Piccolo bore

Irish Flute
1

No, that’s not someone who plays the piccolo at parties …

If anyone happens to have both a Boehm piccolo and a caliper handy, could you tell me the outside diameter (OD) and length of your head joint, as well as make and model? Measurements of several different instruments would be interesting.

Thank you!

2

Am I right in thinking that there are still a significant number of modern Bohm piccolos made with conoid bodies and cylinder heads rather than Bohm tubes? If so, you’d need that info so as not to get a false impression… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccolo). I think that (probably primarily for reasons of manufacturing facility) most wooden or wood-substitute ones retain the pre-Bohm bore, while all-metal ones are more likely to be Bohm tubes. It is easy enough to turn and ream a wood or plastic tube to either kind of bore, but a conoid metal body is a much harder proposition. I believe the retention of the old bore was to do with sweetness of tone and facility in the high register?

Whatever, I see plenty of illustrations of modern piccolos with wood or metal heads. I think you need to specify your survey parameters a bit more…

3

You’re right about the variants, Jem. But for my purposes I don’t really care for now. If the make and model are supplied along with the measurements, I’ll figure out the rest. Metal head though, and the diameter at the joint. A current band/orchestral instrument like a Yamaha YPC-32 or similar would be just dandy.

4

After a bit more research … I think the conical body piccolo - typically wood or resin (as Jem said) - with cylindrical metal head is most apt. Though the other “mini flute” design - cylindrical body, parabolic head - is also of interest.

I did find one head measurement online for an older Armstrong piccolo: 0.464" OD, or slightly less than 15/32".

Any others are most welcome.

5

I have two piccolos. All measurements are just eye-balling with a ruler:

YPC-61 (wood headjoint, conical wood body)
OD: just over 7/16" (11.5 mm)
Length: with crown about 4 13/16" (122 mm), without crown about 4 9/16" (166 mm)

YPC-31 (metal headjoint, conical plastic body)
OD: just over 7/16" (11.4 mm–same as the other)
Length: with crown about 4 12/16" (120 mm), without crown about 4 9/16" (116 mm).

Hope this helps!

Meaghan

6

Meaghan, you’re a jewel. Thank you so much. :slight_smile:

7

I don’t know if this is of any value but Terry McGee makes piccolos and he makes 2 bore sizes, 11mm and 12.5mm.
Of the 11 mm bore he says , " This is the “classical” piccolo bore dimension, offering response up to the upper third octave. It is modelled after an original by famous London makers, Rudall and Carte." Of the 12.5 mm bore he says, “This optimises response over the bottom two octaves, giving a much fuller lower octave. Ideal for Irish music and other folk tunes.”

8

Thanks, any info is welcome, and it’s good to know the older bores are in the same range. But it’s definitely a modern Boehm piccolo I’m looking into.