We have been inundated with emails asking when we were going to post another video of the Red Hots performance at the Hoppin' John Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention. These request have come from as far away as Australia. I have already reiterated several times my love of this great band. This video is a portion of The Red Hots performance of "Leather Britches", originally called "Britches Full o' Stitches" in Ireland. Supposedly the name comes from all of the string crossing, which makes the bowing look like stitched something, like, say, trews (i.e. britches or pants)...it is the tune that first peaked my interest in both Irish and Old-Time music. It is extremely difficult to play well fast, as is done flawlessly in the video.
Video recording and editing by Don Rickert Design (Adventurous Muse)
About a year and a half ago, Dr. Rickert, did a design study of just how simple one could make a pocket fiddle, also known as a pochette and still get a decent sound with good playability. The outcome was a prototype of a pochette-sized instrument made from half of a whiskey or wine bottle box. Think of it as a really skinny cigar box fiddle. The body is made of basswood (linden) and the top is good spruce tone wood. It played and sounded amazingly good. We had no idea whether there was an historical basis for whiskey bottle box fiddles...still don't.
Anyway, we made a video of Darci Jones playing a tune called "The Bright Hollow Fog" and it has gotten about 10,000 viewings on YouTube, and more positive commentary than any other instrument we make. We have not made a production version of the Whisky Bottle Box Pochette until now. They are available at the Adventurous Muse Online Store and sell for well under $300.
Darci Jones Playing "The Bright Hollow Fog" on the Whiskey Bottle Box Fiddle by Don Rickert Design
For various reasons, we decided to lower the price on our Reenactor Cigar Box Fiddles (about $400 after discount, at the Adventurous Muse Online Store). We have claimed that these are the most ergonomically correct, easy to play and best sounding cigar box 19th Century type all cedar cigar box fiddles...the kind invented by Civil War soldiers and, hence, extremely popular among Civil War reenactors. We have two videos that tell you everything you want to know.
In the first video, the player is Troy Parker, a reenactor and expert in the mid-1800s style of playing. The second is by Darci Jones, the fiddler for the Celtic band Hooley and highly sought after teacher of classical violin, old-time, Bluegrass, Irish and Scottish fiddling.
Troy Parker, Accompanied by Michael Fox, Playing Mississippi SawyerDarci Jones Playing Soldier's JoyBackground
The cedar cigar box was introduced in the 1840s, and there were plenty of discarded ones around by the 1860s, during which the American Civil War occurred. There are several photos and drawings of soldiers, Confederate and Union, playing cigar box fiddles.
After positive reception our first cigar box fiddle received at the 2006 Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention, we decided to do some serious design research in the area. A few major discoveries came to light in the process.
1. Modern cigar boxes (even the wooden ones) are pretty bad from an acoustics standpoint. Even the nice looking Spanish Cedar boxes of today are really low-quality plywood with a cedar veneer.
2. Boxes having the ideal dimensions for a fiddle simply do not exist, as cigars are almost always boxed in sets of either 20 (two rows of 10) or 25 (three rows: 8-9-8). The result is that, if you get a box narrow enough (5.25" or less...otherwise, the bow hairs will scrape the sides when a proper bridge height and neck angle are used), it will be too short, requiring a REALLY long neck. If you get one long enough (between 13" and 14"), it will be too wide and fat (deep).
Our solution was to design an instrument made from two small boxes, such as would be used for a "Petite Corona" cigar, grafted together. We obtained an actual antique cigar box from the 1840s for guidance with respect to authenticity.
We designed various small boxes, all made from solid Spanish Cedar, and experimented with grafting them together using methods that would have been well-known by an amateur craftsman of the 19th century. A design decision we made that may be controversial with cigar-box instrument purists was to use either spruce or Western Red Cedar tone wood (one piece--not grafted) for the top.
Our antique reproduction cigar box fiddles are extremely loud and powerful. Some of the key features:
1. Deliberately primitive style neck fitted with either ebony pegs or Grover Champion friction tuners 2. A Flesch-style center-mount chinrest (optional) 3. Carefully designed to fit into a standard fiddle case 4. Historically correct box jointed corners 5. Body made from solid Spanish cedar (two small boxes joined together for proper fiddle dimensions) 6. Western Red Cedar tops 7. They have a bass bar and a sound post like a real fiddle! 8. Walnut oil and carnauba wax finish
Yeah, I know, we promised video last night...running a bit behind as usual. Posting video of The Womperswinning performance in the band finals (Non-Traditional Category) at Hoppin' John Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers' Convention 2009 and some more video of the Red Hots tonight.
We have been getting requests from as far away as Australia for MORE RED HOTS video...message received and crystal clear!
P.S. It would be really good if we sold some stuff today, so maybe go on over to the Adventurous Muse Online Store while you are waiting for that great video :-)
The Wompers in their winning performance in the "non-traditional" category at Hoppin' John. Have to see them to believe! Yeah, they've got a jaw harp player!
Video #2 of The Red Hots. We will try to edit embarrassing dancers behaving badly stuff out a little better :-)
Rule: NEVER dance in front of a tripod with the red record light on!
Note: Forgot the instrument photos in the original post :-(
In Adventurous Muse video demos of our fiddles by Troy Parker, he is accompanied by Michael Fox on
what everyone thinks is a small 5-string banjo, but it's not. In the video below, Troy is "laying back" a bit on the normally extremely loud Re-enactor Cigar Box Fiddle by Don Rickert Design and available through the Adventurous Muse online store. We have other videos to post, which feature this fiddle.
What is a Dulcijo?
The Dulcijo is an instrument that was created by combining two time-honored traditions of the Appalachian mountains: the mountain dulcimer and the 5-string banjo. Back in the late 1980s in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, a clawhammer banjo player named Michael Fox began to experiment with using a dulcimer fingerboard on an open-back banjo. After a lot of experimentation he came up with the current design, which includes a short thumb string, just like a 5-string banjo.
Although the Dulcijo may look just like another small banjo, there are other major differences that make the Dulcijo unique. First of all, it has only three strings, similar to a mountain dulcimer, which usually only has three or four strings.
The Diatonic Scale
Probably the major difference between the Dulcijo and the 5-string banjo is that the fretboard is diatonic, just like the mountain dulcimer. On other fretted instruments such as the banjo or guitar, the frets are laid out in a chromatic pattern, evenly divided by half steps throughout the fretboard, which allows you to play in any of the twelve keys, but also makes things a little more difficult because there are so many "wrong" notes that can be played. By contrast, the Dulcijo is designed to play in only one key, which simplifies things tremendously. All of the unused notes (or wrong notes, if you will) have been removed and all that's left are the notes of the key in which you are playing.
Easy-to-Play Melodies
Playing melodies is amazingly simple on the Dulcijo. Most of the melody notes are played on the first string. If you add what clawhammer banjo players call the "bum-ditty" to the melody it results in an instant Dulcijo arrangement. It's also easy to get more of a dulcimer sound on the Dulcijo by simply moving the melody to the second string and using both the first and third strings as drones. The Dulcijo can also be fingerpicked.
One-Finger Chords
Another great thing about the Dulcijo is that the three major chords used -- D, G, and A -- can be played either open or by using only your index finger on one string. The D chord is played open -- that is, no fingers need to hold down any strings at all. The G chord is formed by holding down that 2nd string at the 1st fret, and the A chord is formed by holding down the 1st string at the first fret. This makes the Dulcijo probably the easiest stringed instrument ever for accompanying a fiddle or your own singing.
Note: Michael Fox also makes great 5-string banjos.
Playing the Dulcijo is very easy for accomplished players of other instruments. Anyway, you can now buy amazingly affordable Dulcijos as well as Michael Fox 5-string banjos through www.AdventurousMuseStore.com.
This morning there were 4 Professional Performance Fiddles by Don Rickert Design left (YouTube link). Now there are 3 left with the probability that there will only be 2 if an interested party buys. These instruments are genuine German-made Meisel violins (nearly impossible to get anymore, as Meisel closed its U.S. operation due to the economy), modified and set up properly as professional/performance fiddles, particularly suited to Scottish, Bluegrass and Old-Time playing styles, by the lutherie wizards at the Don Rickert Design's Lutherie in Atlanta, GA. They are available at the Adventurous Muse Online Store for about $1,000.
When the current version of the Rickert Professional Performance Fiddle is sold out, we will probably go to Christian Benker Professional Model violins as the base instrument for the Professional Performance Fiddle II. Owing to the price of the Benkers, the price will have to be around $1,700. Keep that in mind. Everybody knows that we don't do Chinese when it comes to violins and fiddles.
If you are interested in reserving one of the last 3 of the current model and you a bit short on the cash, PLEASE email us immediately at don@donrickertdesign.com. If we are convinced (Dr. Rickert has the best B.S. meter on the planet) that you are sincere, we could discuss holding one aside. An important life lesson is that if you want something, you have to at least ask. We've been there!
We DO NOT have the Professional Model Fiddles listed on our Amazon.com storefront, so we are free to negotiate.
This is the first of many videos to come. It is the Carolina Catbirds in the Old-Time competition finals at the Hoppin' John Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention 2009. Video recorded (without a tripod...sorry about the shakiness) by Don Rickert of Don Rickert Design and Adventurous Muse.
The Carolina Catbirds are playing Green River March and Sally Anne. They are:
Tell your friends about us and ask if they might do the same
We know that this is a big favor to ask, as we know that everyone is busy navigating through these hard times, but we need your help more than you might know (we know that a lot of our customers who are friends know our story).
The various sites, like the ones listed in the title of this post, are called "social networking" sites. If you run a specialty business like our online musical instrument store, the Adventurous Muse Store, they, especially Twitter and YouTube, but also Facebook and MySpace, play a major role in getting people interested enough in what you are doing to visit your main sites. This is often called "driving traffic." These visits to your main sites, in turn, increase the probability of people finding your online store when searching with tools such as Google (How this works is very complicated and another topic altogether.)
Having many Followers, Friends, Subscribers, Fans (the various social networking sites use different names for the same concept) is essential to being noticed...getting attention in what has been called the "attention economy", where the number of Followers, Friends and Subscribers, etc. is an indicator of your "value".
In addition to all of the above, the social networking sites are far better than email newsletters, or even our blogs, for disseminating information quickly. In this case, important information would be new videos that we have put on YouTube, information about new instruments, store specials, etc. on Twitter, and so forth.
We have, in fact, found email lists to be almost useless, as people are so overwhelmed with the email they receive. Also, mass emailings often are automatically sent to either a spam or junk mail folder.
Bottom line: We are doing pretty well at getting followers on our Twitter accounts; however, many of these are not bona fide and some are apparently even members of the world's oldest profession. We need more legitimate followers on Twitter (don_rickert and AdventurousMuse). Also, because we just started using Facebook and MySpace in a serious way, we really need Friends on Facebook and MySpace. We can always use new Subscribers on YouTube.
Thank you for your help on this!
Don Rickert, Ph.D., IDSA
Managing Partner, Don Rickert Design
The Rickert Professional Performance Fiddles are set up to be powerful and loud...bassy on the G and D and brighter on the A and E. Unless you specify otherwise, they are set up as professional performance or contest-winning fiddles with low action at both the nut and bridge. These are German-made Christian Benker Violins that are converted to the seriously "tricked out" fiddle that Dr. Don Rickert generally uses when he performs or jams.
The the new Wittner planetary internally geared pegs for quick tuning changes on stage are an option, and highly recommended for stage use, especially when changing between standard and cross-tunings is part of your performance...no peg created locks into tune faster than the Wittner pegs.
The Professional Performance Fiddle has a Wittner polycarbonate tailpiece with 4 integral fine tuners, which bring the most sonic power possible out of your instrument. We can install a tailpiece without fine tuners if you like. The fine tuners on the Wittner come in handy for those tiny adjustments that the competition or professional fiddler needs. A Wittner Flesh-style polycarbonate chinrest with Hill-type clamps is stock equipment. We will install the chinrest of your choice once you place your order if you want something other than the Wittner.
The "stock" stringing is with D'Addario Helicores. For an extra $40, we will string it with Thomastik-Infeld SuperFlexible Rope-Core strings, which are about the most powerful fiddle strings ever created.
Click on any of the thumbnail images for a full-size view.
MP3s to Play or Download from this site We have given up on hosting our music files on Facebook and iLike, which seem to be perpetually broken, so we are moving files to this page.
NOTE: We still post MP3s to MySpace; however, there seems to be no way for you to download them.
