Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Don Rickert Musician Shop: Your Source for Unique Bowed and Fretted Instruments and Accessories Ranging from Baroque Period to Today’s Cutting Edge

Don Rickert Musician Shop (D. Rickert Musical Instruments): Your Source for Unique Bowed and Fretted Instruments and Accessories Ranging from Baroque Period to Today’s Cutting Edge Introduction It is quite clear that we are the place to come for the unique stuff…things you just cannot get at either the corner music store, traditional violin shops or the online mega-stores. What are these things that musicians, and the occasional museum, come to us for? Over the... Read more →

Don Rickert Musician Shop is Unique: Part 2 (Every Sale a Consulting Engagement)

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. For Don Rickert Musician Shop (D. Rickert Musical Instruments), every sale of a premium instrument is a consulting engagement, focused getting the setup exactly right. Part of the purchase of a new violin is customer specification of stringing and accessories appropriate for one of a number of historic periods, ranging from contemporary all the way back to the late 1700s. Consultation with us about correct setup for specific... Read more →

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 →

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 →

Authentic Cases for 19th Century Musical Instruments

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The type of case usually used for fiddles and guitars of the mid-19th century is often called a "coffin" case, owing to its resemblance to a coffin. Coffin cases were sometimes used for banjos as well. Here are some examples of some actual cases for period guitars and a pretty worn out fiddle case. Shown below is a design diagram for the coffin cases that we will be... Read more →

American Civil War Re-enactor Musicians and Their Instruments

About Re-enacting Recreating every detail of the military aspects of the American Civil War (early to mid 1860s) is more than just a pastime for many thousands of dedicated people known as “Re-enactors.” Re-enactments of encampments and major Civil War battles draw thousands of enthusiastic participants and spectators in U.S. States where the major action occurred, especially North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania and to a somewhat lesser degree, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee,... Read more →