I just had to ask anyone that owns a piccolo for a little help.

I want to start learning to play piccolo, but in order to do that I want to own a student model (something to start out with)

The only problem is I don`t know what I am looking for in a good piccolo.

Since I have never played a piccolo before I can`t go into a store and try one out to see if it is good quality.

The only way I could narrow it down was by brand names. I know Yamaha sells good quality instuments, but a lot of people say Gemeinhardt is better...

any suggestions?

I have a Geminhardt and i absolutly love it. there are many different types of piccolos that you can get too. all metal... all composite (plastic) , composite body and metal head, or all wood ( VERYYY expensive)

I guess see which one you feel more comfortable playing on. I started out on all compostite, and thats what i have now, but now that i use to the different embroucher i can play on a metal head too. try different ones.

also depends on what your using it for. for Marching Band get the all composite, concert band, metal..

hopes this helps...

Gemeinhardt piccolos are NOT better then Yamaha piccolos. Yamaha is better. Wood piccolos are better for concert season becasue they have a warmer tone. metal or composite are good for marching season becasue they are louder.

I can think of about ten different picc threads on this message board, so look around, I`ll try to find the long picc comparison I wrote a while ago.

Gumdrop

All-metal piccs are great for marching band because their sound cuts through the rest of the band, so you can actually be heard on the field. Unfortunetally, this makes it awful for concert bands and orchestras because it`s just too darn loud and shrill.

All-wood piccs are fantastic for indoor concerts in band and orchestra because they can blend into the sound, and not sound bad and shrill. The disadvantages to wood: it cracks. Marching a wood piccolo, or even outdoor concerts in not-so-great weather can damage the wood and seriously hurt your wood picc. In addition, the sound wouldn`t carry enough in a marching band setting.

All-plastic or silver-and-plastic piccs combine the best of each world. An all-plastic picc looks like a wood one (and some sound almost as good), without the problems that wood creates. Plastic with a metal headjoint carries well on the marching field, but isn`t too loud for a concert setting.

I believe it is possible to purchase a plastic piccolo, and then order wood, silver, or plastic headjoints, so you can have as softer sound (wood) for indoors, and a shriller sound (silver) for outdoors, or the balance of plastic.





I hope this is some help, as for the brand, I would stick to a well-known brand. I own a Gemeinhardt, and it works quite well. I have been told that Yamahas are difficult to tune, but all piccolos are, so that doesn`t really matter. Finally, I would stay away from Jupiter, because their models of almost anything are more easilly damaged than other brands.

With all that said, good luck!
Gumdrop


PS - look at some of the other threads, there are some very good comments.

I would go for Yamaha.

It is very hard to find a bad word said about their cheapest wooden one, YPC62. Excellent value for money.

Many piccolos have the pads of very little more diameter than the tone holes, or poorly aligned with tone holes. This is a sure recipe for unreliability, especially if the pads are the rather squishy, bulgy type.