Don Rickert Musical Instruments

The Truth About the Current State of the Custom Musical Instrument Business

Introduction The image is not a new musical instrument but a faucet. If you continue you will understand I make my living making very good custom musical instruments, including: Violoncellos da Spalla Octave Violins Travel Violins Octave Mandolins Citterns Mandocellos I would very much like to sell you one. If you are reading this, you can easily figure out how to contact me (706-896-0909; [email protected]). Now, I’ll cut to the chase – Very few people are buying custom musical instruments these days. It is even worse than the worldwide financial crisis of 2007-2008. Well, maybe not worse, but just as bad. Very few makers of custom hand-built musical instruments will admit publicly that the current state of affairs is really dire, which is a polite way of saying that it sucks! Why? — because it is generally not a good marketing strategy to say out loud that business is challenging and things like you might lose your home to foreclosure and the like. The “Market” could not care less. Well, the truth is the truth! For me, the time of daunting backlog queues is a thing of the past. Since Q3 2021 it has been quite the opposite. You do not see economists on National News programs talking about any of this, as small businesses that make bespoke goods are, quite simply, a tiny segment of the overall economy. Since you will not be hearing from economists on the current dire situation for custom luthiers, I will tell you what... Read more →

Back in the Saddle Again! (And the Economics of Attention)

First, thank you for your valuable attention. This will make sense if I can hold on to your attention for a few more minutes. In the words of Aerosmith: I'm back I'm back in the saddle again I'm back I'm back in the saddle again Man, nobody can screech our lyrics like the great Steven Tyler! Gene Autry expressed the same sentiment in his song of the same title, written in 1939 and recorded numerous times by him and widely covered. If you have to ask, it means doing something that you stopped doing for a period of time. I stopped building instruments for a while. Here is why. After the passing of my Partner and Soulmate Alycen in August of 2021, I took a long hiatus from seeking new instrument build commissions. During a period of several months after her death I caught up on a distressing backlog of instrument builds, all of them violoncellos da spalla and a custom leather case for a violoncello da spalla. I also pretty much ignored doing frequent updates to my blogs and other social media, and boy, am I paying for that now! I have been posting lots of articles the past few weeks. I have regained “first page” status on Google searches for anything remotely related to “Violoncello da Spalla.” We have a long way to go with getting the word out on my octave violins, travel violins and such. And the market for mandolins is so large, that it could... Read more →