Chinese Piccolos on Ebay
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Chinese Piccolos on Ebay
I'm waiting for my Yamaha YPC-62 piccolo that I purchased new in the box on ebay to arrive but while I was looking through the ebay auctions I saw a lot of Chinese piccolos that look pretty darn good. I was tempted to buy one until I got a deal on the YPC-62. Has anyone purchased any of those Chinese pics? I would like to know what kind of quality are they.
Re: Chinese Piccolos on Ebay
Don't be tempted by how they look. You may end up with something useless...
Re: Chinese Piccolos on Ebay
Zevang wrote:Don't be tempted by how they look. You may end up with something useless...
I know. That's one of the reasons I didn't buy one. Some Chinese stuff is really good but some of it is really junk. You never can tell.
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woodwindNYC
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Re: Chinese Piccolos on Ebay
I agree that it's still a bit of a buyer-beware scenario, the quality of the instruments coming out of China is improving rapidly as of late. While they are certainly still quite far from being equivalent to the best of what the Western makers are producing, they can be very serviceable for a student or hobbyist who does not require a Burkart (which is my primary piccolo), Powell, Keefe, Bulgheroni, etc. (And I believe that some of the brand name student level instruments, such as the Selmer Prelude, are being made in these same Chinese factories these days)
On a lark, I purchased a Venus piccolo about a year ago just to try them out and see what was what, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I received. So much so that I took the Venus on a 6-month national tour instead of my Burkart. The keywork isn't amazingly sturdy, but it certainly does the job, and the scale is quite good...on par with my Burkart, I'd say. It actually required a bit *less* work to play in tune consistently throughout the range than does my handmade picc. I made a short demo video with it, which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXpf1X_ivI The out of tune high E at around the 1 minute mark has far more to do with the adjustments that I'm used to making on my other piccolo than with the scale on the Venus. Once I adjusted to how to blow the thing, it was quite in tune from top to bottom.
However, if you got a good deal on a Yamaha 62, you've obviously come out far better in any case
Happy piccoloing!
On a lark, I purchased a Venus piccolo about a year ago just to try them out and see what was what, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I received. So much so that I took the Venus on a 6-month national tour instead of my Burkart. The keywork isn't amazingly sturdy, but it certainly does the job, and the scale is quite good...on par with my Burkart, I'd say. It actually required a bit *less* work to play in tune consistently throughout the range than does my handmade picc. I made a short demo video with it, which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXpf1X_ivI The out of tune high E at around the 1 minute mark has far more to do with the adjustments that I'm used to making on my other piccolo than with the scale on the Venus. Once I adjusted to how to blow the thing, it was quite in tune from top to bottom.
However, if you got a good deal on a Yamaha 62, you've obviously come out far better in any case
Happy piccoloing!