Fluorochrome Intensity Variation

Hello everyone. Hope all had a great weekend. Quick question. I have an
investigator who stains a satellite cell marker with alexa700. Because the
epitope is not well expressed, I never receive a compensation control that
gives a nice, separate positive peak; what seems to be positive on a
histogram (for comp) is usually a smeary  tail that comes out of the
unstained peak or a shift of the unstained peak half a log when compared to
the unstained cells, so it's normally hard for me to decide how to gate on
the positive for automatic compensation. I suggested  they purchase BD comp
beads, but they thought it was cost-prohibitive, as they would have to
purchase beads for each type of antibody (mouse, rat etc) they have. Now my
question is, if they have an alexa700-anti CD45 that would give me a nice
peak if bone marrow is used for compensation, would the fact that the two
antibodies came from two different lots (or, in general, two different
vendors) create any problems and errors when interpreting data? I know the
two antibodies may vary in fluorochrome intensity, and I wouldn't advocate
that approach, but for those who have more experience than I do with
compensation, is it still ok to do the comps with one antibody and stain the
sample with another? (again, both conjugated to alexa700). Thank you for
your help.

Regards,

-- 
Nidal Muvarak
Abramson Research Center
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
3615 Civic Center Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19104