Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Authentic Early 20th Century Old-Time Fiddle Setup

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Note: Listed price is for the initial deposit, which includes includes gut string by one of several Master String Makers specializing in gut strings AND special offers on Master Bows. We will contact you about additional required work for the conversion, which is generally in the $200 - $300 range. What does a fiddle properly set up for early 20th Century playing sound like? (YouTube) Troy Parker on... Read more →

Authentic mid to late 19th Century Fiddle Setup (Civil War era and later)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Note: Listed price is for the initial deposit, which includes includes gut strings by one of several Master String Makers specializing in gut strings AND special offers on Master Bows . We will contact you about additional required work for the conversion, which is generally in the $200 - $300 range. We will retro-setup a violin of your choosing to a meticulously authentic mid to late-19th Century Fiddle.... Read more →

Authentic late 18th Century to Mid-19th Century Fiddle Setup

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Note: Listed price is for the initial deposit, which includes includes gut strings by one of several Master String Makers specializing in gut strings AND special offers on Master Bows . We will contact you about additional required work for the conversion, which is generally in the $200 - $300 range. Our Experience with Gut-Strung Fiddles We have many years of experience in the use of old-style pure... Read more →

Gut Fiddle Strings for Historic Period Retro-Setup

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Note: Listed Price is an average only. The price of the strings, which usually ranges from $85 to $120 is based on the unique string requirements for your instrument. We determine these string requirements during initial setup of your instrument. We use EXTREMELY high-quality strings, depending on the period setup you ask us to replicate. Stringing a fiddle for historic period authenticity can require everything from ALL old-style... Read more →

Don Rickert Musical Instruments Does Fiddle Retro-Setup to any Post-Baroque Period

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The violin goes back about 400 years. The Post-Baroque or Modern violin is about 250 years old. Many (actually most) Baroque Violins, such as those made by the well-known masters (Stradivari, Gaurneri, Amati…) were converted to Modern Violins, with their longer, angled-back necks, bridges more like the kind we use today and a post-Baroque tail piece. Most of the older Baroque violins have had their bass bars replaced... Read more →

Contact Information: Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Company Official Identifications: Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC (a Georgia Limited Liability Corporation) DBA Don Rickert Research & Design™ (www.DonRickertDesign.com) DBA Don Rickert Musical Instruments™ (www.RickertMusicalInstruments.com Online Store: Don Rickert Musician Shop (www.DonRickertMusicianShop.com) Blogs: Don Rickert Musical Instruments (www.RickertMusicalInstruments.com) (this site) Don Rickert Musician Shop: Latest News (www.DonRickertMuscianShop.com/blog) Facebook: Business Page: D. Rickert Musical Instruments (www.Facebook.com/DonRickertMusicianShop) Owner's Personal Page: Donald Rickert (www.Facebook.com/donald.rickert1) Address, Phone and Email: Don Rickert Musical Instruments D. Rickert Musical Instruments 726... Read more →

Why Wittner Fine-Tune Planetary Pegs are a Good Idea

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Many people have cold feet about installing internally-geared tuning pegs on their violins or fiddles. We think that it has to do with the fact that most of us envision a planetary-geared violin peg as heavy and "fake" looking. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are two makers of planetary pegs for violins and fiddles, PEGHEDS™ (also sold under the Knilling brand as "Perfection Pegs") and... Read more →

The Use of Tuned Porting in Modern Stringed Instruments

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Tuned porting has been a critical 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, particularly 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... Read more →

Reference Guides for Fiddlers

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. There are a number of low-cost and even free references that can be downloaded from the Adventurous Muse Store. FREE guide to using the "Circle of 5ths" to form modal chords (for fiddle, octave violin, 5-string fiddle and viola) available NOW: Link to Using the Circle of 5ths to Form Modal Chords FREE 5-String Fiddle and Viola Chord Charts available NOW: Link to Common Fiddle Chords for 5-String... Read more →

Solving the "how do you hold this thing" problem with historic pochettes

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. We sell an 18th type pochette (pocket fiddle) under the Neil Gow Pochette and Thomas Jefferson Pochette names, depending on the sales venue. This instrument is EXTREMELY popular, especially among our customer/friends in Japan. The original instruments on which our replica is based, as with all historic pochettes, are generally held with some variation of the "on-the-arm" or Baroque hold. Unless one is totally dedicated to Baroque-style playing,... Read more →