Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Don Rickert Musical Instruments, Makers of Violoncellos da Spalla and Other Fine Bowed Instruments

For more information about us, including our online store, the Don Rickert Musician Shop, see Introducing the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Don Rickert Musical Instruments is a premiere designer and maker of innovative custom and historic musical instruments. Since starting our musical instruments enterprise in 2007, we have dealt primarily in those of the bowed variety (e.g. violins, fiddles and related instruments such as octave fiddles). We have also designed and made a number of fretted instruments along the way: mandolins, parlor guitars, acoustic bass guitars, tenor guitars and the like. We will soon be branching out in a serious way into the world of fretted musical instruments. Look forward to some really interesting mandolins, octave mandolins, mandocellos, parlor guitars, acoustic bass guitars, tenor guitars and the like. Regular production items are usually available at the Don Rickert Musician Shop. If you want something that is not there, give us a call... Our email is [email protected] and main phone number is (706) 896-0909. Don Rickert's mobile phone number is (706) 400-1481 Mailing address: Don Rickert Musical Instruments 726 Hall Creek Road Hiawassee, GA 30546 See: Our new online store, the Don Rickert Musician Shop (www.DonRickertMusicianShop.com) Our companion blog, Don Rickert Musician Shop: Latest News (www.DonRickertMusicianShop.com/blog) The Facebook page of our owner, Donald Rickert (We still have a large number of photo albums there) (www.facebook.com/donald.rickert1) Our new company Facebook page, also called D. Rickert Musical Instruments (www.facebook.com/DonRickertMusicianShop) Our YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/DoctorFiddle >>>>>>> Click here for Our full contact information <<<<<<<< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... 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 Wittner Fine-Tune™ Pegs. PEGHEDS™ and Wittner Fine-Tune™ Pegs both make wooden pegs obsolete, except in the case where one is interested in rigorous adherence to historical authenticity on an old instrument. Don Rickert Lutheriehas installed many sets of both brands of planetary tuning pegs on many different types of violins and fiddles, as well as traditional wooded tuning pegs, "Caspari"-type (i.e. variable friction pegs by Grover, Schaller, Gotoh and others) of all variety and antique style guitar-type geared tuners (the ones like miniature bass tuning machines). I will be brazen enough to say that I think we have installed at least one set of EVERY violin tuning peg ever made! The advantage of PEGHEDS™ is that their polycarbonate tuning button can be made to look pretty much like ebony. This is done by sanding and rubbing with steel wool, which is pretty much a necessity, as one can see the mold parting lines on PEGHEDS™ otherwise...a dead giveaway that the buttons are plastic (note: the shafts of PEGHEDS™ are black anodized aluminum and plastic). For... 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 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. All cases will be available at the Adventurous Muse Store. Read more →

Gut Fiddle Strings: Let the Truth Overcome Your Fear!

Metal wound strings and modern synthetic core strings (e.g. Dr. Thomastik) are wonderful for the modern fiddler, regardless of the type of music he or she is playing. The good ones, such as D'Addario Helicores and Infeld Super-Flexible rope core strings, sound great, are easy on the fingers (and your instrument) and stay in tune. Other very good synthetic core strings are Correlli Alliance, Pirastro Obligato and D'Addario Pro-Arte. Of course, these benefits can only be derived if your fiddle is structurally sound, it is well set-up and you use a high-performance bow. If any of these requirements are not met, especially the good bow requirement, you are wasting your money on good strings. So why would anyone want to use a 400+ year old type of string on a modern fiddle? The answer is simple. If you are serious about a genre of music from a byegone era going back to about the middle of the 18th Century, you should use the type of string that players used then and have your fiddle set up in the authentic manner of the period. The post-Baroque violin (i.e. the modern violin) is about 250 years old. If you want to play music any older than the 1930s the way it was really played, gut strings are part of the deal. To find out the details of what else is involved besides the gut strings, an article will be published within the next few days. For those who just can't wait, here... Read more →