Banana Plugs....current choices/bargains out there??

[Tonewheelkev]

Nice avatar, BTW. My father has a 1979 Ibanez Maccaferri MAC 10 signed by the great man himself. Lovely guitar. I've inherited his love of Django, but not his talent.

Hey those Ibanez models are supposed to be great! Mine is made from a plan...of a '49 Selmer.
Maccaferri certainly made a plastic guitar in their time....but so far, haven't come across a Saxophone.

 

[John Phillips]

Most gold plating, has a nickel layer underneath. Some CMC plugs are nickel free, IIRC.

Yes, nickel is the most common barrier layer, essential to stop rapid diffusion of gold plating into the copper/brass underneath. But it's ferromagnetic. That causes small amounts of passive intermodulation distortion.

Just for information, in RF interconnects this is enough to matter if you are transmitting high-ish powers (say 30W on a couple of carriers or more - e.g. cellular radio systems). So nickel is not used in RF connectors. I have friends in the business of designing antenna installations and they are good at avoiding all of the various "rusty bolt" impacts on radio signals.

In audio I am sure the effect is too small to matter. Unless you are of a nervous disposition . If you are then yes, go for nickel-free.

 

[cobbers]

IIRC... and I may be way out here... wasn't there a Maccaferri plastic saxophone? Yes plastic... and I believe Bird played one for a while...

I certainly know Ornette Coleman played a plastic Alto.