I have been curious about this for a while now and couldn`t find a solution. Is Yamaha the ONLY piccolo with the "unique" head joint for a plastic piccolo? I look at quiet a few piccolos and could not find any with that specific head joint.

If you`re going to drop a bomb. Plz..define it.
What in your thinking is unique about the Yamaha head joint for their plastic Piccolo? Is it the Tenon socket arrangement?
~Bilbo

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Minimum-Disruption-Tenon.html

You must of not understood what I have said. There is some kind of head joint on a Yamaha Piccolo YPC 32. I don`t know how you can tell me, "What is unique about a yamaha piccolo" You should be able to see the difference. You go look at a Gemeinhardt piccolo and then take a look at a Yamaha YPC 32. Tell me what the difference is between the headjoint and the body.

There is a good photo of a YPC-32 at http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/winds/index.htm

Yamaha writes:
"The YPC-32 is very popular with students as well as doublers due to its easy playability, accurate intonation, and characteristic piccolo sound. The body is made of sturdy, maintenance-free ABS resin for a sound similar to that of natural wood. It includes an E mechanism as is found on professional model piccolos. The durability of these instruments makes them ideal for beginners, while their accurate intonation helps students develop a good ear."

This does not say anything about them bein `unique`. What exactly are you talking about, Picguy?

I`s just design. There are a lot of no name ebay piccolos such as the Helmke piccolo that have the same Yamaha headjoint "flare" design at the base.

The piccolo barrel is surrounded by cork. The piccolo headjoint tube goes inside the barrel and the the non/fared base that is around that tube goes over the barrel and is sealed by the cork.

Whether there is any benefit to the flare I doubt since it is really common on $50US Ebay piccolos.

Sorry then that you, Piccguy didn`t understand the answer. I believe that the `difference` is that the head on the YPC-32 has a thin metal sleeve that goes inside the body as Piko stated.
This makes it have less of a gap in the joint between the head and the body if the head joint is pulled out any distance for tuning. (See the link that I provided plz. for some diagrams) Any large space in that area (like what a Gemeinhardt plastic picc. has or any typical wood piccolo/flute for that matter) causes irregularities in tuning on certain notes/nodes and the defect increases considerably the farther the head joint is pulled out. On wood flutes and some other instruments if this space is too large and the instrument is playing generally too sharp, a ring spacer can be made and placed between the body and head. This ring may look somewhat like a rubber washer that`s used to seal the connections on two garden hoses but is made of a solid material. It fills the gap.
On the YPC-32 the gap is only the thickness of the metal used on the head joint and becomes less of an issue.
~Bilbo

I don`t know where this tenon-AND-socket-on-the-head idea came to be labelled "unique". It has been very common on wooden flutes for at least a hundred years, if I remember correctly. :-)

And don`t Brannen, and Burkart, use this system?

Now Arak, you didn`t really catch me calling it unique

No, not you, but somebody[i/] did!

I still don`t think you understand. I am not talking about the tune-slide thing. Look at a Yamaha YPC 32 piccolo. There is a head joint/metal sleeve that goes on the base of the head part of the piccolo. Notice i said the BASE of the head. See? Then look at a Gemeinhardt plastic piccolo. There is no sleeve on that one. All I wanted to know is if there are ANY kind of brands, other than yamaha, that has that little sleeve on the end of the head of a plastic piccolo...

~I don`t know how more simple I could put it...

Are you talking about the cover that you put over the piccolo cork when the headjoint is removed? (Which come standard with every piccolo... I thought)

I`ve played a YPC-32 and there isn`t any special sleeve that attaches to the headjoint.

Can you link to a picture?

Are you refering to male and femail piccolo headjoints? That is also a term that they are called. The headjoin on a Yamaha piccolo is not that rare.

On another note... Is the female design better than the male design? I`ve really only encountered the female design and I`m not that thrilled with having to grease a cork before sticking a headjoint on (I know not everytime). Is there a plastic/wood male headjoint design?

Pevert! (Sorry, I couldn`t help myself!) Of course the female is going to be better. Aren`t us women all! Lol!!! JK!

To answer your question, yes, both designs can be found on plastic and wood piccolos.

Whoops! I typed that wrong. I mean to type perverr. Hee, Hee....

Arak, don`t you think females rule?