Don Rickert Musical Instruments(tm)

The Don Rickert Musical Instruments Blog

 This is the blog for Don Rickert (formerly Rickert & Ringholz) Musical Instruments.

Our online store (www.fiddleandbowstore.com) is not a typical online mega-store, but a shop dedicated to serving the needs of practicioners of the fiddle discipline, especially Scottish Highland, Cape Breton, Irish, Old Time, Historic and Alternative styles. We sell carefully chosen, often hard-to-find instruments, bows, and other accoutrements for serious musicians.

Click here to enter our online store.

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How Supporting Small Businesses Makes People Good Citizens

The causes of recessions are complex. This one is no different. Among the many casualties of recessions are the small businesses (like ours) because, out of a combination of necessity and fear, people stop buying things. Small businesses, which comprise the largest sector of the U.S. economy, are hit so hard that they have to do things like lay off employees (making the recession worse), the owners "burn" their cash reserves, becoming poor and in deep debt, and many shut their doors...and on and on.

One of the many things that MUST happen in order to end a recession is for people to start buying things again, especially small businesses. You get the picture.

buying, economy, good citizens, recession, small businesses

Pay Half Now...Pay the Balance When We Are Ready to Ship

On our more expensive instruments, you can pay approximately one-half of the purchase price up front and then pay the balance when we are ready to ship.

This payment option DOES NOT apply to bows and accessories. It is intended to ease the pain a bit for our more expensive instruments that we make to order. In several cases, the up-front payment is more than half, such as the Maggini Violin and Maggini Octave Violin.

The instruments for which this payment option is available are clearly identified.

• Simply send an email to drickert@bellsouth.net that contains the following information:

"I wish to purchase [insert the name of the instrument here] using the Pay half up-front option." That is all that you need to put in the email.

• You will then receive a reply from us within 12 hours pointing you to a particular item under "Custom Orders". It will usually be a number such as "060209c
• You then purchase the "product" 060209c.
• We will confirm via email that we have received your payment
• We will confirm when your instrument is ready to ship, at which point the balance will be due.

We wish that we could make this a bit simpler, but it's the best we could come up with given the way our Merchant Services system works.

Another First for Don Rickert Musical Instruments: Bartering

Don Rickert Musical Instruments (www.FiddleandBowStore.com) will bargain with you on the price of our instruments (which we want to become YOUR instruments)

We believe that we are the first company our our type (innovative and custom musical instruments) EVER to offer our customers the opportunity to trade stuff that they no longer want or a service they can easily provide in exchange for price discounts unheard of.

Our Instruments Can Be Expensive if you compared them to a Chinese-made equivalent instrument (of which there are none anyway): We know that our instruments are not cheap, especially now that we have raised prices to reflect their real cost (a seemingly stupid thing to do during a recession, eh?). Here is a genuine opportunity to obtain many of our instruments for a price that you feel is affordable.

It is very simple: make us an offer on price (by email only PLEASE: drickert@bellsouth.net) and tell us what thing or service of value (see our posting on "Bartering Scenarios..." you will trade us to make up the difference between your proposed price and our listed (usually discounted 10%) price. This process of trading one thing for another is called bartering (see our posting on "What Is Bartering?").

A typical transaction with our new way of selling might be...

"I will give you $900 for that $1,600 fiddle, plus, I will play the instrument on my next recording, give attribution to Don Rickert Musical Instruments on the CD jacket AND produce 3 high quality YouTube videos of me playing the instrument, all within 45 days, to boot."

Another example that involves actual goods exchange: Say you want a Travel Master Pochette, but can only afford to pay something in the $500 to $700 range, but you happen to have in the closet a old but WORKING Hohner "Pokerman" model (or similar) Melodeon (button accordion used in Scottish and English Morris and Contra Dance music) in D/A (the keys it plays) or D/G.  You could offer us the Melodeon and $600 and the Travel Master Pochette would be yours...pretty good, eh?  Now, if your Melodeon plays the keys of C/G, our response would be "No thanks." Not the end of the world though, right?

Some things to keep in mind

• NOT taking us up on this offer, provided that you really want the instrument, IS CRAZY!
• Fear of rejection: Most of us are afraid to ask for what we want for fear of hearing that aweful word "NO!"

First of all, please believe that we are pre-disposed to say "YES!" and it would not serve us very well if we rejected reasonable offers. Excuse the cliche, but this is a WIN-WIN proposition.

Besides, what is the worst that can happen...we might respond with a counter-offer or say "no thanks"...that is not so aweful, is it? If we know our customers, and we think we do, there will be far more accepted offers than "No thanks" responses.

• If you feel that what you are offering us in return for reduced price is ridiculous or insulting, it probably is.

See our posting on "Bartering Scenarios..." to see some hypothetical examples of how a transaction might go and, perhaps more importantly, what is of value to us.

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Bartering Scenarios and What Is Valuable to Don Rickert Musical Instruments?

Potential Bartering Scenarios

We described in summary, two potential scenarios in another posting. Let's add some detail in order to give you a better feeling for how things would play out.

Getting an Adventurer II Travel Violin for $900

• You have looked at the description, YouTube video and photos of the Adventure II Travel Violin many times over and you have decided that you want one. It sells for $1,722 (discounted), but you want to pay $900 for it.
  

• Additional Information: You are a new recording artist and you have done your first CD. A second CD is in development. As a recording artist, making high-quality, compelling videos is a piece of cake for you. You also have a MySpace site where your fans can listen to your music.

• You send an email to drickert@bellsouth.net that might read as follows:

Dear Don,

I have been thinking about the Adventurer II Travel Violin for some time now. It is particularly appealing to me now that the shoulder rest adapter and case are supplied with the instrument at no extra charge.

I have the following proposal for paying only $900 for the instrument, including the free shoulder rest adapter and case. I am an experienced fiddler and I appear in 5 YouTube videos to date. I am working on additional videos as part of the promotional campaign for my first CD, [insert CD name on the Rounder label]

In exchange for you selling me the Adventurer II for $900, I propose to do the following in return:

1. Put a link, with a nice description, to www.fiddleandbowstore.com within 1 week
2. Make two videos of me playing the Adventurer II, one solo and one with my group. I will say some words about Don Rickert Musical Instruments in general and the Adventurer II specifically, within 3 weeks.
3. On our new CD, which we are now working on, I will play the Adventurer II on at least one of the tracks. The CD is scheduled for release in 6 months.

Do we have a deal?

Sincerely,

Bridget Jones

**************************************************

• We would email you back and ask for some kind of proof that you really do have a new CD being released in 6 months and that we will trust you on the promise to play the instrument on the CD. We would also ask for something on the CD cover attributing the Adventurer II to Don Rickert Musical Instruments.

• You provide proof and agree to our other requests.

• We email you back confirming that we have a deal and instruction on how to pay via our online store. In the mean time, we will have already started on your instrument.

Getting a Travel Master Pochette, with Shoulder Rest "Wings" and Case for $800

You have looked at the description, numerous YouTube videos and photos of the Travel Master Pochette many times over and you have decided that you want one. It sells for $1,804 (discounted), but you can only afford to pay $800 for it.

• You send an email to drickert@bellsouth.net that might read as follows:

Dear Don,

I have been thinking about the beautiful Travel Master Pochette for some time now. It is particularly appealing to me now that the shoulder rest adapter wings and case are supplied with the instrument at no extra charge.

I have the following proposal for paying only $800 for the instrument, including the free shoulder rest adapter and case.

In exchange for paying $800 for the Travel Master Pochette, I would like to trade a Maggini copy in fair condition. One small crack in the top near the saddle but expertly repaired. I also had the bassbar replaced at that time. The peg holes need reaming and the pegs are worn. The case is pretty beat up.

Are you interested?

Best regards,

Jon Cheek

**************************************************

• Our reply would indicate that we are very interested, but we need to see a comprehensive set of photos.
  

• You send the photos via email.

• After reviewing the photos we email you back confirming that we have a deal and instructions on how to pay via our online store and getting the instrument to us. In the mean time, we will have already started on your instrument.

We will have more scenarios in the near future. Hopefully, those shown above capture the basic idea and how easy the whole thing is. We figure that it will be helpful to you to tell you what we see as valuable to us in bartering at this time; however, if you think of something else that might be valuable, we heartily encourage you to go for it!

What Is Valuable to Us Right Now

• Promotional considerations (e.g. YouTube videos, Links on websites, etc.) from established and up-and-coming professional musicians
• Nice older violins of known origin and fiddles with no serious structural damage.
• Laser-cutting services (we provide the cutting path files)
  
• CNC cutting services (we provide the CAD files)
• Articles written about us and published in high-profile publications
• Then, of course, there is the D/G or D/A Melodeon
  

Note: Bows are of no value to us at this time.

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What is Bartering?

Bartering is the exchange of goods or services: the practice or system of exchanging goods and services. Bartering is distinct from selling, but can have a cash component...there is centuries old practice in bartering called "the boot." For example, "I will trade my horse for your mule and give you $200 to boot."

Bartering is completely legal. The only case in which it becomes illegal is if the recipient (e.g. Don Rickert Musical Instruments) of goods or services in exchange for cash value does not claim this cash value on their taxes.

If you wish to learn all of the ins and outs on bartering for goods and services, go to the website www.u-exchange.com and see their section on "Bartering 101." The founder of u-exchange.com, John C. Moore, was most helpful in providing the necessary information to get us started.

Hybrid Selling/Bartering

What we are offering our customers is not technically pure bartering, as we are selling goods at a negotiated reduced price and then bartering on the residual difference between the negotiated reduced sales price and the actual monetary value that we have assigned to the goods. You can call this a hybrid of selling and bartering or view it as two different activities: selling and then bartering. The difference is academic to us, but it is important to the top pure bartering sites such as www.u-exchange.com.

Bartering, goods, selling, services

Bows and Availability at www.fiddleandbowstore.com

The Summer fiddle competition season is upon us and this can be a problem for bow availability. We are fortunate in that the major high-end carbon fiber bow manufacturers guessed well this year. This is shear luck, as the wacky economy makes it hard to plan for anything right now. Here is the low-down.

• CodaBow Diamond Series bows for violin and viola/octave fiddle are in-stock and we are getting them in 2 days from our supplier.
• Glasser Octagonal Braided Carbon Fiber bows for violin and viola/octave fiddle are getting to us in about 5 days...the price has gone up considerably. We absorb part of this increase in our discounts, but you are still going to pay over $400 for these magical bows.

We don't know what the situation will be next month, so waiting is NOT prudent. When the manufacturers run out, it takes weeks for us to get bows.

We don't carry any pernambuco bows, with the exception of a nice old one we have for sale, at this time, nor do we any longer carry entry-level carbon fiber or graphite bows (there is a difference).

Order at www.FiddleandBowStore.com.

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Three (3) Rickert-Fiddarci 'Cradle of Harmony' Octave Violins IN STOCK NOW (NO WAIT!!!!)

We have the rare situation of having several of our celebrated Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins in stock...this means you can have one in your hands within a week rather than waiting several months. You should consider this very seriously if you would like a baritone fiddle for the summer festival season.

Note: The model we have in stock is the same one used by Alasdair Fraser.

Available at www.FiddleandBowStore.com.

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Realist Pickups added to www.FiddleandBowStore.com today

We have not had an under the bridge pickup for violin, fiddle, viola and octave (baritone) violin available since the Shadow NFX became suddenly unavailable with Meisel Music going out of business several months ago. We did not like the first generation of the Realist pickups very much but love the new ones (a whole lot!).

Available at www.FiddleandBowStore.com

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CodaBow Diamond Series Model Carbon Fiber Bow Feature Comparisons

All models listed are available at a discounted price from Don Rickert Musical Instruments (www.FiddleandBowStore.com)

Diamond NX ($574 list) vs. Diamond SX ($399 list)

Summary: The key advantages of the Diamond SX over the Diamond NX are: The silver fittings, tonal clarity, power, strength. agility and response to fine nuance of technique. It requires somewhat more bowing skill to handle (i.e. a bit less stable in the sense that a race horse is less stable than a work horse). Of course these qualities are sought after by more experienced players.

Link to CodaBow's Comparison Table

Diamond GX ($774 list) vs. Diamond SX ($574 list)

Summary: Key Advantage of the GX over the SX is Tone Color

Link to CodaBow's Comparison Table

Key Advantages of the GX ($774) over the NX ($399 list)

Summary: Tone color, Clarity, Power, agility and response.

CodaBow, Diamond Series, Feature, Comparisons, NX, SX, GX, bow, carbon fiber, Don Rickert, Musical Instruments

New Version of Rickert Travel Master Pochette

We made a custom all cedar version of the Rickert Travel Master Pochette, using waterproof glues and finishes that are also resistant to wide variations in temperature and humidity. It turned out to be the best sounding one ever to leave our studio, so it is now available as regular production item. Nice acoustic power and great bass overtones. This one has the new plug in chin rest like the one used on the Adventurer II Travel Violin.

Available at www.FiddleandBowStore.com

Click on any image for a larger view.

 

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