Official Luthiers Forum!

Here I go again. Back in 2005, I was toying around with building a F5 mandolin. During that time, I purchased a red spruce split top billet from Ted Davis. I still have that billet in the box it came in. On the hand-written receipt signed by Ted Davis, it said the billet was cut in 1991. The return address was from Loudon, TN. I still have the receipt, box, and billet and I'm reluctant to monkey with it as it appears to be really nice. I know Mr. Davis has passed away since then, bless his heart. I was wondering what became of his business since. I spoke to him on the phone when buying the wood, but didn't know him beyond that, except for what I could find out about him on the internet. He must have been a really cool guy. I would love to have some great wood (red spruce) to build the D28('s) that I am about to undertake (pre-war style). I'm a sucker for heritage, old ways, quality, and history. For some reason, some day, I will make a mandolin out of that billet....just not yet.

Any of you guys have info/history/acquaintance with Mr. Davis? I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks...curtis

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

John Arnold posts here occasionally. He and Ted Davis were good friends and worked together to identify and harvest increasingly rare old growth red spruce trees. After Ted passed, John helped his widow organize and sell much of the material that was left behind. A search here (or on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum) will lead you to a great deal of information about John and Ted's efforts. Over the past few years John has been passing his insight and knowledge along to two young brothers, Matt and Nathan Hampton. It's a cool story. The Hampton Brothers sell red spruce (and other tonewoods) through their eBay store.

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George :-)

Hey thanks! That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I now know where to reach out to.

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

You might want to rename the thread "Ted Davis - Red Spruce questions" or something like that.... might get some more traction specific to Ted.

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Ted and I worked together on cutting red spruce and acquiring other tonewoods like Brazilian rosewood. We cut red spruce most every year from 1990 until he retired in 2002. By 1990, I had known Ted casually for about 15 years, but our relationship became much closer after I started going with him on red spruce trips. Ted was always generous with his knowledge and would help me any way he could. Of course, I returned the favor many times. Though we lived 80 miles apart, we would stay in touch, since there were so few other professional luthiers in the area at that time.
Ted was definitely my mentor when it came to cutting red spruce, and I feel a deep sense of paying it forward to Nathan and Matt Hampton.
When Ted passed away in October 2008, I helped sell his wood for his widow, the majority of which was sold on Ebay over the next 2 1/2 years. In December 2010, Nathan and Matt contacted me through Ebay after seeing my ads. They had moved to East Tennessee from Southeast Kentucky, and wanted to learn guitar making. When they heard all my stories about cutting red spruce with Ted, they asked me to help them get started with that aspect of the business. It was a natural thing to do.....the boys loved being in the mountains as much as I do, and they quickly became expert in cutting all types of wood.
Once the trees are harvested, Nathan concentrates on cutting the billets into tops and Matt does the much of the surfacing and selling on Ebay. In addition, Nathan has built a handful of guitars, and Matt has become proficient in CNC inlay work.
For sawing wood for instruments, Nathan has the 16" Hitachi bandsaw that Ted used.
Here is a thread on UMGF about cutting red spruce with the Hamptons last year:

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/topic/170694/Red-Spruce-cutting-2015

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John

Wow, John..that's a great story. I have decided to get the next tops from those guys. I think it's great to know the story behind the scenes in a lot of the things we do. Thanks for sharing!

curtis

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"