Piccolo for a doubler

[Noel Mac]

I would like to pick up a piccolo. All I will really use it for is doubling during big band. What is the best for under $400?

[Jack W.]

YPC-32, hands down, no question. And I have credibility here since I am on record as not being the biggest Yamaha fan in the world. As far as I can tell with my (naked untrained) eye, these have the same scale and keywork as the grenadilla YPC-62, with a plastic body and a silverplated headjoint. The intonation is excellent for a "student" piccolo, playability up to Bb3 and even higher should be good if you find a good example in good playing condition, and of course these are very consistent, especially if made in Japan. My YPC-62 was made in Japan, but I think the 32s might be made in the US.

I believe these may be a bit more than $400 new, but you ought to be able to get a used one for less than that.

Gordon will be able to fill us in on more specific details since I'm sure he's examined many many examples of YPC-32s, but in the end I feel certain he'll agree with me.

[shortwhite]

I think the above is good advice. The Yamaha piccolos are pretty good instruments for us doublers. But also try every piccolo you can and find the one in your price range that plays the best for you. You never know................

Last summer a friend was going to upgrade his flute. A bunch of us got together at his house so he could try different instruments to see what he liked. One of the guys also had a piccolo he was going to sell. Don't know what made me try it. Wasn't looking for a new piccolo. But I played it and thought this is much better than the wooden Gemeinhardt that I had been using for years. He didn't know anything about the piccolo. Some brand we had not heard of. He got it off of ebay. It appeared to be a copy of a Hammig.

I bought it from him. After selling my old piccolo I had $285 in it.

My insurance agent called a couple of months after that to go over the value of my instruments so I had to try to find out something about this thing. Found very little information on the web about this maufacturer. Then someone I contacted directed me to Top Wind Music in England. I emailed them some pix and info explaining I needed to insure the instrument and would like to find out its value.

The next day they emailed me back saying that I needed to insure this piccolo for 3500 British pounds!!!!!!!!!! Currently about $6,000.

It is a Hans Riner piccolo. He worked for Hammig in his younger days then struck off on his own. Primarily made piccs. Less than 1000 made before his death.

Every now and then you get lucky.

[Gordon (NZ)]

My advice is simple - go for Yamaha unless you have big bucks to consider something different in the professional range. They are reliably consistent, well made, easy to work on, and play well and in tune.

My reservation is that my only experience is with piccolos made AND set up in JAPAN.

If you are a novice piccolo player, don't go choosing one yourself. It is too easy to be misled by a cheap and nasty piccolo with atrocious tuning but easily-produced low notes.

A piccolo is primarily for playing high notes, in tune, under control, and a novice cannot judge these aspects.

[Noel Mac]

I haven't been able to find a yamaha within my price range. I ordered a jupiter from WW&BW and one of the grad students here has offered to test it for me. Does anyone know of any places I might be able to find a used yamaha piccolo.

I totally agree with you Gordon. Last year my dad decided he didn't want to pay for my rental flute anymore, so I had to go out and buy one. I had taken some flute lessons and could play decently in doubling situations but I really didn't know what I was doing. I was looking at several flutes in the $1000-$1500 range and of course my favorite was the geimienhart, but it was my favorite because of the brand name. Luckily, a denver pro who is a really nice guy offered to play all of them for me so I could hear them and tell me what he thought about each one. I ended up going with an armstrong which was one of the less expensive flutes I was looking at.

[bruce bailey]

Although I am a dealer for Emerson, DeFord, Hardy and Burkart-Phelan, I sell more of the cheap Yamaha clones that you see on ebay. These are the resin ones with the plated head and split E. Amazing quality from China, nothing like the horrible sopranos. You can get them for about $150-180. The synphony plyers actually tell their students to get them rather than a used brand name.

[Gordon (NZ)]

"The Symphony players..."??
WHICH symphony players? Not "the" ones around where I live.

Just wondering.... I've met some extremely shoddy Chinese piccolos... sloppy pivots, pads made from slushy felt, pads falling out, serious leaks, wild tuning, etc.