Carl Yaffey was born in 1941 in Norfolk, VA and lived there until 1966 when he graduated from Old Dominion University. He then enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve where he spent 6 months on active duty. Upon completion of his active duty requirement, he moved to Columbus, OH to take a system analyst/programmer job with Bell Laboratories, now Lucent Technologies. While in Columbus, he spent another 4 1/2 years attending Coast Guard reserve meetings and attending Ohio State University part-time. Carl earned a Computer Science degree in the engineering department (Cum Laude) in 1977. Carl retired from Lucent in December, 1989 and started Yaffey Software Development in order to do independent database design. Carl also became more active in music at that time. He had been playing banjo, guitar and bass since his Old Dominion days back in Norfolk. Now having more free time, he began to play more often in various bands and to teach.
Carl has played bass with many rock and country bands over the years, and has played clawhammer and 3-finger banjo in various old-timey and bluegrass bands.
He currently plays banjo with "The Timbre Wolves", and "Grassahol".
Carl currently teaches both clawhammer and 3-finger banjo, guitar, mandolin, both electric and upright bass, and dobro.
Carl is the author of several Mel Bay books ("A Banjo Player's Guide to Jamming", "A Flatpicker's Guide to Jamming","A Bass Player's Guide to Jamming","A Fiddle Player's Guide to Jamming" (coauthored with John Serman), and "A Mandolin Player's Guide to Jamming").
Carl's other interests and hobbies include Amateur Radio (K8NU), bicycle riding (BikeE recumbent), and dancing (contra, folk). Carl is married to the prutyful Debbie Shaw and lives with her by the wonderful Walhalla ravine in Columbus.