I was wondering what conditions a wooden piccolo can handle. I know they’re supposed to be in air-conditioned rooms without humidity. I’ve always kept my wooden piccolo under these conditions, but I was wondering if I could get away with having it in a closed garage with three ceiling fans on (it’s a 3 car garage). I was wondering just how much I can “push” my wooden piccolo as far as room conditions are concerned.

Low humidity can set uyp the condition for timber to split....

Dry and shrunk on the outside of the tube, and wet and swollen on the inside (from your moist breath). This can make the outside split.

YOu can stabilise the moisture content in the timber by using a GOOD bore oil.

Take a look at http://www.doctorsprod.com/DrsProduct.html and click on "Wood".

Omar Henderson has also contributed a wealth of technical information on the topic at the Buletin Board at woodwind.org. Search the site for "bore oil", or "omar", or "doctor`s products".

Don`t - !!!! - get bore oil on the pads.

I love his products and use them all the time!

the piccolo sounds so f**king hard to look after.. the oboe is easy .. put it in a case and rite nxt to my piano! and i dont really care about weather :P haha

@~> jaspie bOi

I hope you don`t plan on getting a WOOD oboe then.

Wooden oboes are more often the victim of splitting than piccolos are, because the wall thickness is greater.

Oboes have obscenely small octave vents, which easily clog up with moisture.

But wooden oboes are blessed with heaps of regulating screws, while piccolos have none.

Oboes of ANY sort have expensive reed problems for their entire life, whereas a practiced piccolo player uses a reed that is free, and adjustable while the player is playing. The reed is the air-stream.