Pictured directly above, a Ron Vaughn, compound-jingle FireBird Tambourine with clean-mounted natural skin:
Natural Skins, Clean Mounted
All Ron Vaughn natural skin tambourine skins are clean-mounted without the use of tacks, nails, compression bands, or other mounting hardware. This allows the instrument’s skin to have a 100% clean, smooth, tactile performance surface. This ‘clean-mounting’ also removes unnecessary additional instrument weight from mounting hardware.
Many of the world’s more creative performers today make use of all these smooth, hardware-free natural skin performance surfaces as there is no ‘interfering’ hardware.
I developed this clean-mounting process beginning in 1969 when I first began finding and using concert tambourines, panderos, and various hand drums available at the time. After developing this ‘clean-mounting’ technique for six or seven years, it became the default way I always prepared my instruments. This refined process proved to be strong, light weight, completely reliable, and the instruments were and are terrific to perform with.
Through the years I have continued to refine this technique to what it is today. We continue to use this same highly successful process today, with reliable, long-lasting performance results.
So many professional percussionists and other performers in the major orchestras, ensembles, sound stages and recording studios throughout the world rely on Ron Vaughn Percussion’s beautifully tensioned natural skin instruments, every day.
First rules of care for your professional, natural skin instruments:
“If you consider the best parental general and travel care of a young child, that same awareness and thought process can help in informing you about the best care for your professional, natural-skin instruments, i.e.: never leave them in a closed and parked vehicle in any season, day or night, ever.
If your professional instruments are stored/travel in professional road cases, make certain your cartage company and roadies understand about protecting your cases from extended harmful exposure to temperatures, high or low.
Keep your instruments out of and away from direct sunlight, such as near direct sun-facing windows. Keep your instruments safe distances away from direct heat and/or air conditioning vents and HVAC cold air returns.
Just remember, if you wouldn’t leave a small child there, don’t leave your professional instruments there either“.
Ron Vaughn
ACCLIMATING: keep in mind that your professional natural skin instruments can gently tolerate a wide temperature range, if the temperature change is very gradual, and the temperatures are not unreasonable. An element of common sense is always needed: Extreme temperatures, i.e., extremely high or extremely low temperatures will always damage fine natural skins, just as they can harm human beings.
ACCLIMATING EXAMPLE: when we ship instruments to players in the winter months, we strongly suggest to them that they allow the arriving outer carton to rest, unopened, in their home/studio/concert hall, for a full 48 hours to allow the instrument/skin to gently acclimate to the very different temperature and humidity environment of their home/studio/concert hall/sound stage.
PERFORMER/OWNERS RESPONSIBILITY: Once one of our instruments are in your possession, ownership and care, you are responsible for watching out for these natural skins.
If you allow your clean-mounted natural-skin tambourine to be damaged, however accidentally, these natural skins can be replaced, at the performers expense.
The moment you take ownership of one of these exceptional instruments, you are fully in charge of and responsible for whatever happens to and with that fine tool.
SHARING: Take great care in who you allow to use/play your natural skin instruments. Not all performers have the understanding needed, especially in the momentary ‘excitement’ of trying someone else’s ax.
HISTORY & TRACK RECORD OF HIGHLY RELIABLE NATURAL SKIN INSTRUMENTS FROM RON VAUGHN PERCUSSION: we have been making and shipping these clean-mounted natural skin instruments for well over 50 years now. We know from decades of personal experience that these skins can be used for many, many years. So many of our instruments have been in the hands of professional performers for decades, and the skin tensions remain highly reliable, decade after decade, in the very capable care of these professionals.
Skin Tension and skin care, the players responsibility:
The skin tension is ideal for performance, and will change with temperature and humidity. In the most dry conditions, the skin can have a higher surface tension. In more humid conditions, the surface tension of the skin will lessen. For humid days, it’s best to arrive at the performance venue early, and allow the natural heat of the stage lights to gradually increase the skin surface tension. Generally, applying any kind of artificial heat to tighten a natural skin like this is not a good idea. Once artificial, (non-ambient stage), heat is (unfortunately) applied to a natural skin, the skin fibers will stretch in the artificial heat, and after cooling later, will have lost some of their natural strength and performance tension. In time, almost no amount of artificial heat will return a natural skin to good performance surface tension.
Help with humidity control:
When we build our tambourine compression cases, . . . see Ron Vaughn compression cases at this link: https://ronvaughn.net/compression-case-model-rv-ccase-0001-cng-for-natural-skin-professional-tambourines/ we include humidity control packs from a company called Boveda. If you would like to make use of some of these humidity packs, you can find Boveda Humidity packs online directly at https://store.bovedainc.com/collections/shop-all, or from many online sellers.
You can put one (or more, depending on the calculated need) of these inexpensive packs in your bags/cases, and they will go a long way to stabilizing the humidity inside your bags/cases.
HYGROMETERS:
We also include simple hygrometers in our compression cases. Hygrometers actively display the humidity value inside the bag or case.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A humidity level of about 40% inside a bag or case is generally considered quite good for professional musical instruments.
Performance of a tambourine with a well-tensioned, clean-mounted natural skin:
There is nothing quite like the performance of a fine natural skin tambourine in the hands of someone who truly knows how to use one. The surface patina is exact and even, so the softest articulations speak with great clarity. Thumb rolls can be brilliant. Accents are crisp and beautiful within the dynamic range of the instrument.
More that anything, tambourines with well applied natural skins possess great ‘presence’, whether in a live performance, or in a well recorded track.
There is nothing else quite like them.
Ron Vaughn Percussion:
If you have questions about the care and use of these natural skin instruments, please contact us directly. We have been working with and helping performers all over the world now for well over 50 years. Your contributions are greatly and genuinely appreciated.
Ron Vaughn
Owner, Ron Vaughn Percussion
© Ron Vaughn, 1975-2025
Ron Vaughn Percussion 
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