The Old Man and the C-Clamp
Photos by Cindy Matheson
At an age when most people have slowed down, 99-year-old Buckeye luthier and instrument repairman Jeff Littell rises by 7:30 and is at his well-equipped, dimly lit basement workbench after breakfast most days. His days fill with repairing double-basses, fixing all manner of bluegrass instruments, and even building a C.F. Martin dreadnought kit for a local player, a routine that keeps him active and sharp as a Japanese wood chisel.
So, does anyone try to tell the near-centenarian that he might want to slow down just a bit? Maybe his daughters? “I’ve lived alone since 2016, no one is telling me to slow down,” Littell answers, then adds with laugh, “but I tell others to slow down.” A typically wry comment, his friends report.
“Jeff is a local legend. All the bluegrass community loves Jeff,” says Cindy Matheson, whose fiancé, Mitch Meador, commissioned Littell to build the C.F. Martin dreadnought kit he bought as his personal guitar.
She describes a typical morning with Littell: “We met Jeff and a few of his friends at their usual breakfast meeting place and time. It’s a local diner about five miles from Jeff’s house, 9 a.m. sharp. Jeff drives himself there in his Smart car. He says the Smart car is so smart it locked him out of it the other day,” she adds, laughing at the joke. The other members of the Littell friends ‘breakfast club’ convene at Jeff’s table at the restaurant. The waitress arrives knowing their orders: ‘The usual.’ There’s even a bingo game they play everyday to have a chance for a discount on their breakfast. “Everyone knows him at this diner and loves him,” Matheson says. “They even have a picture of them hanging at the table. Jeff has a very positive attitude, never speaks ill of anyone, and loves to joke around.”
Jefferson Littell took his first breath on February 8, 1922 in Littleton, WV. Born into a large family of seven brothers and six sisters, he is one of eight still living. Music wasn’t a priority in the Littell home, but Jeff does relate that his grandfather played the fiddle. “There were no other musicians in the family,” he reports.
A WWII vet who manned 20 mm and 40 mm guns on his U.S. Navy ship in the South Pacific, he returned from the war and like so many millions started work. After working there before the war, he rejoined the welding technology manufacturer Taylor Winfield Technologies Inc. in the bluegrass hotbed of Youngstown, Ohio. Littell, who lives in nearby Warren, OH, eventually became involved with the local bluegrass music scene, playing upright bass for local bands including the Littell Brothers, Hulen Wilson & North Coast Bluegrass, Wetzel Trail Blazers, Sweet Clover, Bear Mountain boys, and the Lehman Brothers.
His instrument repair career, eh, just sort of happened. When asked how he got into instrument repairs and building, Littell explains, “I started out of necessity to fix my own (instruments), then others started bringing their instruments to me. So I said, ‘I gotta keep you boys pickin’.” He’s had no formal lessons or book studies on luthiery and instrument repair, explaining, “I learned on my own.”
The man has stories galore. Matheson recalls the aging vet wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses telling a funny story on a friend who “couldn’t see too well.”
“Jeff said this (vision-challenged) friend tried changing his strings on the mandolin, and had cut at wrong side of the tuner and cut all the strings off,” Matheson adds. Hey, who among us hasn’t bungled a string change?
The local bluegrass community already has big plans for his 100th birthday celebration at a local hall, Matheson says, adding, “At his 98th celebration, all three instruments on the stage were built by Jeff.”
With his advancing years, Bluegrass Unlimited wondered what kinds of projects he sees himself continuing to do, like building the Martin guitar kit? Unfortunately, Littell doesn＊t see himself building any more guitars or other bluegrass instruments. “I enjoy repairs,” he replies, “but I don’t think I will continue to build anymore.” So, what sort of aging aches and pains does the ‘Ancient Martiner’ have to deal with as he stands at the workbench? His reply: “I just don’t pay it no mind.” Sounds precisely like my mom’s Depression-era advice.
At the end of the inquiry, we have to ask Littell, at his age, does he have any longevity tips or other advice to the rest of us about aging? He laughs as he replies: “Never smoked a cigarette. Never drank a beer, and never told a lie—till now.”
