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SOUTHSIDE STRINGSFounded: 2015About the founder: David D. Dunn, 41, is a clarinetist who teaches music. A recent New York transplant (his wife, Bryony Stroud-Watson, a violinist, has Chattanooga ties), he has a woodwind studio, Southside Studio in the city’s Southside neighborhood. He’s also a sommelier, has a yoga teaching certification and considers himself an “inter-disciplinary artist.” His bio notes that he’s a graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and attended the Hoff-Barthelson Music School, both in New York. He received a bachelor’s degree in music in clarinet performance from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut and has a master’s degree in music in clarinet performance from Rutgers University.About the company: Southside Strings won the best music and entertainment category during Co.Lab’s Will This Float competition in December. The company aims to build strings instruments using CNC woodworking technology. Production and design is planned to be in Southside Studio.Looking for investors: Dunn needs $25,000 to $30,000 to pay for a CNC wood-milling machine and software for it, and to contract initial help from designers in the 3D-modeling community. He has not yet needed to put any money into the company.Contact: d@southsidestrings.com or Twitter: @SoSideStrings
David D. Dunn’s musical instrument of choice, the clarinet, gets updated regularly.
“I’m used to a new look, all the time,” says Dunn, 41, a music teacher who lives in Chattanooga’s Southside. “It sparks an excitement. I want to bring that same level of excitement and curiosity to the string world.”
Dunn’s fledgling company, Southside Strings, could bring about buzz by using 3D modeling and CNC technology. His startup won the music and entertainment category of Co.Lab’s Will This Float competition in December.
Dunn says he’s made several guitars and ukeleles by hand. That’s one way to create novel string instruments. But carving by hand isn’t efficient, he says.