Maple Leaf Music was started August 10, 1979.
After 5 wonderful years of building banjos with the Arthur E. Smith Banjo Company, I felt it was time to earn a living. Having grown up in a retail store in Great Falls, Montana, running a music store was a natural fit. Starting in a second floor lawyer’s office, after several moves to different locations, we are most comfortably settled in a beautiful Victorian building with the original tin ceilings at 23 Elliots Street. Starting the business with Yamaha and Martin guitars, half a dozen AE Smith banjos (my pay off from the banjo company), GHS strings and Nonesuch records, I am still faithful to the original concept of a high quality stringed instrument shop.
Today our incredible selection of great hand-made acoustic guitars is the shining star of the business.
Instruments from Collings, Huss and Dalton, Santa Cruz, Bourgeois, and the local favorite Froggy Bottom bring people from all over the country here to Brattleboro. We also carry guitars by Larrivee, Seagull, and Simon Patrick, all from Canada. Currently we are in the process of phasing out new electric guitars. We just can’t compete with the mail-order catalogs and discount houses and are focusing on what we do best: great acoustic instruments. We still welcome electric guitars on trade. Our used instruments often include Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Guild, Taylor and whatever else we can come up with! We encourage trade-ins as a way of helping our customers buy a new instrument when their musical needs change. This adds to our ever changing stock of used instruments; we also acquire used pieces through direct purchase.
Old Time Banjos and mandolins
As a former owner of the Arthur E. Smith Banjo Company, Maple Leaf owner Kate Spencer picks up as many of these great banjos as can be found, as well as other interesting used banjos. We have Bluegrass and Old-Timey five strings, and regular four string and Irish tenor banjos. New mandolins from the Vermont mandolin company Rigel and from Collings are also available as well as used mandolins.
Ukuleles
Our new found passion for ukes has lead to many fine lines of these instruments. The Pono and Big Island ukes are made in China and sell in the $300-$800 range. Kalas, also from China go from $95 to $150 with gig bag. The pride and joy in our ukes are the tenors and concerts from Collings. Our inventory is constantly in flux; check out the instrument section of the web site for what we have in stock.
Guitar, uke and banjo books
Maple Leaf’s inventory features a good selection of instructional materials and song books for the instruments we carry. Want to learn how to play your new uke from Maple Leaf? Just ask and we will recommend just the right book for you.
Maple Leaf has a very large collection of fiddle tune books.
Right now we don’t have the time or the energy to add our hundreds of books to the web site. However, feel free to call or e-mail to see what we have. Cape Breton, Irish, Scottish, International, American, Bluegrass, Old Time, Contra- we’ve got them all. You can never have enough fiddle tune books; there’s always that one tune you need the music for!
We look forward to seeing you!
We would love to meet you! Brattleboro is the first stop off interstate 91 if you are coming from the south into Vermont to ski or summer vacation. Make a special trip to see us. There are many wonderful shops, restaurants, and bed-and-breakfasts, and plenty of parking here; do be sure to put money in the meters or buy a ticket in the lot next to the store or in the parking garage across the street. If you are a lover of music it will be well worth your time. We’re easy to find; just follow our simple directions.