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Hello! I’m located in South Georgia and I’m looking into buying a Yamaha 822 CC tuba, but it’s too far for me to try out. I was wondering if anyone on here owned or knows someone who owns one near me that I could possibly try?

Also any opinions on these horns would be greatly appreciated! And if anyone has or could get pictures of one next to similar horns such as a Miraphone 1291 or any horn really.

I owned an early example of this model. Mine was made in 1993/1994 or so and I bought it new. It was my first CC tuba.

It had a nice overall sound and decent response throughout the range. My particular horn had some interesting pitch issues and I was doing a lot of 3rd valve slide pulling as opposed to 1st valve.

The build quality was fantastic as were the valves. I ultimately moved on to a Mirafone 188.

I am probably the one who sent you a picture of a 822 next to a pt-6 on facebook

I normally play pt-6 or pt-20, depending on the gig and my mood and so on. I have an old 822 in my practice space and every time I play it I'm pleased how nice it is. It's a good tuba, a little bit bigger playing than the pt-20 and smaller than pt-6 obviously. I used it in a big wind orchestra with no complaint, I think it might also work in a small to mid-size orchestra (and in big ones in Europe I guess) and I used it in jazz quartetts as well, where I otherwise would use the pt-20. I like it.

A friend of mine had one of these in college. He sounded great on it, and at the time, I always thought it was a bigger tuba than it actually is.

The bell diameter is pretty large at 19.5", due to a pretty quick flattening/pancake. I think this makes the sound a bit broader, more present, and more diffuse. If your articulation is strong, then that's pretty good news. But if your articulation is weaker, then the 822 gets a little tubby and plump sounding. At least it did to me...

By comparison, the 1291 has a larger bore than the Yamaha, and a smaller 18.5" bell. I had a 1291 for about 5 years, and thought it was a great combination of presence and directness. It's not quite the big poofy piston tuba experience, but not quite as punchy as a Miraphone 186 of 188 can be of you let loose on it. Low range was huge and easy, and I never pulled any slides.

Problem with both horns in my mind is "meh" sound color. Both make very nice tuba sounds, but lack some of the vibrancy and zing of other tuba brands. Neither tuba is bad at all ... And both are easy to play and easy to make them sound good. But neither sounds interesting enough to me to want to buy one of them.

Could all just be me! Hope that helps!