piccolo purchase ? help

[toofaced18]

I am a piccolo player in my school and I was looking for a piccolo of my own.Im graduating this year and I want to keep playing piccolo for myself but I cannot afford the Yamaha 62 grenadilla piccolo or ypc 32 I play on or anything that expensive.i have a $700 budget which isn't alot but I saw on woodwind brasswind that I can get a selmer prelude for about $400. I'm not looking for a professional model so it will suffice for now. A student model is what I'm looking for and also what about the Jupiter 305s??

[Mere]

Have you looked at the Pearl range? I have an excellent Pearl pic made from Grenaditte. It sounds more like Grenadilla than metal or plastic but it's much more affordable and practical (as it doesn't react strongly to changes in temperature).

[trumpettech]

I have several options in your price range. I would not reccomend the Selmer Prelude as it could be anything from a Cecilio, to First Act, to a Maestoso, to a Trevor James or Seaman. You just don't know what you're getting. Did you know they used 5 different factories for that instrument during its first year of production to keep up with demand? Ask Selmer for parts. They'll laugh at you! I have a very nice abs piccolo I can sell for $450 and an very nice wooden piccolo I can sell for $650. If you want the best of both worlds, I have a composite for $550 that can travel anywhere and sounds like wood, because it is wood dust mixed with nylon resin. It has the resonance of wood and the weather resistance of plastic. Buffet has been doing this with clarinets for years. It's called their green line. The trend is just beginning with piccolo.
Let me know if you're interested in any of these options.
These instruments carry a five year warranty and a year free maintenance.
Two of these are JL instruments and one is an Agility.