I have the lacquer version, because I play mostly legit music, and don't like to stand out too much in the crowd, and the lacquer sounds fine. I can't really tell the difference between a silver plated horn and a lacquer horn except for the look and that the silver plated horn is a little brighter. But you can achieve brightness with a mouthpiece, so it's basically look. Yea, i've heard that it's kinda hard to take care of silver plated horns. Owners of the Jupiter 889SG often complain about it. read the reviews on wwbw, and search for silverplated horns on sax on the web, and you'll find loads of information about care and the difference between the two. The YTS62II is a great horn! -tenor562