Rickert and Ringholz Musical Instruments

Changes to www.FiddleandBowStore.com (Part 2): Observations and Insights

Part 1 of this series of postings summarized the 'top-line' things we learned from selling stuff at fiddlers' conventions. The part, appropriately named 'Part 2', focuses on our experience over the past several months with www.FiddleandBowStore.com. I'll start by addressing the matter of why I always refer to it as www.FiddleandBowStore.com. I think that some have guessed...you are correct; there is already a business called the Fiddle and Bow Store, which is not us. Don't know why they didn't get the domain name.

We carry a lot of different things, including:

• 26 different bow models
• 6 case models (actually 9, but we don't advertise the low end cases)
• 5 or 6 types of chinrest, in various materials (e.g. ebony, boxwood, polycarbonate, etc.)
• Over 25 violin/fiddle models, including some really interesting, unique pieces, including baritone/octave violins, as well as one of the largest selection of small fiddles, known as 'kits' or pochettes, to be found anywhere except a museum
• The German-made Shadow pickups, including the incredible NFX (also known as the NanoFlex)
• A pretty good selection of strings, rosin, tailpieces and tuning pegs
• Instrument stands
• Shoulder rests, including the high-end wooden kind, as well as higher-end carbon fiber type

What we carry and what people buy are two different matters. With the exception of the occassional piece of rosin or set of strings, we actually sell...

• Shadow NFX pickups
• Kun Collapsible Shoulder Rests
• Our lower-priced (but really good) Octave Violins
• Historic reproduction pochettes (based on a c. 1780 Scottish model)
• Bows (mostly Glasser octagonal braided carbon fiber bows and IncrediBows)
• Authentic Civil War era cigar box fiddles (but not as many as we would like to sell)

The next posting will try to make sense of the facts presented in this and the prior post, citing consumer interviews when appropriate.

Changes to www.FiddleandBowStore.com (Part 1): Observations and Insights from Fiddlers' Conventions

Over at www.FiddleandBowStore.com, our online store, we referred people to this blog for information about our observations and insights to date and changes we will be making to the store based on these observations and insights. This posting deals with the observations and insights part.

Fiddlers' Conventions (from the vendor perspective): Note--all of these generalizations do not apply to all events.

• Blessing and Rude awakening 1: Meet great people, make friends, etc., but very few people actually buy anything. You are considered lucky (by other vendors) if you make enough money to pay the vendor fee, food and gas and break even.
• Rude awakening 2: People don't want to buy new fiddles. Rather, they would like YOU to buy their old fiddles.
• Rude awakening 3: Drunks...Fiddlers' conventions that allow drinking can get pretty scarey late at night, especially the big ones, such as the one whose name begins with a "G". It is very prudent to become very good friends with your fellow vendors, especially if at least one of them has experience as a bar bouncer, who will help you get rid of the drunk asleep in your booth area.
• Ray of hope 1: People DO buy lots of bows, including the expensive ones.
• Ray of hope 2: Australians...they love Old Time and Bluegrass music, are really nice, and can hold thier beer. Plus, people who have the money to travel half-way around the world to attend a festival usually have the money to buy stuff. This is helped by the fact that the U.S. Dollar/Australian Dollar exchange rate is not that bad and there is some sort of really high tax in the land down-under on things like bows; thus making even an expensive American bow a real bargain.
• Ray of hope 3: People love the cigar box fiddles. They don't actually buy them, because they are not cheap, but they do love them.
• Interesting: It is pretty much guaranteed that, whatever you have to sell, people will want stuff that you do not have.
• Annoying: It is not even worth selling strings and digital tuners, as the expected pricing is somewhere around wholesale. If you hold to a reasonable discount, the vendor down the lane will sell at or below cost just to make a sale.
• Exciting: In some locations, there are many Civil War re-enactors with a real interest in period instruments and skill in playing them.

We'll post about our experience with www.FiddleandBowStore.com tomorrow or the next day. Comments to this posting are most welcome.