Chucky D's horn on Goldberg Variations

[MartyNeilan]

So, here I am in the middle of doing stuff for work for 27 hours straight, and I put on the Goldberg Variations disc. Now, this stuff was made to help some royal so-and-so who couldn't sleep, so it is perfect chill music. I absolutely LOVE Dr. D's sound on this recording. Seems a little fatter and darker than some of his quintet playing, but still fits in perfectly. The horn on the album cover looks like neither a Yamaha 621 nor an 822; nor is it a CB-50. Any (informed) ideas?

[TheHatTuba]

Kinda looks like this one (Yamaha)

[Rick Denney]

The photograph is a bit manipulated. The camera position is at about chest level, but it is tilted back (possible with a shifting lens or with a wide lens and then cropped at the top) to exaggerate the vertical perspective. That makes their heads smaller in relation to their bodies, and exaggerates the effect of looking up at them. That will make the bell throat look large with respect to the rest of the instrument in a way opposite of the usual projection. Normally, tubas are posed so that the bell is farther from the camera than the bottom bow, making the bell look small (this is usually because tubas are photographed standing on their bells with the photographer pointing the camera down at the instrument). But with the camera pointed up, it will give the bell a fatter throat. I suspect this is a Yamaha 822, perhaps with a different bell, looked at in an odd projection.

Rick "who uses tilting and shifting lenses all the time to exaggerate or minimize vertical perspective effects" Denney

[Toobist]

I asked him years ago. After he switched to the YCB621 he really didn't use anything else. Even the carbon fibre bell was affixed to a 621. There was a short stint where they worked with Getzen for the CB horn but he was pretty firm that the 621 is all he used.

[Norm Pearson]

It is a Yamaha prototype CC
Yamaha made several of these prototype CC's with the YFB822 bell and bottom bow. Jim Self has a five valve version (not sure if he still has it?), Chuck Dalenbach has a 4 valve and I remember Kiyoshi Sato playing one on a US tour with a brass ensemble. About ten years ago I was at a party at Jim's house and Chuck happened to be in town and had his tuba with him so we did an impromptu comparison of the two tubas. I think they are great horns: great sound, fantastic response and excellent intonation. They don't make a huge sound, about what would be expected of a 3/4ish size tuba. I could never figure out why Yamaha did not finish the R&D and put these into production.

Hope this helps

Norm Pearson