* * Whitney Bonham studies luthiers of Southwest Virginia

Whitney Bonham works in Economic Development at Virginia Tech. She has a graduate degree in Public Administration. A musician from the tiny town of Chilhowie in Smyth County, she became interested in the area’s luthiers through the theoretical lens of “industry clusters.” A luthier is someone who makes stringed instruments. And an industry cluster is a geographic concentration of interrelated businesses, supply inputs, demand drivers, and related industries. As car manufacturers once clustered in Detroit, here in Southwest Virginia, we have lots of luthiers.

“Beginning in the late 1990s, an economic theorist named Michael Porter from Harvard helped to popularize industry clusters. Porter explored how industries remained competitive by clustering themselves around areas that gave them access to worker knowledge and skills, raw materials, appropriate environments, and customers. When similar types of companies cluster, they benefit one another from a productivity standpoint. All these things have made Southwest Virginia a great place to make instruments.”

The instruments made in this area are predominantly violins, mandolins, guitars, and dulcimers. Occasionally a luthier will build a banjo, viola, upright bass, or hammer dulcimer.

Whitney said that industry analysts discover clusters of diverse industries like craft beer making, wine making, sports apparel manufacturing, and ornamental forest products.

There are instrument makers throughout the region, from Giles and Montgomery Counties into the Crooked Road corridor, primarily from Franklin, Floyd, and Patrick Counties and then a somewhat separate cluster bounded by Galax, Marion, and Bristol. Finally, there are a handful of makers in the coalfields of Scott, Wise, and Dickenson Counties. I wrote a travelogue of The Crooked Road a few years back called Harmonic Highways, and interestingly I chose to split it into three regions I simply labeled East, Middle and West, closely corresponding to the regions Whitney had demarcated.

The area bounded by Galax, Marion, and Bristol has been especially productive, many of them protégées of the late Albert Hash, who many consider the godfather of the local industry. Each region, because of its unique culture, music, and geography, nurtured specialists in different types of instruments. That particular region has been known for Old Time music and thus the instruments are primarily fiddles, lap dulcimers, mandolins, and acoustic guitars.

“In Montgomery and Giles Counties, we see more banjo makers and some fiddle makers, and fewer guitar makers. The luthiers in Montgomery, Giles, Floyd, and Franklin Counties are a bit more into the ornate wood carving on the neck heads. The further west you go, the less you’ll see of that.”

The East region in Franklin, Floyd, and Patrick Counties had more of the Rockabilly influence. There is more African American influence, too, more Americana.

“The violins throughout Southwest Virginia are primarily descendent from German country fiddles rather than the symphonic fiddles of Italy. The banjos are descendent from African influences. The lap dulcimers most frequently produced in the region are an origin of Appalachia’s own Scotch-Irish ingenuity.

“The coalfields luthiers are making mostly mandolins and some dulcimers.

“The total economic influence is still small. There is great connectivity to the traditional dominant industries such as furniture making in the East, furniture making and machining in the Middle, and coal mining in the West. Many people found an easy transition from making furniture during the day to making guitars on the weekends.”

The experience in working with traditional woodworking tools such as lathes and chisels was invaluable. Many people developed specialties in varnishes, glues, and other woodworking materials. They developed visceral feels for the woods and their properties. Appalachian people live close to the land and they learn to work with the materials their natural world gives them. 

“People made instruments they wanted to play. They knew the sound they and their customers were looking for. The Italian masters of the 18^th Century were making instruments for Baroque music. Our luthiers are making instruments for Appalachian mountain music.”

Many luthiers are retirees or hobbyists. Only a few pursue this as a profession. However, even the hobbyists have enormous skills.

“This area is a melding of Scots-Irish, German, English, and African influences. The instrument makers mirror the diverse melding of the music. We have also had native woods like red spruce and American chestnut which our builders have used. A tree may have been harvested 100 years ago and have been used in a barn that we’ve recently salvaged. The weathering and character of the wood has changed over the decades due to the climate.

“We have a really special, unique thing here.”

Whitney expressed some concern over the ability of the next generation to persevere, especially given that the woodworking and machining industries had largely left the area and with them the pool of talented people. But we still need to educate our children in the sciences and in history.

“Instrument making is a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) occupation.”