Don Rickert Musical Instruments

How to Assemble a Take-Apart Bow (Photo Essay)

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Kira and Her Adventurer IId Travel Violin Save the Day at the Abbey in Conques

Before Our Story, A Little Bit About the 1,000 Year-Old Sainte-Foy Abbey Church The Sainte-Foy Abbey (of the Benedictine Order) Church in Conques, France (the Southern part of France) was a popular stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. Its construction began sometime in the 1020s and was completed almost a hundred years later in 1120. The original dome later collapsed and was replaced in the 15th century. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Saint Foy, a martyred young woman from the 4th Century. In the late 9th Century, a monk from Conques allegedly stole these relics of Saint Foy from a nearby monastery in order to draw travellers (and...um...wealth) to Conques. You never know what to expect from those Benedictine "wild men" when they cut loose... :-) Note to monastic history novices: the mental image of a Benedictine Monk stealing a corpse is so out of character with the ultra-strict Benedictine stereotype as to be almost humourous. The Benedictines make the Franciscan's look like playboys by comparison. The Abbey Church that was eventually built served a dual purpose: to accommodate the steady traffic of pilgrims, while at the same time serving as place for the community of Benedictine Monks to gather for devotional obligations seven times a day. Owing to its twofold purpose, Sainte-Foy's layout is a hybrid of a prilgrim shrine and an Abbey Church. For the non-monastic town residents, a smaller parish church,... Read more →

The Violin Tail Gut: What Goes Around Comes Around (Part 3)

Introduction We ended Part 2 of this article with commentary of the difficulty of installing a Kevlar tail cord. This final part delves into how its done and touches on the matter of whether or not it is worth the trouble. Removing the Tailpiece First, "tie-off" the strings so that they do not unravel on the pegs when loosened. We use a piece of leather boot lace, as shown in the following photos. Remove the tailpiece...in this case the tailpiece is a Wittner polycarbonate with built-in fine tuners, but the idea is the same for any tailpiece. Remove the existing tail gut from the tailpiece. Now the "fun" part: tying the knots. The following photos illustrate the knotting process with a regular piece of twine in order to make the details more visually clear. Once the second overhand knot is tied, the cord is pulled so that the two knots come together. Now let's see it done with a real Kevlar tail cord on the actual tailpiece Re-installing the tailpiece with the new Kevlar tail cord This process will have to be repeated a number of times until you have the desired adjustment. Untying and re-tying the tail cord is fairly difficult and extremely boring, to be frank. Remove the leather tie-off strip and bring the strings up to full tension. As the two knots on the tailgut become virtually one, the tailpiece will probably be too close to the bridge. Repeat the whole process of removing the tailpiece and... Read more →

The Violin Tail Gut: What Goes Around Comes Around (Part 2)

Introduction If you read Part 1 of this article, you would know that what we call the "tail gut" secures the violin tailpiece to the end pin (a.k.a. tail button). Part 1 ended with the assertion that the tail gut is more important than most musicians realize. Assuming a properly set-up violin or fiddle of at least moderate quality with decent strings and a good bow, NOTHING enhances (or diminishes) the sonority of a violin or fiddle than the adjustment of the tail gut and the material from which the tail gut is made! A luthier rarely sees a traditional fiddle with a properly-adjusted tail gut. Generally, only violins and serious fiddlers who have routine maintenance done on their instruments have a properly-adjusted tail gut. We will get into what "properly-adjusted" really means later. A Brief History of the Violin Tail Gut Violin tail guts have not been made of "cat gut" (actually twisted strips of sheep intestine, just like "cat gut" violin strings) for a long time. The term "cat gut" was actually a joke (probably British); however, the joke status was lost over time...today, the average person believes that cats are actually butchered to make gut violin strings. It is actually sheep that are butchered, if that provides any peace-of-mind. Tail guts of twine saturated with varnish or resin were also used; however, genuine gut continued to be favored. Tail guts, regardless of their composition, were tied to the tailpieces of Baroque and Modern violins for centuries, as... Read more →

The Violin Tail Gut: What Goes Around Comes Around (Part 1)

Introduction Innovations the realm of musical instruments, as with all other areas of invention, are often inspired by very old ways of doing things. It may be the materials used or it could be a variation of implementation that takes into account other discoveries subsequent to the original invention that transforms the old invention into something completely new. In the world of Intellectual Property (i.e. Patents), many patents are for improvements upon old inventions rather than completely new inventions. Take the case of some of the octave (baritone) violins and fiddles by Don Rickert Lutherie. Several of our octave violins are inspired by a U.S. Patent obtained in 1852 by the Artist and Inventor, William Sidney Mount. Mount had the idea that a violin with a top of flat spruce with a convex (outward) bend and and back of CONCAVE (inward) bent maple, rather than either the top or back having traditional carved arching, would be much more sonorous (and extremely loud) than a traditional violin. Due to the concave backs of these unique violins, they are sometimes called "hollow back" violins. There were problems with Mount's instruments arising from use of a mid-19th Century bass bar and lousy glue (by today's standards). Further, the bent top and back plates required ribs (sides) and linings (the wood strips glued to the edges of the ribs to provide a larger gluing surface for the top and back) with extremely complex curves and beveling. Glue failure was the ultimate result and only... Read more →