Piccolo Body Curved

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Skiddles
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:06 pm

Piccolo Body Curved

Post by Skiddles »

Hello! This is my first post on this forum. I apologize in advanced, this post concerns my piccolo, not my flute.

I just finished my last day of band camp as a senior, I've been playing flute for 7 years now. My teacher has finally allowed me to march piccolo. Well... today we had our "end of band camp performace" thing we do every year and we had a mini stage set up for a piccolo duet in the song "Jump In the line".

Just to explain how this mini stage operates, it's literally 2 slabs of particle board with hinges attached, no locking mechanism, nothing. My sophomore year we used this stage and there was never any issues with it falling.

Well we set our piccolos on the stage as instructed and left to go back to the band room. We marched out and did our "pregame" and my band teacher called my friend and I up to check our piccolos for damage since the wind blew down the top part of the stage and slammed over our piccolos.

Her piccolo got the blunt of the damage, every single key being smashed down and bent, mine only had 3 key bends though I noticed my piccolo Body has a curve to it that's enever been there. I'm terrified it won't be able to be fixed since it's very sentimental to me. I don't have any pictures at the moment because my teacher is sending it in to be fixed. (no he is not charging my friend and I, thankfully)

Has anybody had this happen to them??? Any ideas on if my piccolo will be fine? Thank you for reading my post and I appericiate any feedback received!

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pied_piper
Posts: 1962
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:31 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: Piccolo Body Curved

Post by pied_piper »

That sounds like substantial damage. If multiple keys are bent and the body is curved, it may take a lot of time to get everything straightened and more time means extra cost to repair. There is a real possibility that one or more tone holes are bent or crushed and that would be an even more difficult repair.

All that said, it is possible to repair a bent and damaged piccolo but depending upon the age and brand, it may cost more to repair it than it is worth.

Since this damage occurred through no fault of your own, I would think the venue hosting the band camp may have insurance that would cover the cost of repair or replacement.
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--

Skiddles
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:06 pm

Re: Piccolo Body Curved

Post by Skiddles »

pied_piper wrote:
Mon Aug 07, 2023 3:56 pm
That sounds like substantial damage. If multiple keys are bent and the body is curved, it may take a lot of time to get everything straightened and more time means extra cost to repair. There is a real possibility that one or more tone holes are bent or crushed and that would be an even more difficult repair.

All that said, it is possible to repair a bent and damaged piccolo but depending upon the age and brand, it may cost more to repair it than it is worth.

Since this damage occurred through no fault of your own, I would think the venue hosting the band camp may have insurance that would cover the cost of repair or replacement.
I guess I should've clarified in more detail on my first post, the curve is very miniscule, nothing extremely severe I think, but it still concerned me. My piccolo is also quite expensive (around $1,000 in the 90's when it was bought) Also, the band camp is hosted at my school by my band director, no venues involved.

Not sure if any of this affects your original answer but I figured I could just give more info.

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pied_piper
Posts: 1962
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:31 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: Piccolo Body Curved

Post by pied_piper »

In this case, the "venue" is school owned. I would still ask the school to cover the cost of repairs as the damage was not your fault and it was caused by school owned or operated facilities.
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--

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