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Don Rickert Musician Shop

What D. Rickert Musical Instruments Has Been Up To So Far in 2014

Posted by Donald Rickert on

We have been quite busy at D. Rickert Musical Instruments. Read on…

Established a New Online Store and Facebook Business Page

We spent more time than ever expected (about 5 weeks) migrating our online store from one store processing system to another. In the process, we got rid of the old store name, Adventurous Muse Store and established a new name, Don Rickert Musician Shop (www.DonRickertMusicianShop.com). While we were at it, we established a more state-of-the-art (e.g. secure) payments gateway and credit card processing service.

In establishing the new store, which is still in the process of establishing its presence to Google and other search engines, we completely reorganized things, getting rid of as much junk (items that know body seemed to care about, duplicated products in multiple categories, etc.) as possible.

The Facebook Business Page

It is called Don Rickert Musician Shop (D. Rickert Musical Instruments). The URL is www.facebook.com/DonRickertMusicianShop.

Facebook has been telling us for some time about how a Facebook business page is going to change our lives (more business, bliss, etc.). I have yet to see any benefit. You get ONE chance to do a mass invite of all of your personal Facebook “Friends” to “Like” your business page.

DonRickertMusicianShop

About 25% of Donald Rickert’s friends responded by liking our business page.  I know that there are a lot of “Friends” who asked me to “like” their business pages and I did, but have not responded in kind for our business page. There is a bit of a quid quo pro imbalance here, I would say! I don’t plan to carefully compare names, so you don’t have to worry about me being pissed off at you…but if you have not “liked” our page yet, I beseech thee to do so…now!

Anyway, the only way to get more of those supposedly precious “Likes” on you business page (besides contacting/annoying your Friends on a one-by-one basis) is to buy (as in, pay money to Facebook) for popup ads from Facebook.

Conclusion of my Facebook rant

Facebook is a nice place to post photos and to keep in touch with my actual friends and family. Period! I could broadcast on Facebook that something really great will happen if you visit our online store, Don Rickert Musician Shop (or some horrible if you do not) and it would not make ANY difference…ever!

It is our two blogs that make a difference in reminding people that our online store, Don Rickert Musician Shop, exists. The blog addresses are:

The only problem is that one has to post to a blog A WHOLE LOT, as the half-life of a new blog article’s power to attract online store traffic is maybe 3 days at best.

Introduction of Guitars, Mandolin Family and Electric/Electronic Instruments

If you have visited our online store, Don Rickert Musician Shop, you will surely have noticed that we have finally begun to realize the several years of planning to introduce a number of really incredible fretted instruments as well as groundbreaking electronic violin and mandolin family instruments. If you have not visited Don Rickert Musician Shop recently, we would be quite pleased to welcome you when you do (how about now :-).

Our NEW Historic Guitars

We have introduced a whole bunch of historic acoustic guitars, replicating instruments from the early-19th Century (called the “Romantic Period”) to the 1930s. We have a number of factory made guitars, including a really cool 1920s “banjo head” tenor guitar, all to which we have applied our special lutherie magic (you cannot buy the special versions we sell at the musical mega-stores. See the Fretted and/or Plucked Instruments > Historic Guitar Replicas (Factory Built) Category at the Don Rickert Musician Shop.

Lacote2

Historic Acoustic Guitar (Lacote Replica) Don Rickert Musician Shop

We have also listed a few high dollar instruments that are 100% luthier-built in our workshops. There are more of these to come…very soon! See the Fretted and/or Plucked Instruments > Historic Guitar Replicas (Luthier-Built) Category at the Don Rickert Musician Shop.

Our NEW “Big Mandolins”

We currently have a Octave Mando-Guitar, A Mandocello and a luthier-built Octave Mandolin. More of these to come soon. See the Fretted and/or Plucked Instruments > Mandocellos, Octave Mandolins and Related Category at the Don Rickert Musician Shop.

Comparison Octave vs. Mandocello Goldtone Octave Mando-Guitar 3 Rickert Mandocello 6

Our New Electronically-Augmentable Electric Violins and Mandolin Family Instruments

“Wha?”, you say be on the lookout for an announcement this week and visit Don Rickert Musician Shop frequently for an explanation and product listings.

Suffice it to say right now that these are electric violins and mandolins like no others. They are professional performance instruments specifically designed to drive signal-processing equipment (e.g. electric guitar effects boxes) previously deemed impossible (or at least really difficult) for amplified violins and mandolins.

The design of these new violins and mandolins make use of the extensive experience of Dr. Don Rickert with his many experimental electronic bowed and plucked instruments, some of which have made it to the semi-finals of prestigious international musical instrument design competitions such as:

The Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

  • The Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition (2012): semi-finals
  • The Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition (2013): semi-finals
  • acoustic
  • D. Rickert
  • Don Rickert
  • electric
  • electronic
  • guitars
  • historic
  • mando-guitar
  • mandocello
  • mandolin
  • mandolin family
  • Musical Instruments
  • Musician Shop
  • Octave
  • online store
  • Stromberg-Voisinet
  • violin