Yamaha CP-80

The Yamaha CP-80 was an acoustic/electric grand piano launched in the mid-1970s. It is the bigger version of the Yamaha CP-70, with 88 keys instead of 73 (an extra octave). Like the CP-70, the piano is an acoustic grand piano fitted with an electronic pickup resulting in the distinctive piano sound.

The Yamaha CP-80 was Peter Gabriel's choice instrument after the CP-70: his go-to for live and studio work until the mid-1990s. As photos show, he began using the CP-80 during recording of So at Ashcombe House in 1985: three black keys visible at the end of the uppermost octave rather than 2 on the CP-70, hence the conclusion it's a CP-80.

Like with the CP-70, he typically enhanced the CP-80 with a Boss Chorus pedal to produce a distinctive tone which none of the newer pedals could rival at the time. It features on the Passion soundtrack (1989) and the Us (1992) album. Peter played the CP-80 on Robbie Robertson's "Fallen Angel" (1987), where the CP-80 was routed through the Boss Chorus and a Deltalab DL-2 delay. The CP-80 was also used in conjunction with a Roland MKS-20 Digital Piano module to thicken the sound, which was controlled by MIDI: either Peter's CP-80 was the CP-80M version with MIDI or the piano was retrofitted with MIDI at some stage.

Joni Mitchell played Peter's CP-80 at Ashcombe on "Beat Of Black Wings" from Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm in 1988. Peter's Fender Jaguar guitar was also used for that record.

While making Up, Peter obviously decided to shift away from the Yamaha grand and gravitated more towards Roland digital pianos and the acoustic Bosendorfer grand for a change. As of 2007, the CP-80 remains in storage.