Don Rickert Musical Instruments

NEW YouTube Videos by Don Rickert Design (and Don Rickert Lutherie)

First, you might have noted that we are starting to use the name Don Rickert Design rather than Don Rickert Lutherie. The reason for this is that we are branching out from just designing and making stringed instruments. Lutherie only refers to the design, making, setup and repair of STRINGED instruments. We are also in the process of consolidating our various brands (Don Rickert Design, Old Mill Musical Instruments and Rickert-Fiddarci) under a single brand, Don Rickert Design(tm). Our Two Newest Videos (Three, if you count our potato cannon demonstration) are: Tail Toddle Rickert chord pad and drone box The great Scottish tune, Tail Toddle (scored as a Strathspey if played slowly and a reel if played fast) .The first new video we have posted in a while and one of the rare video demos with yours truly playing the fiddle...I generally enlist fiddlers he considers far better than me for demos. The main purpose here is to introduce the new Chord Pad and Drone Box from Don Rickert Design. Enjoy! Note: The fiddle tune, Tail Toddle, is actually the melody to one of Roberts Burns' more, shall we say, bawdy, songs. If you understood the Old Scots language (NOT Gaelic!), in which Burns wrote many of his songs, you would get the elaboration; however, the title pretty much implies what you need to know :-) Click here for the lyrics (WARNING: Extremely vulgar!...I don't want any complaints, as you were warned). Needless to say, the Old "Kirk" (Church of... Read more →

Lyrics to Tail Toddle (Robert Burns, 1799)

...Tail toddle, tail toddle ...Tammie gars my tail toddle ...But an' ben wi' diddle doddle, ...Tammie gars my tail toddle. When I'm deid I'm oot o' date When I'm seik I'm fu' o' trouble When I'm weel I stap aboot An' Tammie gars my tail toddle. Jessie Rack she gied a plack Helen Wallace gied a boddle Quo' the bride, " It's ower kittle For to mend a broken doddle." Oor guid-wife held ower to Fife For to buy a coal riddle Lang or she cam' back again O Tammie gart my tail toddle. ************************* Translation to modern English: Tail: a tail is the female pudenda (human external genital organs collectively, especially of a female...specifically refers to the vulva in slang). Toddle: toddling is the motion backward and forward. Tail toddle, tail toddle, Tammy gars (1) my tail toddle, But and ben (2) and diddle-doddle (3) Tammy gars my tail toddle. Jessie Lack she gi'ed a plack (4) Helen Wallace gi'ed a bottle Quoth (5) the bride, "It's ower-little (6) For to mend a broken dottle (7) Oor guid-wife (8) went o'wer to Fiffe, Just to buy a coal-riddle. Lang e'er she'd come back again, Tammy'd gar'd my tail toddle 1 Makes 2 Up and down 3 To wag from side to side with great energy 4 A copper coin worth one third of a penny – possibly a plack-pie – a pie costing a plack. 5 Said 6 Very little 7 Plug, stopper - probably a euphemism for a... Read more →

Guest Appearance by Dr. Don Rickert at GA Tech Guitar Design Studio Course

I recently had the privilege of being invited to review and comment on outstanding electric guitar design work by students in a GA Tech studio course on electric guitar design, taught by Sam Harris, IDSA, Adjunct Faculty Member and also President of Form and Function, Inc. The web site for Sam's Industrial Design/Product Development firm, Form and Function, is www.f-square.com/. This studio course, ID 3011 INTERMEDIATE DESIGN I, is the first of several in-depth courses on the ENTIRE design process required of all Industrial Design students at the Georgia Institute of Technology (better known as GA Tech). Various product development domains are utilized in order to ground the essential theoretical aspects of design in real world design research, product design, manufacturing, and so forth. This instance of ID 3011 used electric guitar design, specifically re-design of the Fender Guitar, as the real world bed rock. My friend and colleague, Prof. Samuel Harris, IDSA, has forgotten more about guitars in general, as well as specific models and their minute unique features, than most of us will ever know in our lifetimes. His deep lutherie knowledge goes back to the early days of American guitar design (C.F. Martin) and beyond!...and he is an awesome teacher...wish that I had been so lucky as a young student. Had I done my homework, I would have known that this was an undergraduate course. Based on the professional demeanor, design and prototyping skills of the students, I thought that I was critiquing students in the Industrial... Read more →