Conical and Cylindrical Bore There are two common designs of piccolo.  Those with a cylindrical tubing for their body and those with a conical tube.  The conical tube gets narrower towards the lower end and greatly improves the intonation on the piccolo.  Most professionals play on a wooden instrument which are always conical.  Student instruments are usually made from metal or resin, sometimes wood.  The resin and wood piccolos have conical bodies but until recently technology was not available to produce a cheap, conical, metal body and so most metal piccolos have a cylindrical tube with the associated disadvantages in tuning.  A method has now been developed to use pressurised water to form the body and drawn tone holes simultaneously and so student piccolos can now be made with a conical body.