What is Violin Maple

We recently coined the term “violin maple” when we discovered that the maple used in violin making is superbly suited to the most beautiful banjo sound. The maple that we now use to make our three-ply maple rims is the exactly the same wood that is used in the sides and carved backs of the finest violins made today and in the long history of the violin.

What does this mean?

Like many enthusiasts, we banjo pickers sometimes fall into a, “if some is good, more must be better” mindset. If a hard wood is good for a three-ply rim, then a harder wood should be better…right? If building ANYTHING was that simple, there would be no high quality or variety in banjos, cars, food or houses.

If I make a pizza and just pour twelve pounds of cheese and a pound of oregano on it, it will not taste like the pizza that most of us think of as pizza. But hey, “if some cheese and oregano is good, more must be better right?” This isn’t only true with pizza and banjos. Some vitamin A is good for you. Too much is toxic. If your car gas mixture is “too rich” you not only burn gas, wasting a lot of money, but you will foul your engine. Comedians have long known how many jokes in a row will keep ‘em laughing and when to stop because the audience needs a rest. The intensity of laughter cannot be sustained indefinitely. The greatest musician’s don’t play everything fast… they vary the music with fast and slow passages.

All things that we perceive as “beautiful” or “wonderfully conceived” are always a “beautiful balance of ingredients and techniques”. Every beautiful banjo is the product of a recipe, or a “design” that is superbly executed. For years the banjo industry believed that “you must use rock-maple for a banjo rim. It was just accepted as the truth. What was not understood then, was when a vibrating part of an instrument is harder, it vibrates at a higher frequency, and can inhibit richer, lower frequencies that create fullness of tone.

The problem is accentuated when a heavy bronze tone ring is mounted onto a rock hard wood rim. The rim is too stiff to allow any lower frequencies to bring out any of the fullness in a banjo tone. This is one of the reasons highly trained, classical musician’s have long considered banjos to sound “tinny”.

While working with Greg Deering, Jens Kruger discovered the virtues of the maple used in violins. This specie of maple has been used in violins for hundreds of years. It was chosen for violins for the same reason it is so wonderful in banjos… it’s full, beautifully balanced musical tone and response. It is not as hard and stiff as sugar maple and much of the fullness comes from the rim vibrating more freely or easily. The violin maple does not “stifle the vibration” like harder woods.

When a singer “tightens” the throat, the voice becomes harsh, with a thin, un-substantial sound. Like a relaxed-throated vocalist, the violin maple allows the banjo to ring and sing without the “ice-pick in the ear” biting sharpness of harder, stiffer woods. It doesn’t screech…it sings. This fullness is the result of the rim being able to vibrate more easily which allows more lower frequencies to influence and sweeten the high frequencies. The tight vocal chords sound thin because they are “tight with tension” which reduces the fullness of sound because there is less vibration of lower frequencies.

Just like every great recipe, every great design or technique in art, the most beautiful, best tasting or most efficient combinations are not created by “adding more garlic” or just making everything as hard as nails, or just adding more inlays, etc. It is combining the right elements with a focus on “how” they interact and the “overall effect” when they are blended.

When you read about banjos in magazines or on the internet, remember that every piece of every banjo has a definite and critical purpose. Be very wary of claims like “the heavier the better” or “every part made of bell metal” or “the hardest rim”.. If you read a claim that “more is better,” it would be “best to keep looking” to find reasons “why” the claims are true.

Every aspect of a Deering banjo can be explained. We will share more of these design concepts in future articles. Next time, we’ll talk about “quiet metal” and why some parts should sing, and others should be quiet.

This type of wood is now being used on our Goodtime banjos all the way up our line - including our Tenbrooks banjos.

Check out our Tenbrooks banjos here...