Some piccolo help please...

[waltsweet]

Steve,
I note you've said the slides are frozen. And they're pushed all the way in.
This is not the usual playing position: A piccolo with a metal tuning slide is meant to be adjust a little sharper or a little flatter. To do so, the basic scale is designed with the slide pulled out, maybe 3/8".
Maybe the piccolo will play a D scale then.

Also, when an instrument is called a piccolo, it's a band instrument intended to play flourishes into the third octave, and not much in the 1st. A couple of the antique piccolos here have a very small bore, close to 3/8". At Sweetheart, we made the little "D Fife" which was better suited to playing in the 1st two octaves, in the way that many people play the Irish flute. The 1/2" bore was right for this application.

I have here a 6-key antique piccolo. The barrel is completely split, and the picc needs all the repairs you described. Do you need to trade?

Walt

[fatmac]

I must disagree with your assessment of piccolo & fife.

A piccolo is an orchestral instrument one octave higher than the orchestral flute, played in the first 2 octaves mainly, whilst a fife is/was a military instrument, played to be heard from a big distance, & was mainly played in the second & third octaves.

[waltsweet]

Right, Keith.
One day, I was talking to Dad about his HiD instrument, and his use of the term "fife". We were players of Bb fifes in the drumcorps, in the 2nd and 3rd octaves (not the 1st), belting-out the tunes above the drums and crowd noise. He chose "fife" because it was a 6-hole instrument without keys. At first, the bore was straight but then we went to a taper in the body for better tuning. Given a basic bore of 1/2", the instrument was suitable for playing not into the 3rd octave, but in the first two. It was really a "High Flute," a term that I used later. For years, I played the traditional repertoire on it, rather than on the traditional flute. I've seen instruments like Steve's, fully keyed, but most have a very small bore which does not favor the 1st octave. Jem's HiD is a wonderful little instrument by any name.
Walt

[Steve Bliven]

The piccolo/fife/high flute semantics aside, what I was looking for was a transverse instrument that is the equivalent of the typical high d whistle. Jem's instrument fits this category and I now have one in my possession.

The other beastie, about which I originally asked for help, is pretty clearly an Eb instrument with a tapered bore (.04 inches at upper end of body, .0285 inches at outer end of the instrument). There is a tuning slide but it remains frozen in place, despite several treatments with a heated rod (I'll keep trying once the weather allows more use of the outdoor grill). The keys are off, although the posts remain in place and the key holes (I'm sure there's a better technical term for these) are plugged with sticky wax. So it's playable, even if somewhat off any key known to the western musical world. The embouchure is tiny so it's good for practice. I'd like to get it back to playing condition but it's not high on my priority list and some of the more skill-necessary aspects may need to be outsourced. And, even if functional, I see limited use for the type of music I play (or at least play at). But I got it for cheap so, as a learning experience, it ain't all that bad.

Best wishes.

Steve