Gold plated Yamaha 661

[bort]

Thanks for checking it out! Wow... kind of a mess, but at least it plays well. Does it play more like the smaller Yamaha 621 since the bore is smaller?

Sounds like a really interesting tuba, and about $10k more than it should sell for. Even for $3k, it might never sell. But at least now we know what it is (and isn't!).

[tbonesullivan]

You'd think maybe they could at least put it back to close to "stock" to make it more attractive to sell. Looking at the pictures I see of the Canadian Brass with it, the removal of the long 5th valve slide and paddle was probably after it moved on to another home. Not sure why anyone would want to reduce the effectiveness of the 5th valve. Maybe they lost part of it? From the pictures I saw online, it is a two piece crook. so I guess there were two possible tunings one could have.

I wonder how much they paid for it.

[timayer]

Very few people (albeit a few, who are *outspoken) are currently fond of the old two-wholestep 5th valve system, as virtually all 5-valve tubas manufactured today feature the "GG wholestep" circuit length.

I played one tuba with this setup years ago - an old 184CC. Left hand two whole step 5th valve. I'd go back to it in a heartbeat.

[tbonesullivan]

What Is the current "Favorite" for the 5th valve on a CC tuba? I would think making a valve with multiple crooks. like the 661 possibly had, makes a good amount of sense. I tried out a few CC tubas, but with the extra valve I got confused because it seemed like so many tubas are different. Then there's the F and Eb tubas...

With bass trombones you see the same kind of "disagreement" over what the best tuning of the two valves is on the independent bass trombones. Standard usually is down a 4th, and down a 3rd, but it could be a major third, or a minor third, or something in between. Some also have also had a minor 6th valve installed, while others have made the thumb trigger the shorter crook.

[Tom]

What Is the current "Favorite" for the 5th valve on a CC tuba? I would think making a valve with multiple crooks. like the 661 possibly had, makes a good amount of sense.

I think that the long whole step (or "flat" whole step, as some call it) is the current standard/favorite configuration.

There have been tubas made in the past with multiple 5th valve slide configurations. The old Meinl-Weston 30-something series tubas had these and more recently the Canadian Brass CB-50 was available with tubing extensions and crooks. There may have been others.