FireFly Tambourines by Ron Vaughn . . .
Imagine a tambourine made with only a perfectly textured and tensioned natural skin head, all by itself. No tacks, no nails, no plastic or metal constricting bands . . . just a beautiful skin.
Next, add a collection of stunning, compound jingles, all suspended on slender Phosphorous Bronze super thin stems, with an almost pure silver compound for remarkable, very light-weight super assembled strength, culminating in pure Beryllium capture plates.
Lastly, add just a hint of a solid maple shell, which is almost no shell at all: thin, minimal, and very strong to hold everything together for this delicate, incredible little instrument with the full, rich, throaty dense sound that will carry to the last row of any concert hall balcony, all at the softest dynamic you can possibly play.
That’s a Ron Vaughn FireFly Tambourine.
To quickly find our 8″ diameter Fire Fly Tambourine in our online store, click HERE:
To quickly find our 10″ diameter FireFly Tambourine in our online store, click HERE:
Ron’s FireFly Tambourines are an especially identifiable sound. They are different from what musicians generally think of or expect in a tambourine.
These unique instruments all have beautifully mounted natural heads. These skins are mounted to an almost non-shell, as a FireFly shell is so minimal. Still, this FireFly shell remains a complete, solid maple,
super-narrow shell.
FireFly Jingles are compound, and suspended from Phosphorous Bronze stem assemblies.
Jingles in a FireFly are a combination of Ron’s ‘Star Hammered’ T-10’s, and his 1″ diameter fluted matched & off-set geometric design. These FireFly fluted jingles are made from one of the German Silver alloys, and then ‘tuned’ per one of Ron’s library of unique and original heat-treating recipes.
These jingles are in dense groups in a FireFly, with each Phosphorous Bronze stem assembly containing six jingles each, plus the Beryllium capture plate.
Assembly is completed with an almost pure silver compound. This is the same compound that was developed and used so extensively in the NASA programs to increase tensile strength and reduce assembly weight by a factor of 10 and more. This differential reduced the weight of NASA’s Space Shuttles and other space craft by thousands of pounds.
This same technology is also used today by companies like SpaceX and Tesla.
And, this same NASA Silver provides the very same strength and weight-reduction in the FireFly Tambourine, where a performer can feel every gram differential of weight in their hand.