Right, I have one of his older, two-piece High D fifes, with a thread wrapped tenon (folk fife style, but with cylinder bore), and I have one of his newer, two-piece High D flutes, with a cork wrapped tenon (professional style). The newer one is really nice, but it prefers smaller hands, for it ain’t all that big.
Here’s a pack of piccolos. 
Top to Bottom:
Old Aulos (No Longer Made) - Boehm style with cylinder body and taper head, pretty good player.
Yamaha - I’m not very impressed, but I never got used to the fingering.
Project (I’m sure it will sound wonderful when I finally get around to drilling the holes. 
)
Mark Hoza (Largest Bore Piccolo I’ve found with 12.8 mm in the head) Very nice tone, but you really have to kick it hard to get it up to the top of the 2nd.
Sweetheart Pro-Fife - Diminutive body for my fat fingers, but plays very nice once you get the hang of it. {On loan from Jim Stone}
Why not attack the Yamaha with a drill or file to change the F natural to an F#? The file would work best because you can then attack just the upper edge.
That wouldn’t work due to the fingering pattern of this flute. Yes, you could ream out the F to get an F#, but that would also sharpen the G, among other things.
Hmm… I have on of those white plastic Yamaha.
I think it cost me all of 2 bucks.
I thought it was icky and I tossed into the flute firewood box.
I’ll have to go look for it and give it another try.
At least the could have made it black.
It’s even easier to flatten the G back again, just a bit of wax on the upper edge of the G hole should do it. What other things were you thinking of?
Basically, the same F hole reamed out to get F# is the same hole G vents from, due to the fingering pattern of this flute, so what you are suggesting is to ream out a hole, and then fill that same hole back in.
I’d bet Yamaha took extra effort to get all of the holes just right, especially as this same design has been for sale for many years.
Not to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but this little flute does have its merits, oddball fingering excepted. And, should your flute get lost, stolen or broken, don’t worry, as not only do they cost small money, like, pocket money, but the next one you get should be a virtual duplicate, as Yamaha apparently hasn’t changed the design in many years.
Note the enlargement of the rh2 hole. Now it plays like a D+ tinwhistle. I do hate the reform lipplate, and the cork was too close so I moved it with significant force. Now it’s a good $8 piccolo.
The F nat (without thumb and pinky) is fingered XXXXoO
To expand the hole to get F# you would Get XXXX**OO
and G would be XXXOO**O I don’t know how much the extra venting would effect the G one hole back.
I should really try one of those things again…
Learning different fingering isn’t as challenging as it sounds once you get into the right mindset. I play the pennywhistle and irish flute left-handed and the silver flute and now this fife right-handed. I’m getting to the point where I can play the irish flute right-handed but not the pennywhistle.
About the lip plate, would the bumps be a problem if you played it like a modern flute rather than like an ITM player?
[quote=“Cork”]
Basically, the same F hole reamed out to get F# is the same hole G vents from, due to the fingering pattern of this flute, so what you are suggesting is to ream out a hole, and then fill that same hole back in.
I’d bet Yamaha took extra effort to get all of the holes just right, especially as this same design has been for sale for many years.[/quote]
No it’s not the same hole! Ream out the upper edge of the small B2 hole to lift the Fnat to F# then if G has gone a bit sharp wax the upper edge of the B1 hole to drop G back to correct pitch. You might even have a usable Fnat with T1,2,3 B1,3,4 or else T1,2,3 and half hole B1
Maybe Yamaha did make the holes “just right” for playing F nat with T1,2,3 B1 There’s no reason we can’t alter it to make it “just right” to play F# with that fingering.
T= Top hand (usually left)
B= Bottom hand (usually right)
Correction: … or else T1,2,3 B1 and half hole B2
I follow what you are saying about opening the upper edge of B2 to lift Fnat to F#, and, true, that could sharpen G. However, by filling in the upper edge of B1 to drop G back to correct pitch, it then appears that Fnat could be too sharp, and that T1,T2,T3/B1,hhB2 seems a likely alternative, not that such a thing could be hard to get along with.
So, it looks as though your proposed alteration could help to alter the fingering of this flute more toward traditional ITM fingering, at least on the right hand. There remains, however, the LH fingerings, and I don’t see any way out of the woods on that one, to more fully convert the flute to ITM fingering.
BTW, sorry about the delay. I haven’t had one of these things in more than ten years, and my memory of fingerings is more than rusty.
I think you’re right about the Fnat after modifying and that cross fingering will give a note a bit high, so half holing could be better.
There isn’t any problem with the top hand.
Compared to a whistle or normal flute
G is the same
A is the same
B is the same
C# is the same
Cnat is T1 only and thumb off which is different but maybe T 2,3 plus thumb would be close
Second octave is the same.
For D# G# A# the only difference is the fact that cross fingering supposedly works and as usual cross fingering is different in 2nd octave. But half holing notes should also work.
It was the thumb which raised my eyebrows in my earlier post, yet I now see how you see it. IMO, I’d go for leaving the thumb in place at all times, or maybe even blocking off the thumb hole, to then go with your T2,T3 plus thumb, or if the thumb hole were blocked off then just T2,T3. Blocking off the thumb hole might work out better for those with larger hands, on such a small flute, to allow for more alternatives on the LH grip, piper’s vs. classical, for instance. However, I’ve never been satisfied with 0XX 000 for Cnat* (as the usual fingering), and there I prefer 0X0 XX0 (and sometimes 0X0 XXX) for Cnat* in both octaves. So, perhaps something like that could work? *= as per D flute fingering
Did it ever just cross your minds to just leave well enough alone and just play the instrument as it is? Sometimes you folks overwhelm me.
Leaving it alone is certainly an option. I never suggested anyone ought to do this, just that it wouldn’t be hard to change the fingering to standard whistle/flute fingering if that’s what you wanted. And there were comments from people saying they didn’t want to use it because of the fingering. Personally I play several different instruments with similar but different fingerings, but will also alter something if it suits me.
Anyone know if these things can be pushed into the third octave past E?
Hey I.D.10-t,
SO YER WANTIN TO CRACK SOME CRYSTAL!
The Yamaha isn’t very good up high.
However the Sweet Pro-Fife plays up to the 3rd G (highest fingerings I know).
Seriously, when I play up that high one of the cats gets weird and starts meowing incessantly. Please don’t report me to PETA!