Guys,
What do you think about the Selmer piccolo mentioned in the subject line? I have a colleague who bought one but when I tried it was rather badly surprised?
I am curious to have have other people's opinion. Myself, I do not own a piccolo but plan to purchase one form Rene Spada (music shop in Burgdorf, Switzerland; in my opinion they do an excellent job, and fact is that I play their bach customized trumpets, which to my ear sound so much better that the "normal" ones. Few years ago they made a piccolo trumpet
http://www.spada-music.ch/seiten/112_1.htm (as far as I know the first one was dedicated/ordered by the solo trumpeter of the Zurich Opera. Anyway, then I was amazed by the beautifull sound and easy tone production this horn had. It was very easy to hold it (much easier that the Touvron horn) with a feel near to the french besson (which I like very much: let me tell you a littel story - I went to have a lesson with James Watson in London and when took out the Besson which I hired from Spada for the occasion, he was very surprised, because he claimed that they are not produced anymore. As far as I know, Jim Watson and Maurice Murphy use such horns) but has a bigger sound. Its sounds to me like something between the Besson French and a Scherzer. Probably I would go for a Scherzer, if I was not embarrased by the rotary system which feels a bit heavy on the piccolo. I almost forgot - although it is optional, spada horn can have a trigger not only on the 3rd, but also on the 1st piston slide, which can be very usefull, as the top f sometimes (probably my playing is the reason because my trumpet teacher was doing fine without this 1st slide trigger) tends to get too sharp.