I'm looking at buying a Strad 42BO. I really like the silver horns but I don't know what the diffrence is between the silver plated and the sterling silver horn. There's a friggin 700 dollar diffrence in the two! I don't know what the heck the diffrence between a silver and a normal brass one is either. I asked my band director and he told me that the silver is darker than your standard. I've heard that from a couple other places too but I've also heard that a brass horn is darker than a silver from a couple other places. But then again I've heard the only diffrence is cosmetic! What the heck!? I'm stepping up from my student horn and I really like the Bach horn (my director has one and I love it!) but he also says the Conn 88HO is a great horn. I really have no idea what to do. I really really really like silver horns but if it's gonna screw up my sound a ton then I'm probably not gonna get it. I need help ASAP!!!

When your looking for a horn to buy, go to music store and more than likely they will let you play the horn some for a test to see if you like it or not. I personally would like a silver horn just because of the looks, but I settled with a rose brass Conn 88H-CL. I'm satified with it. But the horn will not mess up your sound, the only way a horn will mess up your sound is if there is a leak in it, other than that its mainly the actual performer. But between the two, go to a music shop and try a few out and see which you like best.

Silver=MUCH BRIGHTER SOUND
your band director is dead wronng.
as for sterling vs. silver, no idea.

Depends what kind of silver. Nickel silver is different than sterling silver.

Nickel Silver = tends to be brighter and more articulate. However, depending on the way that some people blow, they can actually sound darker on NS than standard yellow brass.

Sterling Silver = supplies a very solid, dense sound. Neither darker nor brighter, just different. Works great if you want a big sound for an orchestra, so many orchestral trombonists prefer sterling silver leadpipes. I tried a SS leadpipe, while the louds were exceptional, the rest of the dynamic range sounded colorless.