Coaxing and playing the oldtime hits on a wood saw

The sounds coming from Carroll Gunter’s saw are ethereal, beckoning listeners to come closer.

The 80-year-old retired Boeing engineer and Wichita State University main frame computer technician is an unlikely musician.

But here he is on a balmy, sunny Kansas day in Old Town playing “Home on the Range” on a saw. Playing a bow along the edge of the saw, he bends and twists the tip of the blade to create sounds – making a tool found in most garages sound a bit operatic.

It’s a song every Kansan has heard a thousand different ways. But somehow, played on a saw, it sounds like a voice from the heaven.

“I first seen it years ago, the primitive playing of the saw,” Gunter said.

Growing up in a musical family, Gunter saw and heard people playing saws.

Playing musical saws is an old art form. Some historical accounts go back to at least the 17th century. Although many cultures have claimed it, in America, its roots can be found in the Appalachian and Ozark mountains.

As an adult, he attended the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, where he saw some saw players who helped him get into the craft.

“I grew up in western Illinois and got a college degree in engineering and was hired by the Boeing Company. I worked there for five years and then began working for Wichita State University. I worked there for 27 years. I worked with main frame computers,” Gunter said. “When I retired in 1999, that’s when they also retired the main frame computer.”

So, he picked up a musical saw and began playing, sometimes competing in contests.

But mostly, he says, he just likes playing.

“I enjoy playing music for folks who like to listen to old time music,” Gunter said. “”Every so often I go into public places – sit, visit and play.”

Since he retired, he has also taught himself to play the fiddle, tenor banjo and guitar.

“I don’t do anything professional,” he said. “It’s all for my pleasure and for those who like to listen. That’s what music has been for me. It’s a hobby. It’s fun.”

He knows there are folks who have never heard a musical saw.

That’s why when a spring-like day beckoned not long ago, Gunter said he decided to come to Old Town where he could sit and play his saw.

He can get two octaves out of a good saw – one out of most saws, he said.

Some saw players will strike the saw with a piece of wood. Others use a bow.

He’s a bow player because he likes the way it makes the saw sound.

“Many people have never heard a musical saw,” he said. “The fact that you can get music out of a tool is good. It’s a distinctive sound like no other musical instrument played today sounds. At a distance, it almost sounds like a human voice.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Coaxing and playing the oldtime hits on a wood saw."