"all plastic piccolos tend to be very airy and harder with the upper register"

That is because all plastic piccolos are student piccolos, so you are not paying the price to have the embouchure hole, tone hole, and bore shaping that is needed to get a good tone.

On the Buffet `Greenline` clarinet, which is essentially plastic, all these details are attended to, so top players equate it to a timber instrument.

This is a good example of how it is the design that makes the difference, not the material!

Arak writes:
"That is because all plastic piccolos are student piccolos" That is not a true statment. Burkart makes a plastic piccolo.

Being a fair-minded sort of person, I stand corrected. Thank you.

If that piccolo has parameters such as shape of chimney, drop-off angle of lip `plate`, undercutting of tone holes, and taper characteristics of bore, I suggest that experienced piccolo players, listening in a DOUBLE BLIND test,could not tell that it was not wood.

If these characteristics are indeed the same, then there would be just as much involved in the manufacture, and possibly slightly more, so it would be a very similar price to its timber equivalent. Do you know if this is the case?

On the other hand, I havge just had a look at the Burkart web site ....
http://www.burkart.com/
... and cannot find any reference to a plastic piccolo. Tell me more about it. I am intrigued. Provide a web link.

I couldn`t find anything about it on the web site either. I am not sure if Burkart stopped making them? I do know that they did or still do because one of students had bought one and I thought that they were wonderful. Still better in my opinion than the Haynes silver piccolo that I used to own. I will have to find out more about it and get back to you.

I play the silver piccolo (SP?) as well as the flute, and I find it`s really high, and doesn`t blend in easilly. That may be because I am not too good at playing it... but hey. I would say go for wood.

A wooden piccolo is just as high.

Maybe she meant to say bright?

or `shrill`.
My guess is that she may not have even played a wooden piccolo.

Yes probably, because all piccolos are rather shrill when it comes down to it.

probably metal

Anna, have you ever played a wood piccolo? Just curious, because of your answer.

I`ve only played a wooden body piccolo before, and I would LOVE to play a full wooden piccolo but I`m pretty sure I would chose the wooden body over silver anytime. I just noticed, there is no piccolo forum, but guess we don`t need one.

definitely wood

I am responding to Riki`s comment about there being no piccolo forum and perhaps we don`t need one. I WISH WE HAD A PICCOLO FORUM. That is the instrument I play the most in band and orchestra. I would love to be able to review questions & responses and ask questions of my own. There is a Yahoo group, however, much of the stuff on it is junk and sexual. I`m looking for a SERIOUS piccolo forum.