7-18-17 I'm working on a few new Tenor psalteries just for the website. For now, I am caught up on special orders except for one left hand Tenor. It will be finished soon, so the next to be completed will be listed on here. One will be a flame red box elder/maple model. That will be the first time I have listed one of them.
6-4-17 The registration for the 2017 East Tennessee Bowed Psaltery Gathering is now closed. The limit of 65 has been reached. There could be a few cancelations, so keep an eye on here for news of that. I am also close to having a curly redwood/walnut tenor psaltery finished to add to the website. It has a pickup installed. I'll be posting pictures and sound clips of it soon.
4-24-17 Lots of rain lately, but nice and dry here in the workshop. I keep a dehumidifier going all year long to keep the humidity level constant. I am continuing to work on orders that have come in. I currently have two curly ambrosia maple/walnut D Chromatic Baritone psalteries in progress. I have a curly redwood/walnut tenor psaltery to complete by the end of May. These are instruments that are sold. I'm putting the strings on three special orders this week. A curly ambrosia/walnut baritone, and ash/walnut D Tenor, and a birds-eye maple/walnut soprano. I will be shipping these out this week.
If you have been thinking about having me build a Ringing Strings psaltery just for you, now is a great time to get added to the list. I do have a few Tenor and Alto psalteries started that will be placed on the website when finished.
Ringing Strings
Bowed
Psalteries
handcrafted by
Rick Long
Clinton, Tennessee
(865) 660-4026
psalteryman@gmail.com
Scroll Down to See What's New
WELCOME
Here in my little corner of the "web" you will find -
- Handcrafted Bowed Psalteries
- Accessories
- Helpful Information
- Pride in Workmanship and Service
I have been building and playing bowed psalteries for the past 34 years. A love of music and woodworking began at an early age. At my fathers side, I became familiar with walnut, cherry, cedar and other woods native to North America. I gained great love and respect for the use of these materials The projects we completed provided the skills required for creating the beautiful instruments you find here today. My love for music came from my mother, she is very talented and can play the piano really great by ear. Quality and service are my top priorities. My long experience in playing the bowed psaltery gives me the knowledge to know what works well and what doesn't. My goal is to create the very best bowed psalteries available anywhere.
I love to tinker and come up with new designs. Some new ideas come out of my own head. I do listen to customers, many design changes have come from customer comments and wishes.
Please take a moment to browse the site. See the variety of figured woods used. Listen to the samples of my recordings. Visit my workshop page and see where these wonderful instruments are made. I take pride in offering lots of sound clips and videos, showing how my psalteries sound and are played. I even give you some sound clip examples of each psaltery I list for sale. I believe I am the only builder that offers this on their web site. The only better way to shop and compare, is to be standing in my workshop trying them out in person. You are even welcome to travel to East Tennessee to do that. I do all this because I am very proud of the quality bowed psalteries that I build and want you to be able to judge them for yourself.
Enjoy your time here, come back and visit often.
Green is Soprano
Blue is Alto
Yellow is Tenor
Red is Baritone
Purple is D Tenor
Orange is D Psaltery
Here's how the voices of all the different models of psalteries I build, compared to the piano keyboard in pitch. You can clearly see that they all have quite a few notes in common. Some folks are confused by the names soprano, tenor, and baritone, but they are just names to distinguish each model I build. Other builders may have a different opinion of what they call the psalteries they build. The important thing to consider is the range of notes, from the lowest to the highest. This will tell you what to expect. The first sound clip listed by each psaltery I offer for sale, gives you something to listen to and hear the entire range of notes. Every builder should do the same, so you have a chance to hear and compare. Even with some of the notes overlapping, there are still differences in tone. The has a lot to do with the size of the psaltery soundbox and the type and size of strings used.
Click here to go to my new Ringing Strings Bowed Psaltery Facebook page. I'll be putting things on there that you won't see on my website. Be sure to like the page to
receive notifications of new content. The Facebook page will also give you
another way to contact me for questions, post them on there or pm me.
Copyright Ringing Strings Music 2004-2017 All Rights Reserved
