The Whitetop region in southwestern Virginia has a long tradition of fine luthiers. Martha Spencer's uncle Albert Hash was a well-known and respected fiddle maker that shared his knowledge of the craft with countless people. His daughter Audrey Hash Ham learned the fiddle making craft from her father as a teenager and has carried on the tradition since Albert passed in 1983. She has been featured in numerous articles, and radio/television programs such as CMT for her fiddle making.
Jackson Cunningham has been apprenticing under Audrey in the fiddle making tradition of Whitetop for the last several years.

Jackson grew up in southern Oregon and was immersed in woodworking from as early as he can remember. His step-father was a skilled carpenter and craftsman, always having woodworking projects around the house he built from the local sugar pine and Douglas fir trees. Jackson learned these skills at a early age and has been a carpenter and woodworker for over 15 years. So, it was natural to combine his music and his craft to become a luthier.
After making and repairing various instruments over the years, he moved to southwestern Virginia.  After meeting  Audrey Hash Ham of Lansing, North Carolina in 2005, he immediately began building fiddles.
He currently works out of his shop at home in Whitetop, Virginia, making custom fiddles.

You can see and play one of his fiddles at any Whitetop Mountaineers and Whitetop Mountain Band shows as well as displays at festivals. His fiddles have been/are displayed on Virginia's Musical Heritage Crooked Road Tours and at The Gathering in the Gap Festival in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, Floyd Fest, The Albert Hash Memorial Festival in Whitetop, Virginia,  ASU Fiddlers Convention in Boone, NC,  The Wayne C. Henderson Guitar Compitition and Music Festival,  The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival at Ferrum College, as well as others.


For 2011, Jackson is scheduled to display his fiddles at HoustonFest in Galax,VA, The Albert Hash Festival, The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, as well as others TBA.


For more info on the fiddle making tradition, and for ordering a custom made fiddle or instrument, email Jackson: lonelyoaks@yahoo.com, or call: 1-540-239-6906

Visit Round-The-Mountain, Southwest Virginia's Artisan Network

Check out this YouTube video below of Thornton Spencer, Eddie Bond and Kirk Sutphin playing Jackson's fiddles on tour during The Crooked Road
East Coast Tour in spring of 2010

Check out EbruTV's "Rythym and Roots" series to see a feature on the Whitetop Mountain Band and see and hear about Jackson's fiddles.............................

"Because he's a fine bluegrass and old-time musician, Jackson has a natural knowledge of the purpose of a good instrument. He also sees the beauty of the instrument and strives to make a beautiful instrument as well as a usefull one.
The tone and craftsmanship in his fiddles is excellent. He has extreme patience in making sure his fiddles are of the finest quality."    -Audrey Hash Ham, Virginia Master Fiddle Maker

See Audrey Hash Ham,in the book "In Good Keeping", a collection of Master Folk Artists and Aprentices from Virginia by Virginia State Folklorist John Lohman.

Pics

Martha Spencer of The Whitetop Mountain Band plays fellow bandmate Jackson Cunningham's handmade fiddle. Both Martha and Jackson learned there crafts from former masters of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities aprenticeship program.

FIDDLE GALLERY

Custom carved dogs head scroll

Dogs head scroll

Dogs head into volute

View of scroll and neck

Back made of book-matched Big Leaf Maple

Sitka Spruce top, with bearclaw figure

Detail of edge and and ribs

Big Leaf Maple with shaded varnish

Natural colored scroll of European Maple

Scroll with Rosewood pegs

Curly Maple Fittings are a custom option

European Maple with custom Abalone purfling and Dogwood flower button carving

Dogwood Flowers, Custom button carvings are optional.

Maple fittings on a Oregon Engleman Spruce belly

Blackened chamfer

Blackened chamfer and Rosewood pegs on Appalachian Red Maple scroll

Scroll with blackened chamfer is a option

Appalachian Red Maple bookmatched back

Center mounted curly maple chin rest

Appalachian(Whitetop Mountain) Red Spruce top with Red Maple fittings

Strad Pattern with Whitetop Mountain Red Spruce Belly and Maple fittings

Neck and Scroll

Shaded two-piece Appalachian Red Maple back

Side View

Front view of #6 "Smokey the Rooster"

"Smokey the Rooster"

"Smokey the Rooster" carving on scroll

Abalone Inlay on the back

Back view of Maple

Abalone Purfling on front

Fleur-De-Lis Heel carving

Button carving, Fleur-De-Lis.

A Two-Piece Back

Front View

Red Varnish on two piece bookmatched back

Back view of Blisterd Sugar Maple Fiddle

View of the Belly

One-piece Back on Fiddle made of blistered Sugar Maple

Edge Work

Edge/Purfling detail

Appalachian Red Spruce(Whitetop Mountain) Top on a Amati Pattern

Whitetop Mountain Red Spruce top with Rosewood fittings

Blistered Sugar Maple Amati Fiddle

Scroll on Fiddle

Another view of Scroll

Front View

One-Piece quilted maple back

Front view of a Hand-Carved Scroll

Close up of back

Quilted Sugar Maple on a Hash Pattern

Front view of a Whitetop Spruce Top

Thanks to Carly Burke at mountainlightjewelry.com for the pictures from The Ferrum Folklife Festival.