...a bit of an exageration, there. A concrete horn will not resonate at all like brass, you'd have to sing into the space and hope the sound carried to the audience. That said, your audience would have to be made up of people with very particular and picky ears to pick up on the difference between two horns with different finishes--all else being the same. The difference would be so minute as not to exist for most of our ears.

I used to have a friend who had the most ugly old vintage tenor I've ever seen. It was green in places but it had the most beautiful sound. He was a great player and lived in Florida without air conditioning. Although he always wiped his horn off after playing, the high humidity was winning the war. Although he was a well known tenor player he never made much money. Over the years he couldn't afford to have much done other than keep the horn in playing condition. He had actually been fired off bands who wanted a shiney tenor played by a younger player. New and shiney, no matter what color your sax is, will only please the people who like the way a horn looks and not what it sounds like. Tommy is gone now and is missed by me and all of the Jazz musicians and fans...Kelsey