Okay so ive been playin flute for 4 years and last year for my birthday my step dad bought me a weimar piccolo off of ebay. I havent played it much though but this marching season I have to. Is this a reliable brand? It seems when I play it the higher octave is extremely out of tune. I dont know if its me or the piccolo because I have read bad reviews on this brand. What are your opinions? I really need help! Should I look into buying a new piccolo or not? Thanks a million in advance!

Weimar is not exactly a preferred brand of instrument. Most of the off-brands like this are Asian made. That's not necessarily bad (Yamaha is Asian made and VERY well respected), but there is a wide variation in quality from many of these manufacturers. So, it might be OK, or it could be junk. If you study privately, you might ask your teacher to check it over.

If the only problem is that the upper notes are out of tune, the headjoint cork might not be positioned correctly. Did the piccolo come with a cleaning rod? If so, it should have a line around the handle-end of the rod. If you stick that into the headjoint tube and look into the embouchure hole, the line should be centered in the hole. If it's not, that can cause the piccolo to play out of tune on the high notes. Look at the headjoint as you would normally play it. If the line is too far right, turning the crown clockwise will cause the cork to move left. If the line is too far left, turn the crown counterclockwise a turn and then push the crown to move the cork to the right. If that's not clear, or if the crown or cork won't easily move, you should get a flute repair technician to help you get it set correctly.

Thanks so much! Im at band camp this week & next so I'm having a guy that has been playin the flute a very long time look at it for me. It wasn't aligned correctly either so he said he would help me with that as well. Thanks again for your advice. I really appreciate it.

Your welcome and Good luck. Let us know how it works out for you.

Oh I definately will! He said he would look at it Monday so I will get on after band camp and give the details.

Sorry it took so long to give you the updates! He looked at my piccolo and helped wit the tuning rod and listened to me play and said that my piccolo is perfectly fine. Thanks again for all ur help.

I wouldnt recommend buying one, but since you already have it, I would say play it until it dies, LOL

once it breaks, it would probably be wise just to get a new one, it probably wotn be worth the money to fix it.

Yeah. That's wat im gonna do. Im only a junior in highschool so I really dnt need the best piccolo in the world right now anyways.