“Hear you got a bent pole…”
“Rather personal question, innit?”
And so with a good laugh began our reconnection to the world. The weather turned rather suddenly after our last Friday news post, and high winds and hail made for quite an overnight storm – taking down our tower (and our internet provider’s main as well) among other things on other locals’ acres. We’re fine, didn’t lose trees or windows, cars are all ok, thank goodness for tin roofs and tough old steel. But a pole with a white box on top that aligns with a much bigger pole somewhere miles away closer to town should not be hanging sideways off of the roof – that, to put it mildly, will affect its performance. That’s a tad “out of spec” as we say. We got our power back the day after, but our internet connection wasn’t patched back up until Wednesday.
It really didn’t do all that much to our daily function, this is a low-tech ship and I’m a pen & paper guy. So come hell or high water I may not be able to log on and look up the wiring color code for an ancient 3-wire DiMarzio humbucker or answer emails but I can continue on in here, flipping the order sheets to find if you’re getting black or gold hardware, flat or roundwound strings, etc. just fine, and carrying on with the good work. With a driveway full of 40 year old machines, “Drop Box” to me still means “Something we try not to do.”
Two 500-year floods last year, quasi-tornado action with hail here in May, and this winter it never even got down to freezing. Not complaining at all on that last one, but it does all make you go “Hmmmm…” Still, there’s no place I’d rather be than the Texas Hill Country; once it grabs a hold of you even the highway calls a little more softly.
This has been the week of some one-offs, those creative side projects I say “Yes” to a limited number of per year (they’re a lot of fun but they can slow everything down a little) getting wrapped up. Three unique “Other than our standard 31” scale length” bass builds and a guitar. In addition to the continuous little batches of Birdsongs and their special woods and what-nots, I have another couple of oddballs to start on. Birdsongs are always my main focus but you can call and run your unusual dream build by me anytime; I’ll always be real with you about what I do, how much I veer from the current menu, and what I might just not be up for because of the stack I’m already working on.
Good to be talking with you, and here are some pictures of what was completed this week! Next week there’ll be more where these sit, a trio of custom 5s and a hollow Mystic making going into sanding, and lots of gluing up, cutting & routing of the next batch! Fun, fun, fun. Have a great weekend. It looks like some rain next week but the “Street machine cruising weather” of this one will hold into the weekend.
Shown:
Birdsong Custom Fusion ~ twin humbuckers, walnut & pecan, turquoise; Scott "Harmony Hill" guitar in hickory, mahogany & rosewood; Birdsong Sparrow pocket bass, a lefty of local pecan; special super short scales of Spanish cedar & bloodwood, and Texas mesquite & maple; "Sarge" the Roadrunner.
Varooooom!
Listening to: Ed Bickert Out Of The Past; mantra chanting from India; Aerosmith Toys In The Attic; a bunch of John Scofield.