Instruments

---

The beginning started with the first banjo built by Jack Ringley in 1980. It was made with light yellow birds-eye maple with a great sound and beautiful look.  Over the years, Jack refined his design and fabrication processes to improve sound quality including a proprietary aspect that provides a certain volume, crisp sound, and pop. He has built many banjos through the years with a trending use of black walnut, much of it sourced from family property. His two sons, Jonathan and David, built him a banjo from pecan wood harvested from behind the “old hog barn” in southeastern Georgia. It was presented to him as a surprise Father’s Day present in 2004. Ringley and Sons has collectively been building banjos over the past 40 years and developed a quality that is virtually unmatched in the industry.

Our banjos have been made from various types of hardwoods to include maple, walnut, and pecan.  Much of the wood was harvested from family property in TN and GA.  Our inventory also includes custom fabricated tail pieces, top tension hoops, and quality hardware from reputable sources such as StewMac.  We strive to ensure the top-quality materials are used in our banjos.

Virtually every bluegrass fan knows who Bill Monroe is and the brilliant sound of his Gibson F-5 mandolin. The F-5 mandolin was designed by Lloyd Loar while working at Gibson in the early 1920s; you should look him up if you’re not familiar. He was essentially a pioneer in the process of structural “tuning”, often referred to as tap tuning. This process involves the adjustment of soundboards, backboards, tone bars, f-holes, and air chamber sizes so that each element is tuned to a specific note. Ringley and Sons performs tap tuning on our mandolins using computer equipment and software to analyze the sound waves in the frequency spectrum to achieve the ultimate sound for each individual mandolin. Several years of research and prototyping have resulted in a consistent and proven process for tap tuning to achieve that legendary Lloyd Loar sound quality.

We use a variety of maple for our sides and backs to include curly (aka tiger, striped) and more recently quilted for a beautiful look.  The Adirondack spruce top sound boards are given immense scrutiny as a key factor in sound quality.  A lot of our current supply is sourced by Old Standard Wood out of Fulton, MO.  They are a top-notch supplier of many brands to include Gibson.

The guitar is undoubtedly the most popular and chosen instrument for virtually all genres of music and bluegrass is no exception. If you have ever done parking lot picking at a festival, then you know you can’t throw a pebble without hitting a guitar picker. So, we decided it was time to venture into the making of guitars with the dreadnought acoustic being the obvious choice. Although early in the process, our design approach includes forward X bracing with strategic placement and shaping of the tone bars along with our proven tap tuning process to get the best sound.

Our current builds involve two basic styles, either mahogany or rosewood for sides and back.  Our spruce top sound boards are scrutinized to ensure only top-quality material is used for the ultimate sound.  We try to maintain a diverse supply chain which includes StewMac, Old Standard Wood, and others.  

Picture of PaPa and Jonathan Ringley with black walnut tree from family property.  This resource was used in the making of many banjos.

The limb from the black walnut tree was cleaned and cut for use in the making of banjos.

Picture of spruce top sourced from Old Standard Wood.

Picture of maple back wood sourced from Old Standard Wood.

Picture of maple neck sourced from Old Standard Wood.

Mahogony back and sides along with Adirondack spruce sourced from StewMac.

This stack of maple wood was milled from a large maple tree felled on family property.

Picture of maple slab used for mandolin build.