John D. Tignor
Here’s a brief summary of John D. Tignor:
June 27, 1922 – June 7, 1982
John D. Tignor attended Hindman Settlement School. While there he attended shop class under then instructor and famous Kentucky dulcimore maker: Jethro Amburgey. Jethro, was closely acquianted with the most famous: Uncle Ed Thomas.
You can see the influence of Amburgey’s work in the early traditional pieces John D. Tignor built.
From the research I’ve done it’s believed John D. Tignor began building dulcimores close to the Amburgey pattern, or style, in the early 1950’s.
From the beginning up until the late 1960s-early 1970’s Mr. Tignor continued with the traditional pattern. The main differences between his traditional pattern and the Amburgey pattern during this time period are: chunkier peghead, slightly different strum hollow, longer endblocks and a slimmer tailpiece. John also preferred to drill out the peghead rather than carve it out like most other builders and made square wood tuning pegs rather than round. One of the most noticeable differences are his trefoil shaped soundholes rather than the common heart shaped soundholes that other Kentucky dulcimore builders used. Although, you can find the occasional Tignor piece with heart soundholes. Additionally, of his early traditional dulcimores I've viewed photos of, no two were even close to be exactly alike.
It appears that somewhere between 1965-1970 he continued using his modified Amburgey pattern, but he started to move away from the traditional narrow fretboard with staple frets in favor of a wide fretboard with modern style frets going all the way across the fretboard.
Around 1970 it appears he abandons the Amburgey style for the most part in favor of his own pattern with more rounded upper and lower bouts and a tiny little waist, taller flush sides without the fiddle edges, wide fretboard, modern frets, similar end blocks, similar tailpiece, and same style peghead with wood tuning pegs he was using on the traditional version. It’s also obvious he went from 3 strings to 4. It appears he continued building these, along with the one described in the following paragraph until the end.
Around the mid 1970’s we also begin to see a huge, more modern style pattern develop with tall 3” sides and a 10” lower bout. Basically just an over-sized version of the pattern described in the previous paragraph. On all the other models Mr. Tignor built, he placed the bridge at the main tail of the fretboard right up against the tailpiece just like his traditional dulcimores were made. And on most examples of this BIG version he did the same. Except on one example I’ve found Mr Tignor moved the bridge approximately 3” from the tailpiece and ramped the fretboard down from the bridge to the tailpiece. I think this was also in response for the modern type players who played chords and desired a shorter, 25” vsl or thereabouts, making it easier to make the chord shapes.
Lastly:
Unlike McKinley Craft who died a year earlier and continued in the true traditional style until the end, John D. Tignor began as a traditional Dulcimore maker, and changed with the times, responding to demand, and eventually became a modern Dulcimer maker. John D. Tignor died fairly early at the age of 59, right when things were going full blown crazy with modern dulcimer making. The only thing traditional left in his work was the box type peghead with wood tuning pegs. Mr. Tignor’s early work would be considered crude by modern standards, almost primitive really, but as most builders, myself included, you can see he improved as time went on. It’s my belief had Mr. Tignor continued to live and build he would have eventually adapted modern tuning machines also.
As I mentioned above, I couldn't find any two of Tignor's traditional dulcimores even close to being exactly alike. So my Tignor Replica is a rather mixed rendition of all the examples I found. The only things not true to original pieces I've viewed are the bronze frets, aluminum bridge and nut, and the feet on the bottom. (It's hard to believe Tignor wouldn't have put feet on his traditional dulcimores but I've yet to find evidence he did).
All Black Walnut.
Bronze frets.
Aluminum nut and bridge.
Bronze frets.
Aluminum nut and bridge.
27-3/4" vsl.
Tuned Ionian DAA.
Tuned Ionian DAA.
Video to come:
