Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Tattooed Fiddles by Don Rickert Design

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Do you want a "full body suit"...not on you, but for your violin or fiddle? We have not figured out fiddle body piercing yet, but we are working on it. Read on... The decoration of musical instruments has been done for hundreds of years. Such decoration has included inlay work of various types, painting, etching, carving, application of gold leaf and "rosing", the Norwegian nickname for "rosemaling", which... Read more →

Tatooed Violins and Fiddles (New Photo Albums)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Don Rickert Lutherie is gearing up to offer custom "tatooing", more properly called "rosing" or inkwork decoration for a number of our musical instruments. This service will be available via our Adventurous Muse Store. We will have a proper article about what we are doing and the history behind it in the next few days. In the mean time, you may enjoy taking a look at four new... Read more →

Banjo in Irish Traditional Music: Part 2 UPDATE (The Tenor Banjo)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The Mythology of the "Irish Tenor Banjo: According to none other than the acknowledged expert on Irish Banjo, Dr. Mick Maloney ( see The Banjo: A Short History by Mick Maloney), in the 15 or 20 years prior to the introduction of the Tenor Banjo, many banjo players, including Irish players, used either a 5-string banjo with the 5th string removed or its commercialized form, the Plectrum Banjo.... Read more →

So You Think You Know About the Banjo In Irish Traditional Music?: Part 2

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The Second Myth: There is Special Type of Tenor Banjo Called the "Irish Tenor Banjo" It is a common belief that the Irish Tenor Banjo (4 strings, tuned in 5ths) is somehow different from a Tenor Banjo, which was introduced around 1915 in America and was also known as the "Tango Banjo". The tenor banjo generally had 19 frets; however, shorter 17-fret necks were available. According to none... Read more →

So You Think You Know about the Banjo in Irish Traditional Music?: Part 1

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. There are many myths about the banjo in traditional Irish music. It is commonly believed that a special type of tenor banjo (a 17 fret, 4-string banjo tuned in 5ths to G d a e' ), called the "Irish Tenor Banjo", has been part of Traditional Irish Music since at least the 19th Century. There are several myths implied by this notion. The First Myth: The idea that... Read more →

Why the F-Type Mandolin Dominates Bluegrass - Flatirons Dominate Celtic (UPDATE)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Have you ever seen a Bluegrass mandolin player playing anything but an F-Type or a Celtic player ever playing an F-Type (the photo with the scroll on the left). There are reasons. Read on… Musicians in just about every genre except Bluegrass, including Old-Time (lots of F-Styles and A-Styles are used in Old-Time as well) favor “flatiron” or “pancake” type mandolins. “Pancake”-type mandolins, such as those made by... Read more →

A Brief History of Flatiron-Type Mandolins (UPDATE)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Flat-Top Flatiron-Style Mandolin by Don Rickert Design (now Don Rickert Lutherie) and available from the Adventurous Muse Store is of the general type known as either "pancake" or "flariron". It has that mellow, yet still loud and powerful sound sought by Celtic (both Irish and Scottish) players, as well as many Old-Time mandolin players. The ancestor of the Flatiron was a mandolin made by Gibson during the WWI... Read more →

The Most State-of-the-Art Banjo in the World (in the 1870s)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. In the 19th Century, all three of the banjo types listed below were being played, but the tackhead banjo became more popular than the gourd banjo. The tackhead was probably the most popular among Civil War soldiers; therefore a favorite of re-enactors. Tackhead banjos could made in camp and were light in weight. The more state-of-the-art Minstrel Banjo, introduced in the early 1800s, had tensioning hardware (i.e. brackets)... Read more →

Gourd, Tackhead and Minstrel Banjos: Clearing Things Up (Maybe?)

When people talk about the old-style banjos, they often use the terms gourd banjo, tackhead banjo and minstrel banjo as if they are synonymous. Hopefully, this post will clear matters up a bit. There are a number of photo thumnails in this article. Click on them for larger views. First Things First: Where was the banjo invented and by whom? There is a lot of discussion of whether the banjo was invented in Africa or... Read more →

The William Sidney Mount Historic 1852 “Cradle of Harmony” Violin

The 1852 guitar shaped version of the "Cradle of Harmony" violin by American artist and inventor, William Sidney Mount, is very significant to Don Rickert Lutherie. The shape, bent-plate convex top and bent concave back of this unique violin became important design elements in our first product offerings (then under the name Rickert & Ringholz), our octave violins (also known as baritone violins or fiddles). We now have two versions, each with its own distinct... Read more →