Here is a whimsical and kind of scary picture of our new tiny backpacker fiddle with a huge sound (anticipate a YouTube video soon. Click on the image for a larger view.
This photo shows an optional chin rest installed.Additional photos can be seen at our Picassa photo album site. The fiddle is currently available as a kit (as in the kind you complete yourself) at the Adventurous Muse Store in order to keep the price nice and attractive. There are a number of options available to "trick out" this cool little (but full 4/4 length) fiddle.
As mentioned in a recent post on the Don Rickert Design and the Don Rickert Design Blog, we are going to be dumping unfruitful musical products and will definitely continue with musical instruments of our own design.
In addition to our successful current lineup of Octave Violins, historic pochettes and modern travel
violins sold via Adventurous Muse, and the new Overtone Fiddle synthesizer project, we have a new
Octave Fiddle on the drawing board as well as a really skinny (but full
4/4 length) travel fiddle that is extremely durable for the most
punishing environments. We have some concept sketches of the new travel fiddle, which we are currently calling the Rickert Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle, shown with an optional Wolf center-mount chin rest installed. The instrument is 2" wide and standard 4/4 length. It is intended to be played with a full-size bow. As usual, you can expand the images by clicking on them.
One can see the the Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle is definitely an outgrowth of the design work on the Overtone Fiddle.
The following photo shows an actual Wolf Special center-mount chin rest on a regular violin.
The Rickert Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle is designed to be fit with a center-mount version of the StoweMaster shoulder rest with the attachment hardware permanently mounted to the instrument rather than being held in place with the chin rest (impossible with the Wolf Special chin rest anyway). Some photos of a standard side-mount StoweMaster on a regular violin are shown below. We will have some photos of the special StoweMaster on an actual Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle pretty soon.
Will the Rickert Mountaineer Backpacker Fiddle sound as good as the Adventurer IIb or IIc?
No--not even close; however the target sell price is not much more than the other cheap travel fiddles on the market.
This Neil Gow Pochette (Dancing Master Kit or Pocket Fiddle) and our new period leather case by Don Rickert Design, similar to the one that Thomas Jefferson used for his pochette is off to a customer in Japan. The fiddle and the case are both available at the Adventurous Muse Online Store.
This is the instrument that many of our customers have been waiting for. Over $100,000 of design research, consumer research and technical R&D went into the new Adventurer II Travel Violin from Don Rickert Design. The Adventurer IIb has a tweaked internal bass port system and is made with Western Red Cedar sides instead of spruce and has a curly maple back instead of walnut. Its sound is amazing. It is available at the Adventurous Muse online store (www.AdventurousMuseStore.com). This instrument was designed by Dr. Don Rickert of Don Rickert Research & Design. This extraordinary backpacker fiddle (or violin if you prefer) has various available options, including:
Clamp-on shoulder rest
Various types of tops (more on this below)
Wittner planetary geared tuning pegs
Extreme Pochette Case
Click on any of the thumb-nail images below for full-size views.
The fact is that the boxy (but popular nevertheless owing to its superior sound and playability) original Adventurer Travel Violin does not correspond with everyone's idea of beauty. The Adventurer II is curvy like the Neil Gow Pochette. Dr. Rickert invented our own carbon fiber reinforced chin rest system and clamp-on adapter to accommodate Kun-style shoulder rests. Dr. Rickert used every known technique and implemented some of his own theories for coaxing power and depth from an instrument that is just over 3 inches wide, including floating plate (a.k.a. free plate) design, a double top (optional at extra cost), "wrap-around" soundboard, tuned porting (see those tell-tale holes where the neck meets the body in some of the photos?) and the latest in bass bar research for starters. The bass bar is a Don Rickert design inspired by published designs of other contemporary luthiers such as Joseph Curtain (i.e. NOT a patent infringement of the Zaret Patent Bassbar).
The photos show the Adventurer II Travel Violin with a very traditional varnish; dark amber ribs and back and lighter amber top. It is available in a wide variety of finishes, including black fine line Celtic "tattooing" under an amber or clear finish. Send an email to drickert@bellsouth.net when you place your order to let us know that you want a custom finish.
Options for this new version of the Adventurer II Travel Violin include:
Reclaimed old Sitka Spruce top (no extra charge)
Canadian Eco-Certified Western Red Cedar top (no extra charge)
Reclaimed 100 year old Redwood top (add $100)
Double-Tops (veneer-Nomex(tm)-veneer "sandwich"): Learn the basics of double tops... for musical instruments
Spruce-Nomex-Spruce (add $300)
Spruce-Nomex-Cedar (add $300)
Cedar-Nomex-Cedar (add $300)
Carbon Fiber-Nomex-Spruce or Cedar (add $400)
Carbon Fiber-Nomex-Carbon Fiber (add $500)
Carbon Fiber Balsa Core Composite Top AND Back (add $800)
Custom Finish, Design Etching, etc.: Varies, but generally in the $50 to $300 range
At least one design museum show featuring the Adventurer II Travel Violin and the major industrial design and violin-specific shows and competitions are in the works for 2009.
This instrument is only available to U.S. residents until all Patent issues are resolved. The only exception is a musical instrument research group with whom we are collaborating with at Aalborg University in Denmark (i.e. colleague, Professor Dan Overholt's Mediology program).
