[jvg89]

Hello fellow flute players!

I'm new here, and sorta fresh to the "piccolo world". I've been playing for about 2 years and going to be a senior in high school. I'll get straight to the point and skip the intro. I was wondering how good emerson's are, because I ordered a Gem. 4s I believe and it was a nightmare for me to play. The embrochure hole was square as apposed to my armstrong which is more round. The moral of the story was that I could hardly hit notes in the third octave and was horrible to tune (granted I think it was my adjustment to the lip plate). I'm used to playing on an entirely plastic armstrong piccolo and the transition for me was bad. I could hardly play the stars and stripes solo on it.

So back to the point lol, can you guys give me your opinions on the emerson p3 piccolo. This is going to be my marching instrument and I'll keep my armstrong for concert and solo performances

http://www.wwbw.com/Emerson-P3-Piccolo-i71313.music

Thanks
*Javi~

 

[bruce bailey]

The P3 is a great piccolo. I sold them for years but now I sell one from China that is plastic with the metal head. Fantastic easy players. It is the only thing imported I sell and have sold dozens. Setup and ready to go they are $180. Beyond that look for a good used Gemeinhardt as they have decent piccolos, far better than their flutes.

 

[jvg89]

so then I'll be ok with this one for marching season ? I ordered it wit the two head joints becuase it was oddly cheaper...

 

[G-dawg]

Well, you already ordered it. So try it out and see what YOU think. If it meets your needs, then everyone elses opinion is really irrevalent.

Please keep in mind, that intonation is very important! Make sure the pic plays in tune!!!!! You might ask your director and/or private lesson teacher for some guidance here.

That said, my wife is a professional flutist and plays a lot of pic. She really dislikes the entire Emerson line. Her suggestion is to look at Jupiter and Yamaha pics for marching band.

 

[jvg89]

Yeah I guess you're right. If i could find my 35 year old armstrong and given the chance to buy it I would in a heart beat. This piccolo is just amazing! I love it.

I don't want to come off as ignorant but I just need a horn that’s going to get the job done for marching band. It just needs play well in tune, have a good key mechanism. I find that on my armstrong my trills are faster than on the 4S gem. If I don't like this piccolo my mother is going to have my throat! lol

Thanks you guys for helping out

*Javi~

 

[jvg89]

it's here

It arrived this morning and as anyone would do i quickly opened it and played through it. To my disappointment the plastic head joint doesn't let me play anything higher that the third octave F#. I switched of to the metal head and all the notes came out fine, then I tried my Armstrong head joint just to see if it would play and yeah it played fine. Then out of curiosity I took the Emerson's plastic one and put it on my Armstrong and it gave me the same problem *go figure lol*. It really looks like a rushed job on that head, it just looks sorta blocky and as if i tried to make one a shoved a piece of piping in it to make a tenon. I guess I'll be calling wwbw soon. But I guess I'm the one to blame for ordering instruments online :banghead:

Sorry for the rant :\

 

[atoriphile]

It looks like you got a dud (well, the plastic headjoint anyways). Don't worry much about it, since wwbw has a great return policy.

Have you tried the Woodwind piccolos? They are half the price, and I have heard others speak highly of them, though I've never tried them myself.

BTW, what's wrong with your Armstrong plastic picc? Why are you looking for a new piccolo?

 

[jvg89]

I surely did! But the people over at wwbw are INCREDIBLE. The costumer service reps. are so nice and actually want to help no doubt about that! She (the rep.) gave me three options, I can either

1 - Take the head joint to a shop and see if its something minor and they'll cover the cost so long as its not over $25.00.
2 - Ship it back and get a new one
3 - or re-emberst me $30.00 for the plastic head.

It's all good and dandy but you expect to get what you paid for and not a trip to the repair shop on something brand new. Regardless I'll talk it over with my mom and see what’s going to happen. It does play well and will do what I need it to do for marching season.

The reason why I'm getting a new one is because (I don't know how many people on here march or marched before) but marching band is really tough on instruments. They get wet, sweaty, it's just an over all harsh environment for instruments let alone these fragile piccolos! My Armstrong has marched two season and has been my concert horn too. It's just a LOT of wear and tear on the piccolo and about every month i had to take it to the shop for pads, or springs. So I figure - I’ll just save up the babysitting money and buy a piccolo specifically for marching band and use my Armstrong for concert. The Armstrong is a real blessing in my opinion. It's so easy to control each of the octaves on it and just wonderful. && yeah that’s my long reason lol

 

[Razzy]

Should've spent 20 dollars more and got the Powell Sonare piccolo from Kesslermusic.com. The response is amazing. Arrived in perfect condition with no need for repairs, also. Piccolo is perhaps my weakest instrument but this instrument makes me sound like I know what I'm doing and I can achieve a consistent third Bb when I'm out of practice on the thing. Hot-dog!!

 

[ving]

I started a thread a little bit ago, but it didn't take it looks like--

I bought one of those picc's that Bruce is referring to--for me it played better than the Yamaha and Jupiter piccs with metal heads as well as the Sonare; I felt more solid on the metal head than the plastic sonare, although the tone was bigger on the sonare. Whatever the case, I can actually play the JMicheal picc and it only set me back $170...

 

[jvg89]

That's a NICE piccolo that sonare. I wouldn't want to march with it though. With that headjoint it would go flying half way across the field with the types of sequences I send *lol* I'm pretty happy with how the emerson's played even though I've practiced with the armstrong headjoint. If my mom didn't open a credit card with wwbw i'd keep my armstrong for marching and use the sonar for concert season.

 

[bruce bailey]

Javi - since you are only about 30 miles from me, give me a call at 305-667-4925 and you can come down (near UM) and play about 6 different piccolos I have here. I have some for under $200 that play great and are adjusted. I can see you on the weekend afternoons if you want to avoid the traffffffic.

 

[jvg89]

Bruce that's very considerate of you, I really appreciate it! But my mom already opened a credit card with wwbw and she doesn't want to deal with whatever hassle she claims to be if I return the Emerson’s piccolo. So I’m pretty much stuck with the Emerson whether I like it or not. I wish I would have found this forum sooner; I can really kill myself right about now!
Thanks again though.

 

[jmartin]

FYI for your mom, I've returned many things at WWBW, never a hassle.

 

[danarsenault]

Thinking a little bit into your future...
I'm a doubler, and I need a pic that makes me sound the least embarrassingly bad with the least effort and money. I loathe playing the thing. So my choices were Yamaha YPC-62 or the bottom end Burkhart.

 

[jvg89]

Oh, wwbw is fantastic! I agree with you but the thing is that we opened a credit card with them, and she has been giving me sort of a hassle when I asked why don't we just cancel the credit card and take out money else where. But she said if she did that that it’s a slim chance that I'll get another piccolo. I guess it's because we can't just cough up $700 or what have you for an instrument. Either way, I'm going to ship back the Emerson and hope to God that the new piccolo they send back works. I give my thanks to everyone that has read and helped me out with this!! I think I'm going to stick around this forum :]

*Javi~

-remember this piccolo will be used for marching band and not a concert or solo setting, that is what my Armstrong is for kthanks

 

[eddierich]

Dan,
I'm having that same dilemma right now, but with an added option. There's either the Yamaha 62, Burkart Global, or the other option I've come up with is find a used 62 and buy a headjoint for it (Burkart, Drellinger, whatever). Sorry to hijack this thread, but any thoughts on that?

 

[bruce bailey]

That is a good reason to play the various items alongside each other BEFORE you put the money down. Although I make $1,500 piccolos in wood, the under $200 ones are really good for most players. The Emerson (and Gemeinhardt and all the Hardy piccolos) are a good choice but have become a bit overpriced.

 

[jmartin]

Oh, wwbw is fantastic! I agree with you but the thing is that we opened a credit card with them, and she has been giving me sort of a hassle when I asked why don't we just cancel the credit card and take out money else where. But she said if she did that that it';s a slim chance that I'll get another piccolo. I guess it's because we can't just cough up $700 or what have you for an instrument.

Another idea might be financing through kesslermusic.com. they have a credit card through some financing company, just like wwbw. Then you could check out some of kesslers pics.

 

[jvg89]

You are completely right Bruce, and I take this as a lesson learned. I don't think I'll ever make an investment on instruments online, for the simple fact that I can't test run the different piccolos. In your opinion and everyone else for that matter, is the emereson's brand in general a good choice?