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... Read more →

The Tenor Guitar: An Odd Loner without a Real Family

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The Tenor Guitar: An Odd Loner without a Real Family http://www.rickertmusicalinstruments.com/2015/08/the-tenor-guitar-an-odd-loner-without-a-real-family.html Prelude This article is by D. Rickert Musical Instruments and its online store, Don Rickert Musician Shop. We hope that you find this article interesting in its own right. That being said, the article is a background piece to an article that proposes a new graduated family of 4 or 5-string steel-strung instruments, tuned in 5ths and... Read more →

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 →

Luthier-Built 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet “Venetian” Style Octave Mandolin by D. Rickert

Attention!: This is an older post. We are currently working on newer and better instruments in this category. Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Introduction The new 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet “Venetian” Style Octave Mandolin by D. Rickert is available now at the Don Rickert Musician Shop (D. Rickert Musical Instruments) The 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet “Venetian” Style Octave Mandolin by D. Rickert is an octave mandolin with the same scale length as a typical commercial “Irish” octave... Read more →

About Stromberg-Voisinet and it Successor, Kay Musical Instruments and How This Relates to D. Rickert Musical Instruments

Attention!: This is an older post. We are currently working on newer and better instruments in this category. Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. Introduction This article relates to several new instruments to be announced soon (or will have been announced by the time you read this) by D. Rickert Musical Instruments and available from the Don Rickert Musician Shop. These new luthier-built (i.e. not factory made and not cheap!) instruments by D. Rickert... Read more →

Introducing the New Don Rickert Musician Shop

The Don Rickert Musician Shop is the new online retail face of Don Rickert Musical Instruments, 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,... Read more →

Tenor Banjo and Irish Tenor Banjo: Is There a Difference?

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. This is an excellent question, and it comes up all the time from smart musicians. The difference between the Tenor Banjo and Irish Tenor Banjo is, on one level, analogous to the difference between a violin and a fiddle. They are played differently. But Irish Tenor Banjos are also tuned differently than regular tenor banjos, so maybe another analogy: A tenor banjo is like a classical viola (tuned... Read more →

So You Think You Know About the Banjo In Irish Traditional Music?: Part 2

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. The Second Myth: There is Special Type of Tenor Banjo Called the "Irish Tenor Banjo" It is a common belief that the Irish Tenor Banjo (4 strings, tuned in 5ths) is somehow different from a Tenor Banjo, which was introduced around 1915 in America and was also known as the "Tango Banjo". The tenor banjo generally had 19 frets; however, shorter 17-fret necks were available. According to none... Read more →

So You Think You Know about the Banjo in Irish Traditional Music?: Part 1

Please visit the Don Rickert Musician Shop. There are many myths about the banjo in traditional Irish music. It is commonly believed that a special type of tenor banjo (a 17 fret, 4-string banjo tuned in 5ths to G d a e' ), called the "Irish Tenor Banjo", has been part of Traditional Irish Music since at least the 19th Century. There are several myths implied by this notion. The First Myth: The idea that... Read more →