....

I hope so .. 1 lb of pure gold is over $16,000 right now

 

[pete]

That's also at 24K .

However, makes you wonder about, say, those ISOs (instrument shaped objects) from China that are $600 or less and say "gold plated" on the package.

Google is my master:

The density of 24K gold plating is ~ 12.45mg/in²/µm, (~0.00004 inches) thickness. Therefore, if evenly distributed, 1 gram of 24K gold will plate approximately 160 square inches of area to a thickness of 1/2 µm, (0.00002" or 20 micro-inches)]. This thickness is the minimum thickness of gold plating for jewelry items to be sold as "gold plated" in the United States under the US Federal Trade Commission standards. Note: The density of gold plating can range from 11.3mg/in²/µm through 12.45mg/in²/µm the upper end of the range is for a very fine grain gold plate.

Emphasis mine.

Let's see: 453 grams in a pound, so that's around $35 a gram for the gold. How many square inches in an alto sax?