Joyner Instruments

At Riverbend Instruments we strive to innovate by creating new designs and instruments that are accessible to musicians of all levels. Our flagship instrument, the solid body electric ukulele was created not only as a way to push the instrument into new territory, but as a way to bring a new tool to singer songwriters and musicians. Founder Adam Mendel, started building instruments in 2014 by bringing a cajon building class to the high school where he taught. After teaching over 50 students to build cajons and cookie tin banjos, Adam re-ignited his long time dream of building stringed instruments. Mendel says, "With the success of my first few instruments I was hooked and was searching for a way to continue building. I knew that I didn't need walls full of instruments in my house, so I wanted to find a way to share my work and get it out to the public. I had been plucking the Ukulele for several years after being inspired by musicians like Jake Shimabokuro and Gabby Pahinui and realized that the intersection of this interest and my newfound love of building instruments could be a jumping off point. I started sketching up solid body ukes and dreaming big. Riverbend Instruments is the result of those dreams.