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 of the tone ring 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. Check out some of the pictures in the gallery section.
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. Visit the gallery to see some pictures of RF-5 mandolins by Ringley & Sons.
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. We will provide updates as we progress down this new phase of Ringley & Sons.
Stay tuned!
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