From Kentucky to Maine
Jimmy Cox Defines Quality And Craftsmanship
Photos By Jamie Alexander
1,100 miles and 60 years perfecting a craft. From Wolf Creek, Kentucky to Topsham, Maine, banjo maker and innovator Jimmy Cox left his boyhood home in the bluegrass state for a life in the northeast, carrying with him a love of bluegrass music and the 5-string banjo. Born out of necessity, his passion for creating the perfect banjo turned into a business and has fueled the custom banjo market for decades. Cox explains “I had a pretty good banjo in the late 50s, but I never could get the kind of sound out of it, the clarity, sparkle, and dynamic range I thought a banjo could have. I worked on it a lot to try to improve it but never to my satisfaction. It was then that I thought I was going to try to make one.”
In his youth, Cox was surrounded by old-time and bluegrass music in Kentucky, and his luthier interests took shape at an early age. Around age 9, Cox made his first instruments: a cornstalk fiddle and a cigar box fiddle. Upon joining the Air Force in 1953, Cox left home for the first time and finished his military career stationed at Presque Isle Air Force Base in Maine. In 1955, Cox married Yvette, a native of Maine. After leaving the Air Force, Cox decided to stay in Maine while continuing to pursue his passion for playing and performing bluegrass across the northeast with his band The Blue Mountain Boys, which featured Bob Murray, Jerry Dunning, Charlie Gilliam, and ‘Smokey Val’ Roland Valliere. During this time, Cox built his first banjo, The Kentucky 5, which took about two years to complete using the kitchen table as his workshop. With his training as a jet engine specialist along with the practical farm skills learned from his father, Cox had a nose for perfection combined with the desire to enhance the 5-string banjo.
Attention to detail is crucial when fit and finish is the name of the game and make the difference between a good sounding banjo and a great one. “It’s about the fit of the tone ring; how it fits on the rim. It’s got to be just right, or we’ll run it through the band saw,” jokes Cox. But Jimmy Cox is not just a designer, inventor, and parts fabricator, he is a banjo player too. And a very good banjo player. When he was searching for the great tone and the perfect instrument as a young musician, there were not a lot of resources to modify the banjos on the market at the time and virtually no custom banjo makers. As a result, Jimmy Cox began his quest to design and build the perfect banjo.
Musicians, like Sonny Osborne, Ralph Stanley, and Raymond Fairchild, have all sung his praises and insisted on using Jimmy Cox banjo components in their instruments as these pros chased the perfect 5-string banjo sound. Raymond Fairchild collaborated with him to design and build a custom Fairchild model Cox banjo with every component of the instrument designed and built by Jimmy Cox with the exception of the tuners and plastic head. Fairchild once commented, “All I can say about Jimmy is, he is a genius.”
While tempted to move his business to Kentucky to be closer to some of his luthier business connections, Cox chose to remain in Maine with access to the local wood which fit his needs. “Finding the right wood is an important part of making a fine instrument. Northern Maine has some of the best hardwood in the country,” explains Cox. “The short growing season and slow growing trees mean the wood is more dense and useful for instruments.”
Frank Neat, a well-known banjo builder based in Russell Springs, Kentucky, is a Jimmy Cox customer and used his rims and resonators for all the famous Stanleytone banjos he built beginning with the first one created in 1975. In addition, every metal component used in the Stanleytone banjo, including the tone ring, was designed and fabricated by Cox with the exception of the tail piece and tuners. When asked about his work, Frank Neat commented, “When it comes to banjo rims, there are none better. Jimmy knows how to choose the wood for his rims. When he was making metal parts, I used them in all my banjos as well. All the Osborne Chief banjos have Jimmy Cox rims and resonators.”
Another prominent banjo builder based in Glasgow, Kentucky, Arthur Hatfield commented, “I have built over 500 banjos in the past 20 years using only Jimmy Cox rims, and I don’t believe there is anything better. I have also used his resonators and metal parts in many of the banjos that come from my shop.”
Jimmy Cox remains passionate about the banjo and bluegrass music, and The Five String Music Studio in Maine continues to buzz with activity as his grandsons, Adam and Jeremy, are part of the operation now and continue to handcraft and distribute banjo components, most notably rock maple rims and resonators. Jimmy Cox’s craftmanship is on display at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky in a new exhibition celebrating the Kentucky native and his undeniable impact on the 5-string banjo. In addition to telling his story, the exhibition features an incredible display of Cox custom banjos from the private collection of Owensboro, KY residents Glenn & Mary Higdon.
