Hello everybody

My 12 year old son plays the flute and has just won an audition for the National Institute of Music of Costa Rica for level eight players, that allowed him to be included in the Intermediate Symphonic Band (sorry, I just had to say it because I’m sooooo proud!! .. haha).
When they realized that the kid also plays the piccolo they went crazy, since they had no piccolist even though they have seven flutists, including my son.
They weren’t expecting to have another piccolist in the Institute so all the available piccolos are now already taken and my son’s instrument is a very noisy “marching band” screamer, completely inappropriate for these level of playing.
Ok, I think you guess what’s next … Daddy comes to the rescue!!!
I want to buy a decent piccolo for him, but they’re really expensive for my actual budget, especially because I just bought him a new Jupiter 1011 flute.
Exploring different options I came into these Vento piccolos at a very low price. I tried to find any opinions or reviews on them but only found two, both of them very positive, but I’m still not sure.
I wonder if any of you knows something about these instruments, and could help me decide or can suggest another option.
Please tell me something because I’m in a real hurry.
Thank you very much

Marco

Because you haven't told us the brand/model of his current piccolo, we have no way of deciding whether a "Vento" will be better. Please note that this is a Chinese maker and likely not as good as typical piccolos at the same level by Yamaha, Gemeinhardt, and Emerson.

Do not believe the hype of the amazon.com descriptions or reviews -- or other retailers' descriptions.

Here is a used Gemeinhardt that could meet your needs and price range:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grenadilla-Wooden-Piccolo-Gemeinhardt-model-4W-/321092138551?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac2953637

You might also want to look at the Pearl grenaditte models.

Thank you very much for your answer

The truth is that my son's actual instrument is a Cecilio that he bought with his own money, just for fun at first. But his playing level for both instruments, piccolo and flute is improving so fast I think it was just a matter of days for him to new piccolo, just as it happened with the flute.
I hadn’t checked on Amazon, so the only opinions I found were published in allaboutflutes.com and the other was in a flute forum, but I can’t remember where it was.
About that used instrument it sounds pretty good, but I’d never bought any used instrument, so it makes me a little nervous (maybe because in this country used usually means broken!).
I think that Pearl is a very attractive option.

Thanks again

Marco

I have never heard of Vento, and personally a good tip for knowing a good quality instrument is googling it and seeing if it has its own website. Flutes like Cecilio, Venus, Mendini, etc don't have their own website,and are all off brand pieces of crap. I would definitely go for the Pearl, they are fantastic, I play one myself. Also plastic Gemeindhartds, Jupiters, or Armstrongs are decent.

Maybe one of the best options, besides Pearl, would be the plastic Jupiter, anyway, we already have a 1011 and are very pleased with it.

Thank you

Marco

I'm not sure if this is out of your budget range, but Emerson Boston legacy piccolos and Resona (also called Global) by Burkart piccolos are FANTASTIC instruments for about half the price as a standard professional picc. I play on a Resona with a wave headjoint, and I absolutely love it. Each of those brands tend to be around $2,000 or so, but it's possible to find a used one for cheaper. And keep in mind that the older the wood, the better the sound (so long as it doesn't crack), so getting a used piccolo can sometimes be the smarter option, provided the mechanism doesn't have any defects and the pads are still good.

Thank you very much!!!