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 selling. They will be made from 3/8" pine lined with heavy felt and will be available with either an oiled finish or painted black, per common practice. All joints will be super-strong box joints.
The cases will sell for about $325 for a guitar case and $220 for a fiddle case.
We will also be making heavy duty weather resistant fabric cases for guitars, fiddles, banjos and Irish harps.
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, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas and West Virginia.
Meticulous attention to historical accuracy with respect to even the smallest details of uniforms, tools, personal accessories (such as eyeglass frames), weapons, music and so forth is very much a part of the culture of re-enacting.
Don Rickert Design has been a source of period instruments to re-enactors on a limited basis for several years. Our 1860s style cigar box fiddles and whiskey bottle box fiddles, pictured below, are quite popular among period music enthusiasts.
Click on thumbnail images for full-size views.
I myself have witnessed many Civil War re-enactments and have even participated in a few many years ago.
Attention to Musical Detail
As with every of aspect of re-enacting, there is great attention given to the music that is played and the songs that are sung. For example, there are “Yankee” songs and tunes and there are “Rebel” songs and tunes, as well as songs that were popular with both sides in the Conflict, such as “Home, Sweet Home” (also quite popular in Japan, as curious as it may seem to a Westerner) and “Maryland, My Maryland” (the Union and Confederate versions had somewhat different lyrics)...Maryland, a Southern State, as officially part of the Union, despite the fact that the populace was divided in its allegiance.
Musical Instruments
There is also attention given to the historically correct basic instrument types that should be used, which include concertina, harmonica, penny whistle and fife, jaw harp, mandolin, dulcimer, bones and spoons as well as the historically essential fiddle, banjo and guitar. Among Irish regiment re-enactors, one will sometimes hear the uillean pipes (i.e. Irish pipes) and even small harps. One would never see or hear such an anachronistic instrument as, say, the saxophone.
Musical Instrument Authenticity
While the general instrument types used by musician re-enactors are pretty well-standardized, the specific models of instruments tend to be quite off the mark with respect to historical accuracy.
Banjos
For example, the modern Bluegrass banjo and even the open-back claw-hammer banjos often seen at re-enactments were not even invented until the 20th century.
A Bluegrass Banjo and an Old Time Open-Back Banjo (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
The banjos actually used during the Civil War would have been either a “tackhead” banjo or a fancy Minstrel banjo (the immediate precursor to the modern banjo) if the player had some money saved up.
Authentic Reproductions of Civil War era Tackhead Banjos (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
Reproductions of Civil War Era Minstrel Banjos (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
Fiddles
Fiddles used during the Civil War would not have been fitted with either a chin rest or a shoulder rest (not invented yet), yet one sees both used by some re-enactors. The images below show an actual Civil War fiddle in the National Museum of Music and one of the finest Civil War re-enactor fiddlers on Earth, Troy Parker of the 1st NC Volunteers (we’ll allow him the indulgence of fine-tuners on his otherwise perfectly set-up fiddle and great skill in the period playing styles)
Click on the thumbnail images for full-size views.
Cigar Box and Related Fiddles
Fiddles made from cigar boxes and other found objects were also used by Civil War soldiers. The genuine cigar box fiddles of the Civil War era would have been bare Spanish cedar, etched or imprinted with the cigar manufacturers name…not the boxes with pasted on artwork, which did not appear until the 1890s. One of the few contemporary images of a cigar box fiddle being played
Guitars and Mandolins
Perhaps the greatest deviations from historical reality are seen in the types of mandolins and guitars one sees in re-enactment encampments. One is much more likely to see A-type, F-type and flat iron style mandolins (all 20th Century inventions) than the historically correct “bowl back” (a.k.a. “tater bug”) mandolins.
Mandolins
20th Century Mandolin Types (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
The Type of Mandolin Actually Played During the Civil War (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
Guitars
And then there are all of those Dreadnaught and jumbo-bodied guitars used by many re-enactors instead of the small-bodied guitars (similar to a parlor guitar) that were actually played by Civil War soldiers. The Dreadnaught and jumbo-bodied guitars are both 20th Century developments.
Actual Civil War Era Guitars (click on thumbnail images for full-size views)
Modern Parlor Guitar that is Pretty Darn Close to the 1860s Guitars
We will soon be re-establishing a special section within the Adventurous Muse Online Store dedicated to supplying 18th, 19th and early 20th century re-enactor musicians with reproductions of authentic period instruments and accessories.
The minstrel boy to the war is gone, In the ranks of death ye will find him; His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him; "Land of Song!" cried the warrior bard, "Tho' all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, One faithful harp shall praise thee!"
("The Minstrel Boy", known by anyone with even a drop of Irish blood in his or her veins, is an Irish patriotic song written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) in remembrance of friends killed during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.)
The Harp is mentioned twice in first verse. The instrument has deep symbolic significance of every Irishman. There were Irish-only (not necessarily their own choice!) regiments on both sides of the American Civil War. Images of a Federal (Union) and Confederate battle flags, remarkably similar in design, are shown below. The old Irish Harp figures prominently in both.
The 28th Massachusetts (designated 4th Regiment Irish Brigade) Battle Flag (Federal)
We have considered and are now reconsidering carrying arrying a number of small Celtic and Irish harps, ranging from about 2 lbs to 9 or 10 lbs at our Adventurous Muse online store. Some of these are pictured below. We will also sell weather-resistant period appropriate carrying bags.
Sometimes you just need to have a travel violin or backpacker fiddle that can be quickly assembled and disassembled and packed into a small box (15" x 9" x 3" deep). By quickly, we mean less than 5 minutes. Well, here it is, the new Take-Apart Travel Violin by Don Rickert Design. And there is more: this fiddle DOES NOT need to be de-tuned and re-tuned every time it is taken apart and later put back together. The instrument actually sounds very good, considering the removable neck and the various mechanisms not found on a regular violin or fiddle.
Click on the image below or its caption to see a slide show of how it works.
The photos pretty much speak for themselves, though it should be noted that this instrument stays amazingly close to being in tune after being disassembled and then reassembled.
The first prototype of this instrument several years ago was Don Rickert's first experiment with a violin without a sound post, as the sound post staying in place was a vexing problem for an instrument that is repeatedly being taken apart and put back together again. Instead of a sound post, this instrument utilizes a "tone bar" or small bassbar under the treble side of the bridge foot. There is, of course, a full-size bassbar under the G-side bridge foot.
If anyone would be interested in purchasing this instrument, it will soon be available at:
First, you might have noted that we are starting to use the name Don Rickert Design rather than Don Rickert Lutherie. The reason for this is that we are branching out from just designing and making stringed instruments. Lutherie only refers to the design, making, setup and repair of STRINGED instruments.
We are also in the process of consolidating our various brands (Don Rickert Design, Old Mill Musical Instruments and Rickert-Fiddarci) under a single brand, Don Rickert Design(tm).
Our Two Newest Videos (Three, if you count our potato cannon demonstration) are:
The great Scottish tune, Tail Toddle (scored as a Strathspey if played slowly and a reel if played fast) .The first new video we have posted in a while and one of the rare video demos with yours truly playing the fiddle...I generally enlist fiddlers he considers far better than me for demos. The main purpose here is to introduce the new Chord Pad and Drone Box from Don Rickert Design. Enjoy!
Note: The fiddle tune, Tail Toddle, is actually the melody to one of Roberts Burns' more, shall we say, bawdy, songs. If you understood the Old Scots language (NOT Gaelic!), in which Burns wrote many of his songs, you would get the elaboration; however, the title pretty much implies what you need to know :-) Click here for the lyrics (WARNING: Extremely vulgar!...I don't want any complaints, as you were warned). Needless to say, the Old "Kirk" (Church of Scotland) had lost its tragically cruel control over the Lowlands of Scotland by the time Burns came onto the scene.
This is another demo of the new Chord Pad and Drone Box by Don Rickert Design. A medley of the Strathspey AND reel versions of the Scottish tune, Devil in the Kitchen, are used as part of the demonstration.
Do you want a "full body suit"...not on you, but for your violin or fiddle? We have not figured out fiddle body piercing yet, but we are working on it. Read on...
The decoration of musical instruments has been done for hundreds of years. Such decoration has included inlay work of various types, painting, etching, carving, application of gold leaf and "rosing", the Norwegian nickname for "rosemaling", which is the tattoo-like inkwork one sees on Hardanger Fiddles.
Some Historic and Recent Examples
Giovanni Paolo Maggini (c. 1580 - c. 1630), while making violins without special decoration, is best best known for his later instruments that two rows of purfling on the top and back. Many of Maggini's instruments are ornamented on the back with decorations such as Saint Andrew's Cross, clover leaves, crests and other motifs. His most famous decorations are designs accomplished by extending the inner of the two purfling rows onto the backs of the instruments to form various designs, as illustrated.
Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) is not generally known for elaborate violin decoration. He did, however, produce a number of instruments with complex and beautiful decorations. Many of Strad's decorations look like inkwork, but they are, in fact, inlays. The photo of a quartet of inlaid instruments shows some of Stradivari's best inlay decoration, for which he charged huge sums of money, according to lore.
The Hardanger Fiddle, or "hardingfele" in Norwegian, originated in the mid-1600s in a region of western Norway traditionally known as Hardanger. Unlike regular fiddles or violins, Hardanger fiddles have 4 primary strings that are played, with 4, to as many as 8, sympathetic drone strings that run under its hollow fingerboard. For hundreds of years, Hardanger Fiddles have been elaborately decorated with black ink patterns, generally floral in nature, called "rosing", which is short for "rosemaling", the Norwegian word for decorative painting. While actually constructed differently from violins, the Hardanger Fiddle has looks much like a tatooed conventional fiddle with a really long peg box and a lot more tuning pegs.
Southern Mountain Fiddles: In the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, there were many fiddle makers working in the Southeastern mountains (e.g. Southern part of the Appallachians) of the U.S. These "mountain luthiers" pretty much dissappeared (as well as fiddle playing, at least in public) when the prevaling regional religious belief (now revised, mostly) held that it was sinful to play the fiddle.
During their prime, these Southern Mountain luthiers made instruments loosly based on the Maggini pattern. The decoration is often "over-the-top", incorporating dyes, inkwork and almost always crude mother-of-pearl inlay work. The photo illustrates what appears to be a nicely-done example of one of these rare old instruments.
Note: We see a number of these century-old fiddles at fiddlers' conventions. Typically, a man in his 80s will want to sell his father's fiddle to us. The sellers themselves do not play, as they grew up during the "fiddling is a sin" era. Very few of these extremely ornate fiddles are in decent playing condition, as they have often been hidden for many decades in attics; thus, subjected to poor environmental conditions.
Recent Fiddles with Inkwork: The extremely creative violin luthier, Tim Phillips, is based in the small mountain town of Mochdre (properly pronounced Mock druh but ofen pronounced Mock dree locally) in the county of Powys, Wales, UK. Phllips' extremely innovative violins gererally are shaped quite differtly from standard violins and fiddles. Tim has supplied some of the greatest fiddlers in the world with instrments. At least on some of his instruments, including a fiddle played by the Irish musician, Sharon Shannon, whimsical inkwork is employed in its design. This cool inkwork can be seen in the photos of Sharon Shannon's fiddle.
You can see additional images of Tim Phillips' violin inkwork, as well as other historic and recent decorated violins and fiddles in our photo gallery: Historic and New Rosed and Inlaid Instruments
Don Rickert Lutherie:
See a variety of fiddle, violin and pochette inkwork possibilities for our instruments in these photo galleries:
In all cases, these are instruments for which we do the varnishing, as inkwork is done on sealed bare wood BEFORE the varnish is applied.
The price for our "rosed" instruments varies according to the following factors:
The complexity and size of the design
The method by which the inkwork is applied: On relatively flat surfaces, such as a pochette, travel violin or the ribs (sides) of a Rickert Customizable Fiddle, a process called dry ink transfer can be used. On surfaces with complex curves, such as the top or back of a Rickert Customizable Fiddle, the inkwork must be done by hand by a skilled pen-and-ink or tatoo artist...this is almost exactly like the process a tatoo artist must use when tattooing a person (except with pens rather than an electric tattoo needle).
Original Custom Design vs. an Existing Design: There literally thousands of existing tatoo stencils (called "flash"), which can be modified to "tattoo" an instrument. A completely original design is certainly possible, but involves extra effort and, thus, additional cost.
You can expect to pay about as much for instrument inkwork as you would for getting yourself tattooed.
Bottom Line
We are able to apply just about any design imaginable to your instrument. The varnish is applied OVER the design, making it about as permanent as a tattoo on a person. We DO reserve the right to reject offensive images. After all, it is our name on the label inside the instrument.
Needless to say, once one of our instruments with custom inkwork is NOT returnable. That being said, we bend over backwards and give you a "Photoshop" visualization of what your instrument will look like after tatooing. We proceed when you sign-off on the visualizations and agree on the price.
Now, that is a lot more than you get before getting your body tatooed!
Don Rickert Lutherie is gearing up to offer custom "tatooing", more properly called "rosing" or inkwork decoration for a number of our musical instruments. This service will be available via our Adventurous Muse Store. We will have a proper article about what we are doing and the history behind it in the next few days.
In the mean time, you may enjoy taking a look at four new photo albums on our Facebook site.
