Cedar Mountain Banjos

What products are listed for this advertiser?

Made in America Banjos, and Made in the USA Ukuleles.

For most of his life, woodworking has been a passion for CMB founder Lo Gordon. In 1993 Lo and his wife Mary sold their custom wooden garage door business and moved to Brevard, NC to pursue their dream of opening a music store and starting a business making open-back banjos. At the time of the move, Lo had been playing banjo for a number of years and had made several banjos for himself.

Having moved to North Carolina, Lo and Mary opened their music store Celestial Mountain Music in downtown Brevard, and started Cedar Mountain Banjos in 1996. In the midst of this transition, they continued to perform in their family band with sons Tim and Matt Gardner. Over the years, the music store became a central hub for the vibrant local music scene. In 2013 Celestial Mountain Music changed ownership and is now Southern Comfort Records, and continues to offer top-notch instruction and instrument repairs in the same historic downtown location.

Meanwhile, open-back banjo players and aficianados around the globe began to take notice of the fine artisanship and design of Cedar Mountain's offerings. Today notable players such as Sheila Kay Adams, David Holt, Mary Z. Cox, Hilary Dirlam, Darin Gentry, Diane Jones, Ernie Williams, Al Petteway and Linda Williams play Cedar Mountain banjos.

In 2005 Lo's son Tim Gardner, a graduate of NC State's School of Forestry, started with Cedar Mountain Banjos after working several years as a timber framer and house carpenter. Having built over 300 banjos since 2005, he continues to manage the company, focus on new concepts, and maintain CMB as an industry leader for fine design, craftsmanship, and customer service. In September 2013, Tim took over ownership of CMB and moved the workshop to the new Mills River location just outside of Brevard.

Tim is an in-demand acoustic musician, producer, teacher and recording artist around the Asheville-Brevard area. For more information about Tim's musical projects please visit coyoteridgeaudio.com.


The following is a reply from Cedar Mountain Banjos to our question – "Are your products American Made?"

How do you know the products you have listed are Made in the USA?
Before including products in our database we review the advertiser’s website and/or contact them to ascertain the origin of their products. Some advertisers sell both Made in USA products and foreign ones. Therefore we highly recommend you review FAQ 2.

We immediately investigate any complaints regarding deceptive Country of Origin claims. If we determine an advertiser's claim is not truthful we will immediately remove the product/s from our database and suspend our relationship with the Company making the claim.

To document your complaint, email us by using our Contact Us page. We can only respond to complaints that have been submitted in writing.

What does Made in USA mean?
There is no law requiring most products to be labeled Made In USA, or have any other disclosure about the amount of U.S. content. However, for job creation purposes (see our Big Secret tab), if you have a choice between an imported product and one with no country of origin on its label, choose the product without a country of origin over the imported one. This is true because the product without the country origin on its label has at least some American labor in its content and the imported one most likely does not.

Note: Imported products are required by law to country of origin on their label and products partially Made In USA do not. To answer this question completely reviewing our Labeling Tips 1, 2 & 3. These tips are accessible from scrolling to the bottom of our home page clicking Browse All Tips button.