Don Rickert Musical Instruments

A Regular Fiddle with the Innovative Tailpiece-Chin Rest Combo

Introduction As part of Don Rickert Lutherie's search for the perfect chin rest for our backpacker fiddles and travel fiddles, particularly our 2-inch wide Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle, we found a unique accessory from the innovative Dov Schmidt, which combines the function of the tailpiece AND the chin rest. To our amazement, this Tailpiece-Chinrest Combo works extremely well, with NO noticeable detriment to the sound of an instrument and with excellent ergonomic properties (i.e. it is... Read more →

A Chin Rest for Fiddlers Who Do Not Use Chin Rests

In our very recent article, The Solution to the Chin Rest Problem on Backpacker Violins and Fiddles, I described Don Rickert Lutherie's quest for the solution to the chin rest problem with our backpacker and travel violins and fiddles. See that article for the details. The bottom line is that we have found a tailpiece-chin rest combo that is ideal for our backpacker and travel fiddles and that this accessory will also be of potential... Read more →

The Solution to the Chin Rest Problem on Backpacker Violins and Fiddles

Our continuous improvement efforts related to the Backpacker and Travel Fiddles by Don Rickert Lutherie (the Neil Gow 21C2 Travel Violin, the NEW Neil Gow 22C Travel Violin, Adventurer IId Travel Violin and Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle) has kept us on a relentless search for a truly usable chin rest solution. Customers who otherwise love these small, durable and sonorous instruments have been asking us for years to come up with a chin rest that is... Read more →

The Use of Tuned Porting in Modern Stringed Instruments

Tuned porting has been a crical aspect of audio system speaker enclosure design for many years. Only recently, has the idea of porting beyond what is provided by the sound holes, been considered in the design of musical instruments, paricularly stringed instruments, plucked as well as bowed. With stringed musical instruments, porting refers to strategically placing extra holes (in addition to the sound holes) to work magic with the apertue to air volume ratio of... Read more →

Pochettes, Backpacker Fiddles and Ergonomics: A Short Primer

What is a Pochette? A pochette was a violin-like instrument of the 17th and 18th Centuries that was small enough in girth to fit into a longish sheath sewn into one's coat. The sheath came to be known by the instrument's name: "pochette". This is where the modern English word "pocket" comes from. Pochettes were also known as "kits" or "kit fiddles", primarily in England and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland. The name "kit"... Read more →

Is it a Tailpiece or a Chin Rest? How About BOTH!

The Tailpiece-Chin Rest Combination from Dov Schmidt Dov Schmidt, himself a violinist and conductor, is also one of the most innovative suppliers and inventor of ground-breaking bowed string instrument accessories such as chin rests and tailpieces (http://www.dov-music.com/). We have begun using Dov Schmidt Harp-style tailpieces on a number of Don Rickert Lutherie instruments. These tailpieces achieve astounding d’ and g string response by increasing the length between the string and the tailpiece on the lower... Read more →