Don Rickert Musical Instruments

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 →

D. Rickert Musical Instruments Will Be a Vendor at Hoppin' John 2022.

D. Rickert Musical Instruments will be showing one of its Violoncellos da Spalla at an upcoming festival in the Southeastern US. D. Rickert Musical Instruments (bowed strings), together with its partner, Rickert and Hale, Luthiers (mandolin family and guitars), will once again be showing finished and in progress instruments at the 2022 Hoppin’ John Old Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers’ Convention. The festival happens September 15-17, 2022 at the Shakori Hill Community Arts Center near Pittsboro, North Carolina. That is central North Carolina. People come from throughout the Southeastern US, including Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and, of course, North Carolina. We will have at least one of our in-progress violoncellos da spalla to show. As surprising as it might seem, a large number of American traditional fiddle players and enthusiasts are also baroque music enthusiasts. We have actually sold more violoncellos da spalla at (or shortly following) the Hoppin’ John Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers’ Convention than ANY other instrument. The in-progress violoncello da spalla that we will be showing is actually available for purchase right now. It is the same model played by several renowned violoncello da spalla players. If you are interested, feel free to contact me to discuss. Later today or tomorrow at the latest, I will post about other instruments that we will have to show at Hoppin' John. Read more →

Sessioneer Spartan Bouzouki by Rickert and Hale, Luthiers (Full Product announcement)

This article is also published at www.rickertandhale.com. Ordering Information While semi-standardized, each Sessioneer Bouzouki is built for the individual buyer, at least for now. If you wish to discuss buying one of these instruments, give us a call or send an email. Looking forward to talking! Phone: 1-706-896-0909 Email: [email protected] Note: If you are a highly-skilled player with a history of high-quality videos on YouTube, we are open to discussing a discounted price in exchange for demonstration videos of our instruments. Let’s agree up front that there will be no hurt feelings. I mean, I am a player, but at nowhere near the skill level necessary for a compelling demonstration. My partner, Dr. Hale, and others have pointed this out to me, and my feelings were not hurt 😊. Introduction We are Rickert & Hale, Luthiers, a collaboration between me (Donald Rickert) and fellow luthier, Dr. Jesse Randy Hale of J. Hale Custom Guitars. We set out to design and build the BEST bouzoukis and octave mandolins possible, employing materials and design elements that have been plausibly related (by us and others) over the years to superior sound and playability. I will get back to that point in a bit. We are absolutely committed to fair pricing for our instruments, which are hand-made by master luthiers 100% in the U.S. This in no way equates to low cost, but quite the opposite. There are already many lost cost options provided by a market that is quite saturated with cheap factory-made... Read more →

What Makes the Difference Between Pretty Good and Great Acoustic Stringed Instruments?

This article has been updated. See: What Makes the Difference Between Pretty Good and Great Acoustic Stringed Instruments? (Revised 6-2023) Introduction Before I start, what are the criteria for judging the sound quality of musical instruments? I hope that the reader can agree that this is largely subjective, and often, culturally relative. Take the Great Highland Bagpipe. That there are two kinds of people in the world; those who love the bagpipes and those who hate them has been attributed to many, including, as I recall, Winston Churchill. Many of us love (at least in limited doses) the uillean pipes; however, I have known many Irish, meaning those who actually live in Ireland, who refer to them as “rat-chasers”. Finally, some might describe an octave mandolin as a bouzouki that is too bassy and boomy, or a bouzouki as a thin and weak-sounding octave mandolin. While the criteria for judging the sound quality of a musical instruments are, to some extent, subjective, culturally relative and even arbitrary, there are some sonic attributes of plucked acoustic stringed instruments, which I believe are widely accepted as desirable, such as: Sonority (i.e., “power” or loudness) Balance (i.e., low notes on the low strings are just as loud to the ear as notes on the high strings) Focus (i.e., not “muddy”) Richness in harmonic overtones Sustain (largely a function of overtone richness) It can be demonstrated that high-end instruments and cheap instruments differ greatly with respect to the aforementioned attributes. See Can you hear... Read more →