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 is the tattoo-like inkwork one sees on Hardanger Fiddles. Some Historic and Recent Examples Giovanni Paolo Maggini (c. 1580 - c. 1630), while making violins without special decoration, is best best known for his later instruments that two rows of purfling on the top and back. Many of Maggini's instruments are ornamented on the back with decorations such as Saint Andrew's Cross, clover leaves, crests and other motifs. His most famous decorations are designs accomplished by extending the inner of the two purfling rows onto the backs of the instruments to form various designs, as illustrated. You can see more Maggini designs, as well as other historic and recent decorated violins and fiddles in our photo gallery: Historic and New Rosed and Inlaid Instruments Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) is not generally known for elaborate violin decoration. He did, however, produce a number of instruments with complex and beautiful decorations. Many of Strad's decorations look like inkwork, but they are, in fact, inlays. The photo of a quartet of inlaid instruments shows some of Stradivari's... 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 photo albums on our Facebook site. The New Albums to Check Out Historic and New Rosed and Inlaid Instruments Old Hardanger Fiddle with Elaborate Rosing (Inkwork) Rickert Pochette with Celtic Rosing (Inkwork) Don Rickert Tattooed Fiddles 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. At some point early on, tuning these former 5-string banjos or Plectrum banjos in 5ths became common practice for melodic playing, regardless of the nationality of the player. See and hear Mick Maloney play tenor banjo with two fiddles and guitar The Tenor Banjo in Irish Traditional Music From About 1915 to the 1960s During this period, tenor banjos used in Irish Traditional music were generally tuned to the standard c g d' a' tenor banjo tuning (exactly like a viola, a 5th lower than the fiddle) or d a e' b', the later of which could also be accomplished by a capo on the second fret. The point is that tenor banjos in Irish Traditional music were tuned much higher than what one is accustomed to today. The 1960s and Later According to Mick Maloney, it was the popularity of the traditional music group, the Dubliners, that ultimately led to the different "Irish" tuning (G d a e') for tenor banjos, which is an octave lower than the fiddle. Barney McKenna, the tenor 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 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. At some point early on, tuning these former 5-string banjos or Plectrum banjos in 5ths became common practice for melodic playing, regardless of the nationality of the player. See and hear Mick Maloney play tenor banjo with two fiddles and guitar The Tenor Banjo in Irish Traditional Music From About 1915 to the 1960s During this period, tenor banjos used in Irish Traditional music were generally tuned to the standard c g d' a' tenor banjo tuning (exactly like a viola, a 5th lower than the fiddle) or d a e' b', the later of which could also be accomplished by a capo on the second fret. The point is that tenor banjos in Irish Traditional music... 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 a tenor banjo, "Irish" or otherwise, has always been part of Irish traditional music could not be further from reality. It was most likely the American Minstrel Banjo, introduced to Ireland and England in the 1840s, that was first adopted for use in Irish Traditional music. The Minstrel Banjo, the fretless precursor of the modern 5-string banjo, had evolved from the early gourd banjos (originally with 4 strings) invented by Black slaves centuries earlier in America, inspired by, but not copied from, similar instruments in Africa. Most banjo historians agree that what we know as the banjo was invented in America, by descendants of Africans (i.e. slaves). This is but one of a multitude of inventions by African Americans. The fretless Minstrel Banjos were probably used mostly for simple accompaniment in Irish Traditional Music. Upon the introduction of the modern fretted banjo in the late 1870s by Dobson (a famous banjo manufacturer), this newer type of banjo became the type of banjo used in Irish Traditional Music. The simple Minstrel style of playing evolved into... 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 Weber and the Flat-Top Flatiron-Style Mandolin by Don Rickert Design (now Don Rickert Lutherie) and sold through Adventurous Muse stores, are particularly suited for more traditional forms of music than Bluegrass. “Pancake” mandolins are particularly well-suited and popular Celtic music, especially Irish. In fact, Flatirons and similar mandolins are often called “Celtic Mandolins” or Irish Mandolins. The “pancake” mandolin sound is not the dominating, cut-through sound desired by Bill Monroe, as he was trying to do no less than supplant the dominance of the fiddle as the lead melody instrument. Lloyd Loar, then with Gibson, designed that instrument Bill Monroe was looking for, which we now call the "F-type" body style. Monroe was a fretted instrument player through and through, in fact, a jazz guitarist, before re-inventing himself as the archetype of the Bluegrass mandolin player (With a different musical background, he may have been a fiddler). Thousands of players after him, to this day, strive to master Monroe’s jazz-infused mandolin style, the best of them evolving their own style as they develop as players.... 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 years, known as the Army-Navy (or simply A-N) mandolin. A soldier or sailor could purchase one for $12 and the general public paid $15. This was considerably less than the A1, which sold for about $50, the A4 about $80, F2 about $100 and F4 about $125. The F5 (the original Lloyd Loar model that Bill Monroe played during most of his career in Bluegrass) came out in 1922 for $250, which was a lot of money back then. The A-Ns were durable instruments made to withstand the rigors of trench warfare and the sounded pretty good, to boot. They were suitable, and indeed used, to play all genres of music. The World War I Gibson Army-Navy models became the basic design for the late Flatiron "pancake" mandolins later built in Bozeman MT during the period when Flatiron was an independent manufacturer, and later when Gibson bought Flatiron. Gibson Flatiron mandolins were made well into the 1980s, after which they were owned by Weber Mandolins for a period of time extending into the 1990s. The... 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) and are the precursor to the modern banjo. They were a more expensive instrument played by professional musicians or amateurs with some money to spend for a "store-bought" banjo. These precursors to the modern banjo generally DID NOT have frets. If they did, they were more likely to be tied gut (like a lute or viola da gamba) rather than inset metal frets. From left to right, a Gourd Banjo, a Tackhead Banjo and a Minstrel Banjo, all made by Master Banjo Maker, Jeff Menzies Here are some really nice recordings of a gourd banjo (played by Jeff Menzies) and a tackhead banjo (played by Donald Zepp): Cuttin at the Point Jeff Menzie Wendy Robinson Travis McCauley Year of Julilo tackhead Donald Zepp The Early Modern Banjos of the 19th Century In the second half of the 19th Century there began to appear factory-made early versions of modern banjos with metal frets. Many of these new banjos had spun aluminum (a very expensive commodity at the time) pots. We have some actual photos of one... 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 the Americas. The answer is kind of both places. The American banjo was invented by African slaves, using similar African instruments as design inspiration. The banjo as we know it was invented in America. It is but one of the 1000s of inventions by innovators of African descent, but that is another very large and important topic. Gourd Banjos The gourd banjo is the earliest form of what we now know as the banjo, with direct ancestral roots to Africa, where similar instruments were made and played. It is well-established that it was the African slaves in America who invented the gourd banjo and defined the early playing styles on this significant musical instrument in American history. The gourd banjo pre-dates the tackhead and minstrel banjos by at least a century. The gourd banjo, and its descendents, the tackhead and minstrel banjos, ultimately became a primary fixture in Appalachian folk music, which evolved into what we now call “Old-Time” or “Roots” music, a distinctly American blend of African and Scots-Irish music. The distinctive "lilt" to... 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 sound: Octave Violin, Rickert-Fiddarci, Darci Jones Model Octave Violin, Rickert-Fiddarci, W.S. Mount Model In the 1840s, the artist, inventor and musician, William Sidney Mount, invented a new type of violin. He received a U.S. Patent in 1852. The violins came in both a trapezoidal and a 'guitar-shaped' form. Both types, instead of having a carved top and back, utilized bent flat plates, the top being convex and the back concave. For this reason, Mount's instruments are sometimes called "hollow-back" violins. There were other differences from regular violins, such as the reverse sound holes on the guitar-shaped version of his instrument. An interesting note is that Mount wrote quite a few fiddle tunes, familiar to Old-Time fiddlers in the Northeast of the U.S. This genre is often called “Down East” style. One of his most famous tunes is ‘Shep Jones' Hornpipe’...the owner of Fiddarci Lutherie, which builds our octave violins under contract, is also named Shep Jones...it kind of gave us goose bumps. Mount's painting, 'Dance of the Haymakers' used Mount's friend Shep Jones' barn as... Read more →