Don Rickert a Finalist in the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition

The 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition is sponsored by the Georgia Teach Center for Music Technology. With his entry, an Electro-mechanically Augmented Acoustic Violin (EAAV) Don Rickert of Don Rickert Musical Instruments has been selected as a FINALIST in the "Augmented" category of the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition . The finals, involving actual live performance, will be Feb. 16-17. Dr. Rickert's Electro-mechanically Augmented Acoustic Violin (EAAV) bridges the gaps between acoustic violins and electric as well as MIDI violins. The violin has a completely orginal "floating bridge" that sits on a "shelf" that is an extension of the fingerboard. This "floating bridge"-"shelf" arrangement, in which the bridge does not come into contact with the instrument soundboard, has been dubbed by Rickert as a "Cantilevered Fingerboard." The entire neck, fingerboard and bridge assembly is as acoustically separate from the body as is practical. Multiple input transducers pick up as much as playing as possible. The inputs from the various transducers are put through a mixer, which is used to adjust the levels from the various tranducers. The output from the mixer is processed by a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) running on an iPod Touch. The output from the iPod goes to an on-board miniature stereo amplifier. The amplifier drives output transducers attached to two sound-plates composed of soft aluminum and a veneer of maple. This instrument can be made to sound like an antique classical violin, a cello, and various electronic effects can be applied via the DAW.... Read more →