Nathan Coles
Black Swamp Soy Wax for Tambourines
A sustainable alternative to beeswax. 🐝
What's with wax anyway?
Within the orchestral percussion world it is a well known practice to apply wax around the edge of your tambourine head to perform various extended techniques on the instrument such as a thumb or finger roll. Beeswax, surfboard wax, and bow rosin are some options used to increase friction on the heads of tambourines to execute these rolls on the surface of the instrument.
You can watch a thumb roll being performed at the video below:
Black Swamp Educator, John Parks, created a great video tutorial on how to apply wax to a tambourine head and how to perform various rolls on the tambourine surface.
Introducing, Soy Wax
100% vegan, made from renewable materials, and packaged sustainably.
As part of our ongoing initiative to introduce more eco-friendly accessories (such as our new wood drum dampeners) and production habits into our catalog of products, Black Swamp Percussion is introducing a new Soy Wax compound for tambourines.
This new Soy wax is not a replacement for our existing beeswax compound, but rather a more sustainable alternative. We have made conscious efforts to make sure our beeswax is locally and ethically sourced to reduce any potential harm to an increasingly fragile species. This awareness has pushed us to think of future products that put the planet in mind, first and foremost. Apart from the Soy being a highly renewable material, we're also using a recycled sleeve and sticker for packaging. The Soy wax has a smoother feel, but is tacky enough to rival the performance of our traditional beeswax.
Hear From the Pros
We developed the Soy Wax compound after months of trials and experimenting. As with any new product, we wanted to hear what our artists and educators thought of the product before we made it official.
"I really dig the soy! It honestly has a smoother, softer feel than the bees wax. I will definitely be switching to this on all my tambourines." - Josh Jones
"I think Soy wax works really well! It is tacky enough that the friction/response is very sensitive." - Andrea Venet
"So far it seems great. It’s not as thick or sticky as regular beeswax, which for me is a plus since I’ve never used a lot on my tambourines." - Jeff Irving
"The Soy wax has worked for me so far. It does not leave a super tacky/ sticky residue on the head, but does provide a great surface on the tambourine for finger/ thumb rolls." - Abby Fisher
Time to Make the Switch
If you're ready to make the switch or try out the new Soy Wax for yourself, visit our tambourines page, scroll to the bottom, and click the buy now button to purchase from available retailers!