News from Birdsong Guitars, San Marcos TX

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News Blog Archive ~ Sept. 2010 through July 2011
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July 22nd

Quickie update tonight friends, not enough of me left to spin the usual yarn... so I thought I'd share a few fun pictures.

IT RAINED!!!

In the middle of Texas just past mid July, about mid-day mid-week... when I take my weekend... out of the blue, here came a rainstorm! Here's what it looked like out at the homestead. Now I didn't have to go run around in it, but I did. Notice how much more water was on the driveway in the second picture, minutes later. It dropped the temperature 20 degrees. Glorious! This is not normal. I mean the weather; I know I'm a little off, believe me. I'm everywhere I go.

3D didn't have to amplify that empty finish oil tin either, but he did. You know, it was fascinating as a finger percussional instrument... but the most amazing thing was when you yelled into the container, it sounded about like you were yellin' in an oil can with a pickup taped to it.

Yes, R&D takes strange shape around here. And the one bass picture in this news update? I'm going to give it to Brother Brado, here it is, Brady's bass all finished and gigged. All I can say is for a big bass it's VERY comfortable and plays like absolute melted butter. And that's coming from a guy that's NOT a fan of big basses! It's amazing. Here's his new web site (bradybass.com); it'll grow too, bookmark it & keep checking back in.

Well that's about it this week, you all have a great weekend and thanks for being on the ride with us at Birdsong (...and SD Curlee).

Listening to:
Heart Greatest Hits
Scott H. Biram Preachin' And Hollerin'
John Coltrane Heavyweight box set disc 3
Howlin' Wolf
Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited

~

July 15th

Hi everybody! One of the most fun parts of building basses for you is actually meeting you; talking music and inspiration over good food, getting to watch you open the case for the first time, showing you the workshop. Even in the bigger place now it's still kind of a stunner just how few big machines there are; lots of work benches, small shapers & planers, and hand tools... I get to truly see it all once again through your eyes as you take it all in. It rejuvenates my fascination right down to the sawdust with the materials and process. And I know in this world to see such goings-on has an effect by itself, aside from the resulting instrument and personal connection... this is where something happens; this is where craftsmen craft. Young and not so young, you all play it so cool but when the smells of worked wood hit you in the shop or you see that other part of this you carry back into your world - your bass - for the first time, we're all kids again...

...when life was exciting and adventure was new and the road before us wasn't quite so familiar. I want to keep & rekindle as needed the childlike fascination and sense of discovery in life; to be able to share that, provide the resulting tool of creation, and maybe have you carry some of that back onto your path along with your Birdsong... that's what I live for.

That's what I do, that's what we really make here. Glad you could make it to be here with us, it's good to know you. Maybe you'll come by in person sometime as part of the experience, we'd be honored. You all always thank me for my time but it's me who's in awe of how far you'll drive just to taste it at the source.

Here are some pieces I'd like to see fly the nest this week; for one reason or another they wound up on shelves and we're looking to finish them up and get them to singing in the hands of... well, you! They're priced to go, and it only takes about half the price to claim the build as yours; we'll square up on the rest when the basses are just about ready to send. OR for you to come pick up!

	2-pickup Cortobass Rear routed 9-piece Cypress, Purpleheart & Ebony body Absolutely screams for gold hardware. But if you beg for black, I'll put it on for you... SALE $1750 Includes hardshell case & shipping in the continental USA
	A customized Cbass Ash & Alder body Will change guard if you're not the cream type... SALE $1600 Includes hardshell case & shipping in the continental USA

Hey! A complete, ready to ship Cortobass! This was shipped to a repeat client who, as much as he dug this bass, immediately knew another Fusion was what he really wanted. As new, just finished this month! No big discount on this one BUT NO 6 MONTH WAIT EITHER... I could ship this Monday. Super light & resonant Spanish Cedar body Vintage tortoise control plate... Wonderful bass. $1850 takes it (full payment as it's ready to ship) Includes hardshell case & shipping in the continental USA

And here are a few "Non-Birdsong" items from the great circle of folks & happenings around us.

Vintage '80s Kahler bass tremolo, very good condition.

Don't see too many of these; many would drop to their knees raising their arms in praise in gratitude for that simple fact.

Was on a modified, unplayable SD Curlee bass I'm restoring.

No bar, but what's a treasure find without a little challenge?

$45 includes shipping in the continental USA.

SOLD

Here's 3D's latest short scale guitar... we're working on his site. When not helping Birdsongs & SD Curlees to happen, he builds his own cool little screamers with good quality import parts to keep the cost down and hand built craftsmanship to keep the mojo high.

This is a Nugget model in solid Walnut. Its ergonomic design sits great on the leg, and it has his cool trick wiring package with a varitone and a little hidden pickup that picks up the body's vibration. Not totally acoustic, but definitely funky! This is in addition to the standard (but again, selected - in this case for output that'll be balanced neck to bridge) two humbuckers.

I personally have two 3D short scales and love 'em. Small, good playing, big tone, unique. That's my 3D Jr.T "FatT" next to el Nuggeto Walnutia.

It rocks. Great for anyone wanting a smaller guitar but not some cheapie factory piece off a GC wall.

$495 includes a basic gig bag & shipping in the continental USA!

You won't get a neck pocket that carefully done on a $2500 Custom Shop Fender!

Here's a video demo of a 3D Nugget.

And a guitar from my personal stash...

(Making room for some others coming)

Early '90s Ibanez AEJ jazz guitar, very odd & beautiful, I've only ever seen 3 of these in person and I own two. This is the nicest of the two (I prefer the more played one), very nice, near mint. Big bodied, wood bridge & tailpiece, fully hollow.

SALE PRICE: $360!!
Includes hardcase showing some wear but functionally very strong AND shipping in the continental USA.

And here is Brady with his new bass, built by him right here at the Wingfeather workshop... a 34" scale 5-string.

Everyone's having fun with this, partly because of how tall Brady is, how big this bass is, and how amazing it looks when I hold it at all of 5'4". I look like a 6 year old. A 6 year old Keebler elf, perhaps, but I mean the thing is big and... I'm not. So here, in the final installment of Brady's bass build (he'll have a site & be taking orders shortly - you should hear this thing), I went all-out to be as short as possible and give you all the entertainment you so richly deserve. Yes Paul, I posted it.

"I' ain't short, muh legs touch the ground!"

Thanks for being a part of this all with us and for making us a part of your days & lives!

All the best from The Little Workshop That Could,

Listening to:
Led Zeppelin Houses of The Holy
The Soulful Sax of Stanley Turrentine
Dave Brubeck Buried Treasure
Andres Segovia The Segovia Collection Vol. 3
These guys at The Elephant Room in Austin. Try to ignore the exhibitionist dancing girl, like the band does, and just groove to the tunes!

~

July 8th

Music is the great soundtrack. From work to play, worship to material bliss, something with beat and melody is either the tapestry behind the scene or part of the river that helps it happen. It affects us deeper than its words, carries to us -and into us- intangibles deeper than its groove or note selection. It engages us mentally but modifies us physically, quite a potent combination for emotion-driven sentient beings. Call it slight trance, medicine, soul food... it is nourishment. Even the wacky stuff.

I know all I have to do is wake up and the coming day will have great music, something to do with guitars and basses, interaction of some sort with an old car or two and a few good friends and companions. And probably some good food. So it's hot out, so I need to place an emergency order for a few special bridges that came "unspecial", so I'll get five calls from solicitors and probably get behind a dumbass playing with their phone in line or on the road or any one of a myriad of other mosquito-quality annoyances that pass. So what; I can't get out of bed fast enough; my feet are already going when I wake up! Are you kidding, I get to do this again?! So I walk the path to the porch leaving three tracks afterwards, big deal. It's a good kinda tired!

Segovia playing Recuerdos De La Alhambra will accompany some bit of Birdsong assembly bench joy, perhaps some Los Lobos by mid-day and Ramones as fuel later on, and not far from my head or heart is Pearl Jam nailing The Who's Love Reign O'er Me to the wall in epic fashion, a video I watched last night. I return to it as a benchmark, a reminder, an example of throwing yourself at a seemingly monumental task and giving your all 'til there is nothing left; emptying oneself as a vessel in service to the calling at hand. Music with Spiritual qualities flows my consciousness into the dawning day, and Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell will close it with a romp through the hills back to the homestead this evening.

Music is the soundtrack... the birds sing, the tools hum, the orange chair I've sat in for roughly 350 updates creaks as I lean and the keys click in peculiar improvised rhythm.

To the sounds of Segovia, the neck went on a bass last night that triggered something extraordinary. 3D, still at the shop working late on his own line of short scale guitars (this one a thick-bodied hollow "Junior T"... would that make it a "FatT?"...

...more info and his own site coming soon), well... we looked at this bass pictured below and suddenly had to abandon our posts and cruise Grandpa the '69 Dart up the highway to get some strawberry pancakes. I mean, look at it!

A swirly strawberry sundae is in the near future for at least one or two of you...

And here's the Featherbass, this has gotten some interest. That's always nice! It's thin and gorgeous and if you want some I'll make more. 5-1/2 pounds is the goal...

And as for THIS beauty, thanks to all for the great vibes & wishes on the rebirth of SD Curlee as Birdsong's sibling company, for those just checking in check out the 4th of July update below and cruise on over to www.sdcurleeusa.com to see!

I'll leave you with our pal Brady testing out our latest "bench made" set neck Sadhana.

Have a great week! Empty and be refilled; find your bliss and serve...

WELCOME TO THE JULY 4th ANNOUNCEMENT!

We hope you've been having a great weekend, Happy Birthday America!

We're going to do this like a rock concert, the opening act and then the main show.

First, let's wish a Happy Birthday not only to the US of A but to Birdsong's "left-hand man", the one, the only, 3D... who entered this Earthly plane on July 5th, 30-something years ago. I know it's tomorrow, but you can start celebrating now.

I've known him off & on for twenty-something of those and his reappearance just as Birdsong made the move to a bigger shop was either a stunning coincidence or something planned by Greater Hands. You pick what works for you; to me he was sent. The guy can fix anything, do just about anything, and I don't think the growth we've experienced in the past year could've happened without him. As Captain of the ship, it's an honor and blessing to have him here. A true brother. D, this one's for you!

OK, now that two important birthdays have been duly noted...

It's time for a REBIRTHDAY...

Yes friends, it is with great honor and respect that we announce the rebirth of SD Curlee as a Birdsong "sister" company!

ALL THE INFO ON THE NEW COMPANY AND THE "SD CURLEE CLASSIC" MEDIUM SCALE BASS IS AT WWW.SDCURLEEUSA.COM!

"SD Curlee AND Birdsong? How can you go wrong?"
You can't.

This has been a labor of love for the past year (and then some) getting it all lined up and happening. I've loved the company and the old basses for a long time, and we're honored to now be holders of the name and caretakers of the legacy. THESE are the basses that influenced a LOT of the simplicity, wood choice, and "naturalness" of Birdsong. We brought everything we've learned to a general tweak-over of the classic 1970s SD Curlee single pickup bass... it weighs a bit less, balances a little better, fit & finish and attention to detail have been brought up to modern "boutique" standards... and they sound TREMENDOUS! Somewhere between a reissue and a remake, with all the old-school looks and vibe in a souped-up, detailed, dialed-in package.

A great drive through the deserted back-road Hill Country 2-lanes at sunrise in a '79 with Meatloaf "Bat Out Of Hell" in the stereo, and now I get to post this and launch the SD Curlee site. I'm so excited I may just split into two like an amoeba...

Party on!

~

July 1st.

Yep, awful close to the 4th, isn't it? You know something, that's when we usually spill the beans on some major thing going on...
You know, like officially launching the Cortobass & company in 2004...
Or last year, for example, when we showed you the cool bigger workshop we were able to move into...
Yes indeed, the 4th.

I mean, a wonderful day to begin with, celebrating independence & freedom...
I'm not sure how polarizing ourselves into screaming tweaker factions with placards and grinding civility to a pulp and function to a halt in the process fits in with that, but heck all, what do I know. I'm just happy to live in a place I can disagree and not... umm... get shot. Ok, well that may be a thing of the past too. But you know what I'm saying here.

As the son of a son of folks fleeing Nazis on one side and Sicilians who came here with nothing on the other, I might have a very low tolerance for molehill-into-mountain theatrics and fear-mongering among assorted fools & booksellers, but I'm DAMN glad to be here. I can talk openly with folks of all colors, break bread with a Mexican worker, acknowledge the raw deal the Natives got, give a sandwich to a homeless guy, not get all personally bent over other peoples' ways of living I don't particularly jibe with, believe in something Greater, vote any which way on any which issue I darn well please - or not at all because all the choices I might be given may have the same kind of suck in a different suit - and STILL wave my flag as an American. If it'll make you feel better to come take it away from me because of any of that, well... you could try.

THAT is freedom. The freedom to pursue happiness, to have a business, the right to remain civil with all sorts of folks so I can meet them on the common ground where we exchange our best and each is fed. And to go home afterwards. Yessiree, I do like the 4th.

And did I mention those "big announcements" from Birdsong come on the 4th too? Geez, I wonder what we're up to. I know there's a few of you tuned in. So for you, just for you, the die-hards, the superfans, the Birdsong inner circle, la familia del pajaro cancion... well, I thank you. But I'm not going to tell you.

Nothing. Nope, not sayin'. Not a word. Not a peep out of me! No sir, uh-uh. Ixnay on the aysay. Not!

Hey, it's not the 4th yet! That'd be.... Monday! Yep, so if you come back on Monday (and I know some of you are gonna be looking pretty ragged out by then) there'll be something on here that'll blow your mind. Ok, there's the chance you won't know what the hell I'm talking about and in any minutely measurable amount truly couldn't care any less. But that's ok too, this is America and you're free to be completely ambivalent, unmoved, and morose. Or Moroso, for that matter, if you like that anodized stuff. It doesn't matter if I'm more M/T and the other guy's a bit Cal Custom. Does it? Jump-start that thing and let's point the hoods down the highway & cruise together. America, Put your pointin' fingers back in your pockets for a day and be grateful. All middle fingers should only be flown at half mast.

4th of July weekend. Please be safe, please be kind to each other, please tell everyone you love that you love them. And remember our veterans and their families. Do something kind for them no matter WHAT you've pro or anti or uncled yourself into cahoots with. Anywhere else in the world you'd be against the wall right next to all those other kinds of folks anyway. And your blood would all be the same color when it ran. Remember the meaning of this day when it became ours to celebrate.

And also remember that MONDAY there'll be one of those 4th of July surprises from Birdsong!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!

See you Monday, brethren!

Listening to:
Grateful Dead Grateful Dead
Fleetwood Mac Live in Boston
Los Lobos Colossal Head
Thelonious Monk Genius of Modern Music
Dinosaur Jr. Beyond
Big Star #1 Record / Radio City

By the way, here's a video I think everyone should take a few minutes and watch. And with that, have a fantastic weekend...

~

June 24th

Ok, so last week I mentioned going to the Rush concert. I was never a huge Rush fan, always respected them though. And definitely cranked up their radio hits on more than one stereo in more than a few cars. I mean they're epic. Honestly, it was just a Geddy Lee voice issue for me, just a personal taste thing. It's not like, say, Yes, where I'd rather wander into the desert wrapped in Saran Wrap than listen to their best work. Sorry. Again, I say that, as caustic as it seems, with nothing but the highest respect. It's great, it makes people happy, I just don't like it. But I could dig Rush, at least around the edges and between Geddy's more Yoko Ono-esque moments. Alex is two men on guitar and Neil... I mean that boy can pound some skins. And let's put things in perspective; would there be a Tool without there having been a Rush? And how many bands name Tool as an influence? That's just one branch. These guys are legends; any time you can go see a legend it's at least worth giving it the chance. So hell yes, I was going.

And thanks to and with my friends Leo & Jota from the Los Enanitos Verdes band, there I was at a Rush gig in Austin. And they rocked. Absolutely killed. They mocked any pretentiousness with a fantastic collective sense of humor, nailed the entire Moving Pictures album to the wall, played for hours and really ROCKED. Not this whole machismo pretend-we're-not-grandfathers you get with some of these older bands still out there in leather pants, but with dignity and skill. That's not easy material to remember, let alone play, let alone cover with three guys and a few samples. But they did it. A band half their age would've been hard pressed to do the show Rush did in Austin. Respect.

Had a great time. And oh yeah, Geddy played the heck out of some cool Jazz Basses! Good stuff. My favorite part though was Alex's guitar tone. THE single greatest live rock guitar tone I've ever heard. And I've seen some shows over the past 30 years or so. His tone was great no matter which guitar he played... but the red Les Paul with the Floyd and a white 335-style semi-hollow were extraordinary sounding instruments, instantly above and beyond his others, and that sweet dripping tone filled the entire place. Amazing.

Speaking of cool guitars, head luthier Jake's own awesome latest guitar build from the last update (scroll down) is still available. It's a beautiful piece of work and sounds like you poured honey on a Telecaster. It's available and we'll handle the deal like it was a Birdsong.

And speaking of Jake... Happy Birthday bro!

So now to the world of Birdsong... big announcements in the world of Birdsong have tended to come out on the 4th of July... there was the launching of the company website (and thereby in reality the official company itself) in 2004, and last year's surprise of the bigger San Marcos workshop, among others. Well this year holds another secret, another behind-the-scenes something-or-other that has come together, well, about now. I'm going to tease you a little more next Friday, then Monday I'll raise the curtain. :) This is the main "thing I can't tell you about" I've been mentioning not being able to tell you about for about the past year. I'm so excited I can hardly stand being around myself.

For now, here's a little something I'm working on that I AM going to tell you about. The Featherbass has been brewing in the mind for a while now and has its root in the same philosophy that brought us here. You know there's a need, you know others share that need, and you know the instrument you just picked up... didn't quite hit it. "I could do that better." Not ego, just that you (or I, in this case) may happen to be a bit closer to the answer or have one that's already halfway there. Time, place & circumstance. And variety is the spice of life; if we all though the same about luthiery and design, everyone's "perfect bass" would be the same. And that would suck because then there'd be nothing to argue about, so that would probably close down 80% of the internet and 98% of the boards. And THEN what would we do? But I digress...

The Cortobass was designed as (for me) the "perfect" overall bass. Small, big tone, great balance, versatility, beauty. Our variants on that basic design have, while maintaining the quality of build & tone and balance, veered into other areas and brought the Birdsong "big tone, small bass" goodness to them. Well here's one for the featherweights; the goal is 5.5 pounds WITH balance AND tone. AND Birdsong attention to detail. This is the kind of stuff we do alongside cuttin' the Cortos and carvin' Sadhanas. It's just an experimental prototype right now, and its changes are subtle to the eye... but I'll show more detail as the build progresses.

That other secret, well... quoth any smartass worth his salt, "That's for me to know, and you to find out."

Well, off through the hills I go... it is good to be alive. Thanks for checking in...

See you next Friday!

Listening to:
The Ramones Rocket To Russia
Frank Sinatra Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
Fu Manchu King Of The Road
Orchestra Baobab Pirates Choice
Miles Davis Jazz At The Plaza

~

June 17th

I want to start today with a memorial to a friend of Birdsong's who passed away this week.

"Doc" Seebeck was good man in life. And more personally, he helped Birdsong... which means I will forever carry a personal gratitude towards him and that he lives on as a part of all we do; as we journey forward in our little ship, those we lose along the way are still with us. I knew him because the Seebeck family owns the buildings in the business park where Birdsong has our workshop. Though increasingly less involved in the day to day running of their companies due to his condition, Doc was my contact and the one who made our deal to get this much bigger space doable in 2010 through his generosity. He showed & shared genuine concern about a small company making a big step. The Birdsong story is one of struggle, spirit and integrity; he saw that in us and helped us grow; and I will never forget how much of all of those I was privileged to know in him this past year. From all of us at Birdsong we wish his wife June and all the Seebeck family our deepest condolences.

Death & life are our constant companions on this walk. You don't have one without the other. I spent a few days with our friends Los Enanitos Verdes as they toured through central Texas and guitarist Felipe said "We don't toast to the future, because you never know. We toast to what is now because that is all you really have." So while we honor those who depart and give them our final acts of direct respect, those of us with the gift of life... we should live. Now. Really, really live. For us, and for them. They are with us and we carry them wherever we go. We are their ripples and bring their best, through us, to all that we do. Healers will heal, players will play, builders will build. Onward.

First, the healers & players...

I was honored to be the guest of the band & crew as Enanitos Verdes absolutely rocked the House Of Blues in Houston. Marciano played his Birdsong "Marciano Especial", an all blonde blend of Cortobass and Fusion. Yes, that is what it looks like in the second stand; I was told really young that I'd be judged by the company I keep. The basses and I are ok with that these days. :)

My favorite part of all of this is that I design & help make tools for the players to take out into the world, making others feel good for a while with the music. It's medicine for the people. They take this good feeling and then bring that to their lives when they return. They love deeper, they live stronger, they hold in their hearts something special that perhaps now has been uncovered a bit, dusted off, and they shine brighter in all they do. That is the hope from the first cut of the wood. To see a band do this for thousands, that is big, my friends. That is big. And to think, I get to build these in a wonderful shop with my dear friends, and eat from this... I am grateful beyond words. But it feeds me in ways much deeper than food to be a small part of such joy for so many.

Now the builders of the tools...
As you've gathered, Birdsong at this stage is a group of luthiers bringing our best to my vision of what a great bass should be... but on the side there are still amazing things happening in, for example, Jake's workshop. Check this one out... Jake's "Estrella" model is a mix of tradition and artistry, "in" enough so you blues & country cats can still play something different, and "out there" enough so nobody will ever confuse this with some "off the rack" factory guitar.

This is a guitar for any style; it has balls AND twang, warmth AND brightness, and all of that can be varied by the well-voiced tone control, the coil split (pull up the volume knob) and the wide variety of tones from the pickups themselves... a handwound Jakebucker in the neck and a Schaller T6 in the bridge. The T6 is hard to find, and is a very powerful single coil. I think a husky P90 got into the Tele coop and had its way with the best one. Amazing.

It's a chambered Cherry body with Texas Mesquite top, Cherry & Maple neck with Birdseye Maple fretboard & real Abalone side dots, and a tilt-back headstock with Mesquite overlay. The pickguard is hand made from Ash. The highest was brought to this guitar, completely hand made by Birdsong's head of the woodworking in his own shop. Great work, Jake! If you reading this are interested in making it yours, it's $2250 including case & continental US shipping and I'll be happy to handle it through Birdsong. 512.392.4400.

...and onward!

This is a great sight! Birdsong necks ready and either in line to have the logo burned in or in sanding or racked up on the bench with their new headstock faces of Mahogany, Rosewood, Tulipwood, Walnut, Wenge... all kinds of fun!

More pics and info on the client page...

Ok, friends, that's the update for this week. Thank you as always for being here with us, and I mean that. Be well... and live some. Get some of it on you, and get some of you on it.

Listening to:
Kenny Burrell
Los Enanitos Verdes
Oliver Nelson Blues and The Abstract Truth
Also caught the Rush concert in Austin and I'll tell you about that next week...

~

June 10th

Sometimes as things get rolling and once that creative door is open we shift away from the focus of the first vision. Not the first idea, that original inspiration that had to go through its process to become real, then refinement & rebuilding to really come together... but the first vision where you truly saw "it" for the first time, where you looked at it and said to yourself "Self, this works. This works so well my life is about to change."

A fortunate artist through hard work and honed skill, will have some tools to work it when it comes; the driving inspiration coming along and focusing the intent. It looks like the first domino over. "Oh ok, here's an album forming. I'll now work on this album." But then the unplanned for something extra beyond anything that could be scheduled or notated arrives and adds to the mix its own magic dust and... whoa, all of a sudden it's a GREAT album. The theme, the order of things, the synchronicity, the vibe. Some extra mojo happened and clearly this that has come to be wasn't just the goal, but the first step of a much bigger journey.

The Cortobass was and always will be, no matter where the road leads from here, that first vision for me. Where it all came together and you're not just looking at a very very good result... but a road to follow. I can measure my life in terms of before the Cortobass and after the Cortobass. The little Mahogany wonder, the little bass that could. As any little victories of mine are partly my teachers'... any new level of luthiery to carry the Birdsong feather on its headstock owes respect to the original Cortobass. My feet have spent some time on this road so I'm very aware of that; how important it is for navigation to know where the trip started, both as a point of measure for your progress and to keep you on track... and also as a touchstone of what is behind it all. This is why I do this; this music reminds me of what made me want to play; this is where this amazing journey really began.

So while answering all the questions about the new cover bass, the set neck benchmade Odyssey carved out of Zebrawood with all the hand made Macassar Ebony pieces and the carved eagle bridge, the wisdom of age shines some of the light backwards... here is a page about the Cortobass, the bedrock Birdsong is built on, the end of a quest and the beginning of a new season for all of us. As well as for those who play one!

It's all about signs in the changing of seasons. For example, Jake's head is a sure sign it's officially Summer!

"My shop looks like someone sheared a Musk Ox."

Let the party begin!

Listening to:
Kenny Burrell
Brian Wilson That Lucky Old Sun
Jimi Hendrix Kiss The Sky (I think this is my favorite Hendrix album)

~

June 3rd

Studio recording schedule this week forces me to keep this short, but I wanted to share a musical epiphany with you all I've been having. There's a certain album that has so unfolded before my ears it's hard to even describe; but it resembles situations in life where clarity happens and the colors get more vivid and the edges get sharper and somehow you ~ through this sense ~ gain more understanding of the intricacy of the situation. In plain English you see something with new eyes. In this case, ears. I'm not "into" Led Zeppelin because it's Led Zeppelin; that was what drove me crazy about the Grateful Dead scene where I came of age. It could be the worst bad trip half hour full band tuning up of a China Cat Sunflower and to half these kids it was Jerry and that made it the greatest thing ever recorded in the history of mankind. They'd have hippie sundanced to him farting through a kazoo. I dig what I dig of Jerry and I love the Grateful Dead that I love, and endure the rest to experience it. Zep has been a similar awakening.

I like '70s cars. It's a sickness. We've talked about the whole '70s aesthetic fixation before; it's partly responsible for what makes Birdsong Birdsong. So to me a '70s ride is not just a vehicle, it's a time machine. So in a time machine, you'd listen to the time and circumstance-appropriate tuneage, right? And I knew, though publicly stating many times that "I'd rather stray into open fire than listen to Stairway To Heaven ever again", I'd never given Zeppelin a fair enough chance. After all, it was everywhere and I didn't have a mullet or a bong and judging by the fan base I figured they were prerequisites. Kind of like the whole pickup truck with empties under the seat / Toby Keith equation. But a classic Zeppelin album on CD in the used bin at a favorite '70s-style record shop for short cash is just that, and so was brought to the noble late '70s land shark, the Great White Chrysler... Led Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy.

It hasn't left it in a month.

It's a masterpiece end to end; even Plant's occasional caterwauling seems to fit here in this symphony without making me want to slam my head into something until it goes away. I mean this album is fantastic. By the 20th listen I was still hearing interwoven, intertwined details of texture and rhythm from the players and gaining new awareness of the subtleties and segues. The fact it's Zeppelin? Don't care. It could've been Hump Humphrey & The Memes. My ears don't care who did it. But it sure does open the eyes as to what master craftsmen were a part of that band. Incredible.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~

May 27th

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

THANK YOU TO ALL VETERANS! I'm sorry we can't all be civil and you have to go fight; let us all pray for peace and for the safety of our men & women in uniform, and let us all honor the fallen who served when duty called. My gratitude for your sacrifice cannot find its words.

It's not hard to be grateful; I count my blessings every day. Today I'll talk a bit about one of them, one of the little team here at the Wingfeather workshop that crafts the little basses that could, some incredible guitars that might, and other stuff we're working on that just may. I think it's time to show the world what 3D's up to "on the side."

Now, 3D and I go way back. Not quite to when the world was in black and white (you don't remember that? Look at the old pictures.) but back at least half of our lives ago in a land far away. Now settling into the San Marcos, Texas area he has been instrumental in this latest chapter of Birdsong's ascent. Birdsong is about more than great basses that happen to be small; it's about people. Us, you, the "we" factor. Everyone involved with Birdsong is encouraged to get something going on their own too. There's room for everyone and good ideas should happen...

D's been working on some short scale guitars that combine select cost-conscious parts and hand crafted bodies, a concept of being as compact as comfortably possible, with a few cool wiring tricks thrown in... resulting in relatively inexpensive guitars with hand built mojo that play & sound way better than one would think! They're small, lightweight, and PERFECT for travel, fun, or to get the kids going on something that's not a 3rd world piece of dook. These are crafted by a GUITAR BUILDER at an American professional musical instrument workshop.

I guess other than the portability the coolest features are the 5-way switches and the varitones. The 5-way switch? those extra 2 positions are a weird and cool (though not very loud) embedded vibration-sensing pickup, and a position that combines that with the neck humbucker for a darker, very jazzy tone that has an acoustic element to it. I've never heard anything like it, it's VERY good. And on top of all this, you get a 6-position varitone, the same one found in our Bboxes (now also built by 3D ~ see inventory) and Birdsong basses! There are quite a few tones in these little guits.

3D will have a site up before long but for now to get things rolling, here they are! I'm so honored to introduce them to you... I've been watching this all come together over the past months, and fell in love with the Junior T in the prototype stage, so I bought the first one and I've already used it in the studio. Your turn...

ALL PRICES INCLUDE A BASIC GIG BAG AND SHIPPING IN THE CONTINENTAL USA! Though these aren't Birdsongs, I will handle the sales through Birdsong so let me know which you want and I'll send an invoice. First come, first served on these... more to come!

So how much fun is that?
A: a lot.

In Birdsong news, aw heck everyone just go peek in at the client page. Go ahead, you don't have to be a member of the club to come in. You can SEE what we're up to... here's a pic of BX002 ("Birdsong Custom"; in this case a single bridge pickup, set-neck, Fusion-bodied Mesquite & Purpleheart special! The neck has just been set into the body. Now we carve...

Maple set-in hand carved neck with Mesquite fretboard & headstock overlay; Mesquite body center block with Ebony stringers & solid Purpleheart wings.

Thanks for checking in, be good to each other this weekend. It's an honor to have you along on this ride with us!

Listening to:
Fu Manchu King Of The Road
The Ramones Rocket To Russia
Led Zeppelin Houses Of The Holy
Mark Deschner (I produced it, it'll be out shortly)

~

May 20th

Hand crafted... like, for real.

Ok, the foot reference contest for the last update... everyone missed the fact that the first letter of each paragraph when read vertically spelled "Toe jam", which if that wasn't slick enough by itself is also a play on words since this site is musically related. Winning! At least that's the one I'm hoping you missed because to notice that but miss something as corny as a band called The Fallen Arches or "Fungi to hang out with," well that's just bad form. So the closest guesses were still one short. Thanks for checking in though!

Had a breakfast taco outside the gas station with my buddy Gino yesterday morning. That must sound strange, I know most of you don't even know what a breakfast taco is unless you're in the Southwest (or anywhere South of here)... and probably the gas station isn't the first thought that comes to mind when you think of meeting someone for breakfast. In your world that may be the case; but there's a gas station in the little town of Wimberley, Texas that has fantastic breakfast tacos. Amazing. Best in town. And that says something around these parts!

A breakfast taco is where anything that could be cooked up into a Mexican breakfast is cooked up and placed in various combinations into a homemade flour tortilla. Beans & cheese, potato & egg, whatever. Some stuff I'm still not sure what it is... but I choose my favorites, grab a little container of hot (as in spicy) green sauce and maybe some pico (tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, onions, cilantro, all fresh chopped & chilled) and get after it. It's quick, cheap, delicious, and the perfect food to eat on a table by some gas pumps.

So Gino and I have this ongoing conversation about music and art. He's older, made it through life as a stained glass artist (that is, he worked with colored glass... he himself isn't discolored), was around for all the great and not so great late '60s musical and cultural happenings. Music is painting in sound and songs are sculpting in word, and to many of us the line between visual and sound... and cooking... it's blurred into the understanding it's all the same thing. The creative process, when pure, can manifest in many material ways; but the biggest part of it is still the process. Cooked by inspiration and seasoned by intent, creative stuff enriches the life whether it's glass, notes, words, wood or wonderfully seasoned chopped potato and pinto beans that melt in your mouth inside a grill marked fluffy flour pancake.

We trade vinyl to listen to from our collections. Albums. He brings a few for me, then I bring those back with a few for him, and so on. This week I brought Blue Cheer "Vincebus Eruptum", War "The World Is a Ghetto", and David Crosby "If I Could Only Remember My Name." Flashbacks for him to hopefully tie to good moments, while to me digging backwards to that era of music years ago they tether very differently to my life. The David Crosby album I found in our basement as a kid; my stepdad Jay had bought a box of records "Yahd saling" and pulled out the few that meant something to him - 50s rock and roll, maybe a Dave Brubeck - and left the rest. In there was Hooker 'n Heat (the great double album Canned Heat did with John Lee Hooker), this David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills & Nash) album, and others which faded from memory. There was a vibe to the album, maybe it was the musty basement album smell, perhaps it was a contact high off of the very grooves themselves. But in the right context kicked back on a couch with the sun going down, that's one to have on the porch speakers.

Blue Cheer's first album is a heaping helping of hard psychedelic rock guitar at its most raw and uncut. Their version of Summertime Blues ("wrEEEar wrEEEar wrEEEar") is a big part of what drew me... no, knocked me forcefully into guitar playing and music and the path of my life. That whole album, culminating in the swirling, meters-in-the-red feedback guitar on the last track that even the rest of the album can't prepare you for, it left an indelible mark on a kid in Massachusetts I can tell you that. It was the introduction to the cry of the universe - a moment of sound of such power you wonder how it was even captured. It transcended having to be "the right note" or "perfectly played" or anything else cerebral; it was guttural. It was spiritual. It was mind blowing and made my bone marrow vibrate. Coltrane could've done it, or the scream of Curt Cobain. And I love them both, but Leigh Stephens and Blue Cheer got there first.

It's the difference to me between entertainment and art. Entertainment is fun but can veer off into paint-by-numbers safety; in music, entertainment tastes forced. Whereas art is something that, however imperfect, feels like something that could not be contained. The power of the Sunday morning social ritual vs. what's behind it in the House... the deep spiritual experience that perhaps shook you to go seek it there in the first place... one has its place of enlivening the moment, but the other has left a mark, awakened something deeper and changed a life. Art in any form has that power...

To say of a work "This deepened me as a person" is an amazingly heavy honor to bestow. To be fed by such is to be rich beyond measure. The War album is a long time favorite not just of that great band but of all the cultures in the mix... deep Black soul, some psychedelic, a Latin American seasoning to the percussion. All come together in a groove bigger than what it's made of; that's what happens with alchemy and good intent. The result overshadows the greatness of even the best ingredients. It takes on a life and personality all its own; it transcends. Sometimes you can put strings on it and play it, sometimes you put it on the turntable, and some mornings by gas stations you give your thanks and take a bite.

Listening to:
Bedouin Soundclash Sounding A Mosaic
Los Lobos Good Morning Aztlan

~

May 13th

Today I figure I'll get into some topics in recent emails, then talk about some wild stuff coming to life in here.

On the Varitone: The recipe has changed. It's more subtle than it was; it's a different circuit. For a few reasons there are things I wanted to change, and a major component supply issue forced my hand. We'll be revamping the old style with some of the old voicings when we can source a couple of key pieces; we'll have that for you when we can. For now the "Version 2" varitone I've wanted to get together for quite a while has come early and is in the basses & Bboxes as of now. If you play with a bit of treble, you'll hear it sweeten the highs and make the mids horn-like (I love that stuff, even subtle)... but if you play with a dark tone and flats already, we'll just go with a differently voiced standard tone control for you. If you buy a Bbox and run a guitar through it, your knees will get weak it sounds so cool. We started with a heavier-duty switch and a selection of specific value new & NOS caps. All any of this is supposed to do is give you more tonal options than a regular Fender-type big ol' muddy cap tone knob; the voices change through your setup different than mine or Rich Lather of The Fallen Arches'... the subtleties of all this are yours, there, in your world, whether you refine them by choice with EQ, technique, and style... or just in the ways it's going to happen around you there in your environment as opposed to another's room, amp, ears and hands.

Even custom sound clip requests are something I've gotten in the past year as we've grown and reached more people, and though I wish I could do that for a potential client - or even an already client - even a really cool one - I don't have the recording gear all in one place, don't have the right stuff to load it up in the computer and send it to you, simply don't have the time, and even if I had all that ~ the tone coming out of your computer speakers after all that will be different than what comes out of the amp in real life in a different room in your house. There is no way the subtleties will accurately be conveyed from here to there in a way you will be able to get the definite "That's the difference between Maple and Rosewood", "That's the hot Lace vs. the standard gold", "That's a 500K pot vs. 250" you're looking for. Again, "the subtleties are yours."

Journey with us vs. "Are we there yet?" Remember the kid who wanted to know when the trip would be finished? You, at the wheel, knowing more about the intricacies and variables and flow of process than could ever be explained, understand there are 3 states, a few big cities, hundreds of reasonably well planned for but unknown miles, and thousands of potentials that could swing either way, to go... It's not a jaunt across town; it's a journey. The timing, rush hours, highway delays, occasional flat tire, stuff going on with the other folks on the road, calls you have to pull off and take, unexpected "download" stops where there's no TP or you whiz on your shoe... right down to the lines at the gas station pumps and if the lady serving your breakfast plate at the travel plaza restaurant trips over the annoying 4 year old left to run wild on the way to your table... sure, you're the guy at the wheel and you know ideally it takes X hours... but how much of that is in your hands and how accurately can you possibly predict the trip's conclusion? Well that's me.

And why no active electronics / paint / LEDs etc.? Well, I don't like them. I don't think they suck, I just strongly feel other ways about what an instrument should do or look like. That's the biggest reason; I can't give you what I feel is our best work if we're in areas I know little about as a builder because I never liked them as a player, shop owner, or repair guy. Our recipes have made folks happy all over the world; they work amazingly well at what they do. So do we. So I'm not looking to reinvent, but work in this general area for the foreseeable future. Who knows, maybe at some point the Birdsong name will be on a fancy Ibanez copy from China with run lights & a plastic pearl tree of CNC up the board, 6 knobs, 2 preamps, hanging on the wall at Guitar Monolith in four metallic colors... and a sunburst. But it sure as hell won't be MY ship at that point... I'll be off levitating in the wilderness. For now, you might want "that Alembic Series One sound" or a glossy sunburst but I'm kind of specialized in focus and geared up to be doing what we do best - natural oil, passive voices (we either Kent Armstrong or Lace it) with warmth & wood... organic, not high tech; simplicity done to a very high level. If my best foot forward is a shoe that fits, we'll go the distance together and make you a really special creative tool. And I won't feel like a heel, selling you some slapdash frankenbass I'm not into like it was the greatest thing mankind has ever witnessed.

Many cool goings-on behind the tapestry curtain of Birdsong! Did your high-falootin' guit-playing buddies see our D'Aquila Guitars ad in the latest Guitar Aficionado magazine? Yep, that's us! A little slow & strong growth is good; it lets us take chances. And rarely do great things happen if there's no chance-taking involved. Think of it like this ~ D'Aquila Guitars is a Birdsong Band "side project"... Birdsong allows for a small number of incredible "Artisan" 6-string guitars to come out of the Wingfeather workshop along with the Birdsong basses. But these guitars... we're flexing our luthier muscles a bit. We're building only what we want, using 2-wood combinations, pure inspired art in wood. No options. We dream, we build, we offer. Now it would've been nice to have the Starbird done before the ad came out, but you know reality doesn't always schedule around my wishes either. I'm just happy to be here at all! For those of you regular peekers at the client builds page, you'll be seeing some wild stuff over the Summer and into the year a bit more... a 6-string bass (we have the handpower and the shop to do it now), at least one doubleneck (I've wanted to do one for years), and the rise like a phoenix of something that was very important & influential to me in becoming... well, whatever the heck it is I am now. I'm almost ready to spill the beans, but have to softshoe around it for another little bit. And like the garden our little workshop is, Jake & 3D are doing their own things, friend Brady is starting his thing with his own build, and new kid/alumnus from Birdsongs past Wyatt is planning his thing, and getting some real time real shop experience with new eyes as a fresh luthier. Things are happening! What will the Fall harvest look like around here? I can hardly wait. But I will, because I know that's how the good stuff grows... and it's usually SO worth it.

(Footnote: Anyone who can correctly count the foot-related references & puns wins a random piece of Birdsong memorabilia!)

Your favorite "fungi to hang out with",

Listening to:
Los Lobos Good Morning Aztlan
Audioslave Audioslave
Led Zeppelin Houses of The Holy
Orchestra Baobab Pirates Choice
Rolling Stones Get Yer Ya Yas Out
Morphine Cure For Pain
Jim Hall Live
Tom Waits Bone Machine

~

May 6th

CHECK OUT THE COOL BASSES & Bboxes in INVENTORY!

Well the weather has warmed up, we had a crazy little Springtime cold spell come through. Once again we're putting the new air conditioning through its paces and it blows its nice cool air into finishing/assembly, a truly wonderful thing when it's in adequate amounts with a fair certainty it'll keep blowing 'til one of us hits the red button on the remote. It's really the only button on there I'm anyhow certain about; things used to have knobs, dials. It was self-evident what would happen. Now there are all these buttons and symbols and 20 features I wouldn't even use if I could identify them, and I feel like ol' Grandpa with a TV remote, just baffled. You should see me try to work Jamie's cell phone. It was a choice, I did jump off that bus years ago, choosing life on the road, old cars and a cabin out in the woods instead of cell phones and high tech. But let me tell you ~ I'm starting to feel like it has left me way way WAY back in the rearview. Barely into my 40s and a complete anachronism. So you all just carry on with your advancements and leave me here in this corner to wither and fart dust. I'll be ok. Just dust the cobwebs off me now and again.

But I can work this computer and I did build this little site, and I'm grateful for that because it keeps me in touch with you. I get to share some things, little peeks into the minds & benches behind the screen and the name, and I get to talk with a lot of you about your builds and our lives and music; inspiration and wood. Honestly that's one of my favorite parts of a build, that first call. You dial tentatively and I answer the phone not knowing what's going to happen. Ever increasingly it's someone forcing an American accent in a room full of voices calling to "verify the company information." I try to be nice; they have no idea how they're being used or who is plundering the information or how annoying, intrusive or inconvenient those calls are every day. But then I answer and it's NOT them or any one of the other kinds of solicitors... it's you. Asking questions, dreaming up a bass build, sharing who you are and your inspirations with me.

You always thank me for my time but really you spent just as much on the phone with me as I did you, and you could've called anyone. But you called Birdsong. By the time we hang up we're buds and I can think about you and hear your voice while I pick out the wood for your bass, or later rub the oil finish in or install the tuners or string & test it... it's your bass. It's not mine. Sure I designed it and guided you in what we do and what we don't, but that's so I know when it flies the nest I know coming to you is the best bass we can build knowing what we know, like, and doing what we do best. It sounds the best to my ears; and that's really, in the subjective hootenanny we call this life experience, the highest I can offer. We build you OUR best in hopes it helps inspire and serve you towards YOURS.

That later-on call is fun too; the one you wait for to tell you the bass has made it through the workshop and finishing bench to assembly... my main bench these days... and is hanging with parts & pickups on & in, waiting for last details & strings, and I may have a question or two or it might be time to decide between the tortoise or pearloid control plate we left for later, to see how it looks and give it what IT wants. Perhaps it needs one out of wood now instead. Regardless, it's here on my bench, "up" as we say in the service industry, and that means it's time to square up because it's flying the nest very soon! That's a fun call to make. You'll have been waiting for it for quite a few months at that point, so I can imagine it's a fun call to get, too!

Speaking of a fun call, I got one a couple of months ago from a young guy named Wyatt. Now when Wyatt was even younger, he worked at Birdsong and we had a blast 'cause before that when he was still younger he was a bass student of mine. And we actually later made some cool music together & saw some killer shows; Sonny Rollins, Mars Volta, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and ah... oh what's that guy's name? Oh yeah, Victor Wooten. Well where did he call from? Luthier school, learning how to make guitars up in Colorado! For however long we can keep him, I do believe Wyatt is making a return trip through Birdsong (both grown a bit), where he's going to help Jake carve the Benchmades!

And that's another part of this that's a favorite... I get to make guitars & basses happen with my friends! I never get tired of coming in. I have to have my time away, because the hours in here burn with an intense and glorious chaos that's hot to the touch. Too much and it'll burn you out. And we've got too many basses to build & gardens to seed before that!

Here's Jake, Brady working on his bass, and 3D. Tools a hummin' and dust a flyin'!

Hand made, world played. A dream in 2003; a sprout in 2004; a garden in 2011!

Happy day to you!

Listening to:
Los Lobos Colossal Head (a perpetual favorite - just go buy it. Trust me...)
Explosions In The Sky How Strange, Innocence
Tom Jones Praise & Blame (great!)
Aerosmith Greatest Hits (the red one with the white wings; after that was just a La Brea Tar Pit of ever-deeper suck)

~

April 29th

Will one of my friends out there in Europe help me get some Schaller T6 pickups, especially in cream? They're difficult to find here in the States. Please contact me! Thanks!

Tools are amazing things... being a craftsperson of this sort without them, everything would take forever and some of the tasks would just downright suck. Edging the rough bandsawed bodies is one of those the right tool helps along amazingly well. I like my tools... no, I love my tools. Not because they're "mine"; I may have bought them but they all came from somewhere else and their destinies are unknown. But I'm sure as heck not packing a bandsaw when I check out of Motel Life. None of it's coming with me, so is it really "mine"? I mean, what is "me" anyways? I'm more sure of the truth and defined nature of the tools' existence than my own! So while I'm self-propelling through these little rooms working the wood and grooving to the music in my head, at some deep level pondering whether I'm a human having a spiritual experience or a spirit having a human one, the belt sander is a belt sander. It sits ready with its disc on the side to edge what's left of the body blank once whatever isn't shaped like a guitar is cut away, and its belt to contour and help with the making of other wood parts in a hundred ways.

Many tools in here have stories; and the help they give and their meaning are why I love them. Well, one tool that had outlived its previous caretaker has been retired from active service at the workshop. A humble little blue Delta belt sander that I first used about 11 years ago in the shop of my friend and mentor John C. "Uncle Johnny" Kirtland. That little machine helped him fill the area with little wooden boxes, found wood incense holders, little oil lamps, wood jewelry... and when fate handed me the good work of carrying on part of Johnny's work as my own, it came with some tools. Life makes sure you have the tools a lot of the time. So after years of service and the many guitars its sandy belts have graced, it wheezed its last this week and is coming back home to the workshop at the homestead where it'll eventually be rebuilt and used there. Hopefully until the day I pitch off the stool and it goes to another craftsman's hands. It's the biggest honor you can show to a departed craftsperson, to keep their tools working.

Johnny's tools were a big part of his life; when I helped clean out his workshop and hauled the tools home in old Joe the Truck, I removed the sawdust impacted in them and put it in a white tin container. So far as I'm concerned, those were the man's ashes. Most of them came from this tool; but there are basses to build and that only leaves so long for so longs. "Go get another one, D." And so 3D came back with this Jake-recommended industrial strength Porter Cable. It's bigger, stronger, and up to the task of a bigger, stronger, more up to the task workshop. Now it could be my height (or relative lack thereof, though my feet still touch the ground just fine) but the first time I used this new machine, I flipped it on and the dust collector inflated and smacked me in the apple bag. Boof.

Not hard, not enough to do any damage, but that's a region that finds unannounced advances somewhat startling. Here are some helpful illustrations of the incident, re-created for historical purposes.

Off. No problem.

On. "Fwump!" Right in the sac.

Alrighty then, onto the wood. Oh stop that. Here are some amazing pieces of tree we have ready to make you something extra special of; if you're out there hemming and hawing and can't decide or make the call, perhaps these one-of-a-kind pieces will help.

(NOTE: MOVED TO INVENTORY PAGE)

If you see something you like, call me and let's talk bass. It costs nothing to dream and maybe we can figure out how to get you into a Birdsong. Well, if you happen to have a '77 or '78 Trans Am or an '80s Ibanez George Benson jazz guitar or an older Mazda Miata kicking around unwanted, it could happen fairly easily. There are a few things like that on the bucket list. As I'm sure some of you pine for a Birdsong. I understand. It's not a lusting after them, really; think of it this way... if the party is going great, this might be the time to get in a dance or two with a few nice ladies before someone vomits and the music stops.

Listening to:
The Brian Jonestown Massacre We Are The Radio
Brian Wilson That Lucky Old Sun
Ted Hawkins The Final Tour
The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack Disc 2
Bonnie Prince Billy Beware

~

April 22nd

Bbox varitone boxes in inventory, coming together for the first time in a while! YAAAAY!!!

Build pic of the week: On the assembly bench is Fusion #23, all Maple & gold with tortoise.

One of the amazing things that happens as you climb the mountain is you realize at all points you know less than you did when you started. Now to make sense of that statement we first have to define "Know." There's the know where one has absorbed a bit of information, the "head know"; the know of intuition via experience, the "instinct know"; and then there's the big picture, the "faith know." That last one is first in my book, the greater understanding into the nature of things. Some perceive and explain differently, but energies flow, results form along the way towards them, and vibration happens. If I devote to beginning and walking, I will get somewhere I need to go. If I'm on the path to where I'm supposed to go, I will have proper opportunity to maintain on the way there. If the woods vibrate well together, the instrument has potential to sing. If the musicians vibrate in harmony, there is the potential for music that is greater than the sum of its parts. Beauty "is"; figured wood proves it, life is beautiful even if we perceive it differently at times. Beauty is everywhere, inherent in all life, whether it agrees with our agenda or ever meets our eyes or not. This is the great lesson of the path; the broadening of one's understanding of the nature of things. Meet a thousand people and - without necessarily judging or generalizing - you can get an idea of how things might flow. Cut a thousand pieces of wood, same thing. Be involved in the creation of a thousand improvised pieces of music, there again. So you may or may not be "psychic" but it definitely helps to know how that wheel will probably roll so you can better position yourself to be on it and not under it.

Without the length of the journey and its experiences - and even more important, the open eyes and mind of the walker along the way - one has not seen enough result to generalize. And one who has refuses to do so, since he or she now knows above all else how little they can actually nail down as absolutes! "Mahogany sounds better than Alder." Ok. For what... surf? Death Metal? In what, a bass? A jazz archtop? A bozouki? I what setting? Through what amp & PA? In whose hands? To whose ears? Those ever present other contributors that make it very unlikely for a wise journeyman to make such definitive statements: context & conditions. These are the life that happens while we make our plans. These skewer blanket statements crisp and blackened over the coals of variables and serve them up on a bed of freshly coiled steamed assumption. An understanding of the greater nature of the workings of things teaches one that his or her great lessons, recipes that work, and logical conclusions might not work when applied to different circumstances. People love to debate their truths; internet boards are full of it. Most of the time, literally. There are few things I am sure of; Greater Hands, the flow of a harmonious path, music as medicine, humans are a bit wacky, and that I can build a bass guitar. Everything else up to and including "my carburetor will work on your engine" is open to the influences of the moment. Time and conditions. Situation and circumstance.

This is why it pains me to enter into debate with scientists and "experts." The "Smart guys." I may or may not know what they know, but I know what they don't... you know? I know when someone says "Fords suck and Chevys rule" or "A Strat is a way better guitar than a Les Paul" or "Seymour Duncan makes a better pickup than DiMarzio" we're debating opinions based on tiny little tributaries (rather narrow however deep) of experience way waaaay up on the surface. Sprinkle with ego and bake 'til crisp and golden brown. Then pie each other in the face with them, and repeat. And this is why I give 10-minute answers to such simple questions as "What wood sounds the best?" and for other questions I get all the time concerning advice or becoming a luthier or making a living as a craftsman in the arts, I'm having to write a book. I'm no expert, but 14 years and 400 instruments in I can tell you all about what you don't know... not filling in all your blanks, because they're your context & conditions and I sure don't know everything. But I do know how to show you where to look for your answers to the questions you don't know. It's the questions you don't know that pave the path! An answer is just three or four deeper questions in a resealable baggie. The baggie's just a means of transport; don't confuse it with the contents any more than you'd think I am only my shirt or shoes. The answer is to question and find the alchemies and the recipes and the patterns and work with them in your world. (Then build something strong of those to stand on for a bigger view...)

And to stay on the path you're called and keep walking. Keep climbing the mountain. As you learn, so you teach; some answers shipped out made of wood and string, and others verbalized. Perhaps the most important of the very few things I'm sure of is that part of every answer, however it manifests, is the question "Now what can I help make with this?" Otherwise so-called knowledge is just mental exercise. And any wise being surely knows if someone thinks they know it all, though one can rarely be definite, it's a safe bet they're out of their mind.

Listening to:
Miles Davis ESP
Yusef Lateef & Adam Rudolph The World At Peace
Bonnie Prince Billy Beware

April 15th

Well well well (as R. L. Burnside would say).

Not much left of me to spin a yarn, but it's a good kind of toast! Great week, lots of action around here. Look at this picture, stuff is happening!

In the big news about little things file, here's a Bbox update!

Yeah yeah, you remember those gorgeous little studio tone boxes hand made out of the guitar woods with the varitone inside... by special arrangement, 3D has taken over the building of these fun yummies, and he being a kind of "aim him and pull the trigger" kind of guy there are now a BUNCH in various stages. Thanks for your patience those who are owed them. Between me not being able to pull myself away from the basses, phone and computer and the latest supply issues with the varitone components we use, production of them has been at a standstill for a while. So 3D took matters into his own hands, and I took the varitone situation into mine. This means varitone changes, as we're no longer basing ours off of the kit we've used since 2004. The last few are going into already-ordered Bboxes and we're onto our own little magic mojo switches...

I still like the way the old ones sound too, but they were never consistent and the component quality was so-so. And after a few past hiccups, our supplier has pretty much dried up. It's always a drag when your parts supplier can't deliver, but it forces change and self-sufficient decisions that probably should be happening anyway. With all empathy, at some point it's just dumb to be held up by other people's situations. So over the past few weeks 3D & I have been sourcing parts and caps and testing out combos, and the first finalized variant is what I call our "pure cap" varitone (meaning no inductor for you techies), something I've wanted to work up for a long time.

GUITAR GEEK TALK WARNING: EYES MAY GLAZE OVER, DROOLING PROCESS MAY BEGIN!
Cap values are one of the most fun parts of modifying electric guitars to me. It's the first tweak I do on anything I have; revoice the tone control. Get rid of the mud & make it really bring something to the table. (Hey, if you can't stand the cliches, get out of the kitchen!) Even just recently in the studio right before a solo I rolled the tone knob on my frankenstein Tele all the way back and those notes LAUNCHED out of the amp; the engineer couldn't figure out what the hell happened. It's amazing what a carefully tuned upper mid spike will do. I've come across a handful of specific capacitors that really speak to me over the years; this new (still 6-way) varitone features a much sturdier switch that rotates you through all of them, a proprietary blend of different brands of new and NOS capacitors of selected values that sound great to me, including a PRS "Sweet Swtich" type tone in the first position and a vintage NOS Mullard "Mustard Drop" in position #4 in the Eric Clapton "Woman Tone" value, among other cool subtle hollow body, Santana-esque and half wah voices. All very musical.

We're still testing & refining a more dynamic and heavy duty version of the old one as well, but for the time being we're equipping all varitone-equipped instruments and the next batch of Bboxes with this new varitone recipe. To my ears it's fantastic. Like the other, the first couple of settings may be very subtle depending on which pickup and how much treble you like, but the settings all do something really cool to the mids and upper mids, and the whole goal is having simple access to more tone colors and this does it! In the basses it's subtle (again depending on your settings) but brings out a bit more punch and colors. I dig it. In it goes.

Like any hard core individual will tell you, sometimes it takes a certain mix to get moving in the morning. Keith Richards has his special blend, a Tibetan monk has his... this morning for me it was Acid King, Miles Davis and a good ol' fashioned bhajan. Ahhh, the breakfast of champions! What I failed to mention is that I was listening to all three simultaneously. Kidding, I'm kidding. But it's a thought, and it reminds me of the overnight show on KIND radio back about 11 years ago, a quasi-legendary pirate FM station here in San Marcos... one time at about 2AM I was spinning a Grateful Dead jam with juuuuust a little Ravi Shankar in there. The kicker was the recording of the black preacher I faded in and out randomly. Phone rings. "Dude... it's messin' with my mind. You gotta stop that." To which I replied, of course, in my best impersonation of backwards language. Sometimes all you have to do is show up and life hands you the ball. I thank you for handing me yours.

Hey, wait a minute...

Listening to:
Acid King, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis ESP, ... hey my brain just clicked off. Sorry. "If you'd like to make a call...."

~

April 8th

Build pic of the week... Fusion #21 of Swamp Ash, trimmed out in Rosewood, with the pickup moved back & black hardware. Yum. Shipping out Monday for sunny California!

One of my mentors "Uncle Johnny" Kirtland used to tell me "Figuring out workshop challenges is one of my favorite parts of making things." A real craftsperson can whip up an improvised, custom made tool on the spot. This is the kind of knowledge that only comes from a deep understanding of what it is you're doing; they don't teach this in classes or books. I've watched my car-wrenching guru Captain Camshaft modify or shape & weld tools for specific tasks out of scrap steel; you know there's probably a tool for anything but there are times it just wouldn't fit... or it might be a small fortune to buy. Sometimes it's just more fun in a workshop to make something by hand to help the process of making something by hand, you know? Maybe that file would be more fun if it fit Jake's hand. Maybe that body could be sanded easier if it was held where 3D wants it. Maybe the bass would be a more effective tool if it fit & balanced... and there's the whole Birdsong philosophy in a nutshell. "I can make something better that'll better help me make something better!"

3D's home-brewed bench mounted body clamp

Jake's file... ...and carving hammer. I feel strangely inadequate holding this thing.

I saw him whip this up in about 15 minutes when he needed it to bend some fret wire on the spot

Here's one of my moveable workbench neck holders

I guess the huge example of this would be the 3D island in assembly... I came in on a Thursday and was mighty impressed to say the least... and it's just what we needed. You know, if you run out of hooks for a couple of months running... you probably need more places to hang stuff. And that's sure nothing to complain about!

Make it happen; it's all just wood and metal and screws and what not. Form a vision and make it happen... you can do it. It's all just steps and tools. Take 'em and make 'em.

Speaking of makin' 'em, next week I hope to have some news on the Birdsong Bboxes, you remember those cool varitone boxes made of wood left over from building basses? Since last year it's been on my plate to find some time to make some more... well there are a BUNCH of them in process, as soon as we get the latest varitone component supply issue resolved we're going to be up to our butts in them... more info on that coming.

Hey, anybody up for a stylized solid body "Parlor" bass? I know, I know... if it ain't baroque, don't fix it. Just thought I'd ask. I picture it as a stylized Fusion really... same pickup. It was inspired by talking with Greendog up in Michigan about parlor guitars... let me know if this tickles your fancy, anyone..

Here's the first "neck through" bass to come out of the shop...

...oh calm down, it's not a Birdsong. Our friend Brady Muckelroy (one of the most gifted players & kind souls you'll ever meet) is in here building a bass for himself, and who knows, maybe for others once the first couple are fully tested. In our little location of Lilliputian luthiery, it looks absolutely monstrous. But it's really just a full scale 5er! Actually there are a few neck-throughs kicking around, but they're funky little prototypes that never went anywhere. I should dig 'em out and finish 'em up. But THIS, this is a BIG BASS, my friends. And it's going to leave the nest and play amazing music! We're happy to help that happen...

Brady Muckelroy... I can't say really if he's a chip off the old block, but it sure would make a fine pun about now.

I write this closing paragraph at 5AM (I'll fill in the rest later), ready for a nap and to get up end go at it again. Strange hours but this is an odd profession and none of us are bastions of normalcy. We were touched as we were called. But with the incense burning and the music filling the air, making and fitting pieces in here just me and the calling, bringing an instrument to life... it all feels so right as to make such mundane things as clocks and subdivided existence so... so meaningless. Remember folks, while you sleep... somewhere in a workshop... magic is being made in little places, and some of it's for you!

Listening to:
This Grateful Dead CD with a rose on it, part of a 4CD live set, the case of which is at home
Ed Bickert Trio Out Of The Past (favorite guitar player)
Bollywood Steel Guitar (No, I'm not kidding)
Mah belly! Time to eat!

~

April 1st

I wonder how many Nashville songwriters wrote songs called "I'm April's Fool" today. Well, happy April Foolishness to you!

Speaking of fools, the rainbow Cortobass on Craigslist for cheap, after receiving a reply, I'm pretty sure is a fraud.
Sir, whoever you really are, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets me as high as a good productive day in the workshop. A list just hammered, on top of things, all done at the end with the peace of knowing you gave it your all. This must be like what jocks feel like after the last spank on the fanny after a 60 yard run into the end zone. At one point I looked down and I had a nut in one hand and a neck in the other. What is this, Greco-Roman wrestling? You know, my Aunt had some downright odd little end table statues around her house. That's what just came to mind, and that's as far as I'm going with it. If you were raised in an Italian household you know those statues. Sure do wish I had those old naked person lamps, though. Ah well, what's lost to time should be left there.

There are a couple of Greek restaurants around here in San Marcos. One waitress asked of we'd like the chicken pita. Other than it being outside of my dietary choices, I wasn't aware they had such parts. Oh come on now, that was great and you know it. Yes, we've sunk to juvenile puns about Mediterranean cuisine; I know. I falafel about it.

It was 11 years ago today I handed the keys to The Music Shop in Melrose, MA off to Will Holland and hopped in my blue box truck chariot of freedom, a 1972 Ford. It would be my home for the next couple of years. Unlike the time pre-Music Shop when I'd also been living on wheels, this time I had a little bankroll and some big dreams... but no plans except to mozy on back to the piece of land in Texas I was able to pay off and start; start from there and build me and build a life and trust that this too was part of the path and it would take me where I needed to go and put me in the presence of whatever I was supposed to help happen around me.

Such an amazing amalgamation of highs and lows focused and fed me between then and now. Now it's all about you... the fact that I'm here typing this in my workshop is just the latest step on the path for me. What goes on here and that there are others interested, that is the real miracle. Three little pieces of it went up into inventory today; a standard Cortobass of Mahogany, an Alder & Maple Cbass, and the first Maple fretboard Hy5... itself a happening. Changes in 2 orders, actually three if you count the serial number itself, all happened in two days resulting in this bass coming together... well, to use local vernacular, "right fast like." Check it out. Amazing how stuff comes apart and becomes something else really great you had no idea was even a thought.

Kinda like life... and this piece of plastic Jake is using to shield this Cortobass while he gives it the final fret dress. It is a record store album bin divider from my old shop in Melrose, MA; it was literally a music shop ~ instruments, lessons, used albums & CDs, old guitar magazines, lessons, repairs, a few custom guitars... ). But long before that, when I was a kid I'd go to Rockit Records in Saugus in the early '80s, my favorite along with Second Coming Records in Boston. In Boston in the subway, if we were really lucky a street musician would hummus a tune. Yep, that's right! So I'd go to these places and buy albums. In '96 when I was getting ready to start my vision of what a cool shop would be, I went back to Rockit and asked where to get album bin dividers.
"Man, we've got a bunch of 'em we're not using anymore. You want 'em?"
How quick do you think I grabbed them?

They were the ones... the same ones I rifled through whenever possible as a teenager, looking for that Ozzy rarity or that WASP picture disc; names of old or long forgotten bands markered and labeled onto them. Then 13 years later they were in my store; I wrote on the other sides categories... if I couldn't pilaf the label! (Sorry). "Bluesy", "Pslightly Psychedelic", "Jazz / Fusion etc."... "Stuff that sucks". And now, 11 years after, these pieces of plastic that have been in my music life for 30 years are a part of this. Normal people don't pay that much attention to pieces of plastic... but they're music to me. And isn't that what a musician wants really, to have the music given to them go to the best place possible? To have it mean something, and to inject that meaning into something else?

Also when I was a kid in the '80s, I'd go to guitar shops and drool over purple metalflake Warlocks and play my BC Riches. The man showing a wiring diagram to Jake is Ross Jennings. He was actually production manager at BC Rich in the 80s, and 25 years later is THE local guitar tech here about 5 miles from my workshop. He helped me sort out a few things on Cortobass #001 when we were just getting started and was very kind and encouraging, as he had always been. Some may think of that sort of thing as a footnote in Birdsong history, but not if you're me. Ross is a guru to all luthiers and builders walking up the path behind him; the kind of guy we hope to become further down the walk.

Players have their rock stars, and those of us called to the workbench and spokeshave have our gyros too.

Listening to:
Eels Hombre Loco
The Wallflowers Bringing Down The Horse
Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf
Semisonic Feeling Strangely Fine
Ed Bickert Out Of The Past


~

March 25th

Getting it right most of the time is only half of being good at something... the small half. The big half is having a firm enough footing in what you're doing ~ and why ~ that when things are going wrong they don't spin you out. "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat" as it were. Anywhere there's people doing anything stuff is going to go haywire now and again. That's why they invented machines... and computers... but the "they" people failed to remember that they, humans, engineered 'em. So anywhere there are other people, machines, or computers, something's going to not go right... and experience and hope and the solid ground of meaning and purpose ~ the "why I will proceed" ~ keeps your energies focused and your compass pointed "True North." It also means you've felt lost before but you know part of it's you and most of it's temporary. The tools on the bench and the flipping files in your head that seem empty in the moment will hook up and form something you can then apply to the situation. There are tools & techniques that, for example, will pull a broken screw shaft out of very dense wood. That's not even any big conquest really, it just gets you back on even ground where you can proceed. Often that IS the big reward, to be able to keep going... sometimes there's no victory, sometimes just getting through is the victory. That's in anything; love, luthiery, learning, and any other things we involve ourselves in that really, when you look at it, are merely smaller microversions of life. So that's life. Its little pieces, its chapters, are made of the same stuff; much smaller and more temporary amounts... but the same stuff. Like it's the ocean and we're the raindrops.

We lost a friend from the local record store Thursday morning, a man younger than me which is still a shock despite the reality of that age number thing climbing and how little attached I am to that number as "me." I guess if you hang around long enough you start to outlive folks... good folks who just run out of pages, where the words don't come anymore for them. Good people who somehow are lost along the way. As a man who helped to fill my life with music for a number of years, ringing up my stacks from the used CD bin (crappy old cars being my only vice, I see music as food), making suggestions... he deserves mention here. When you've helped fill my life with music, you've helped me in filling the lives of anyone and everyone I know with music. That's what I do. Those are the gardens I plant. I've determined I'm not that great at growing peppers and tomatoes, but I can sure as heck fill your bushel full of music! And you know, when you do what you're called and bring your best the universe will surround you with the pepper and tomato-bearers of your life. It just works out that way...

We just have to be able to see that and still taste the glory in it, and know not only that we can handle it but that it's worth handling. I don't care how big the problem is, it's a moment in time... it doesn't matter how cold the winter is or how nutty the world is or that the machine breaks down. That Spring will come, one can live a life of harmony, and stuff can be fixed. Even if it's something getting all cattywompus that hadn't been cattywompus before, or perhaps had but not in this particular manner of cattywomposity. Even if that needs a fix you don't have right off, you then pull back a little and realize well ok there have been other times like this and I have found solutions. But sometimes in the moment the winds outside and the waves inside have their way with us and every now and again one of the fleet goes down.

Brett, if I remember correctly, was a big Black Crowes fan. So if you have any, I request you put some in and make it loud enough to where you feel it and the vibrations work their way on your molecules... if you don't have any (Crowes, not molecules... I should certainly hope you have a few of those, at least for the time being) maybe if it's raining where you are just stand in the rain for a second and really feel it, don't just get wet. Feel it. Feel. Or look up at the stars. So much passes by so quick so many times... feel something today for Brett and all those all over who can't be with us in this moment in honor of what they brought to the table. Be alive. It's sad when others don't but so far as today is concerned, we made it. After our moment of silence, we should play a little more from the heart, get a little more wind in our hair, eat the damn donut and grab someone for a dance.

Listening to:
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Calibration
The Benavente Russo Duo Best Reason to Buy The Sun
Dabrye Instrmntl
R.L Burnside Come On In
Queens Of The Stone Age Lullabies To Paralyze

~

March 18th

This week, an excerpt from the writings I've been collecting for a book project.

What's the secret?

I know a luthier you will never hear of. A real deal, carve it from scratch luthier. In about a half hour I could be at his cabinet shop playing an incredible guitar or two. They're kind of derivative of the whole PRS thing as are so many "boutique" guitars, but this guy's got an out ~ he's only into this a handful of builds. It takes a few more for an artist to find their own groove; most players start with cover tunes too. But they're incredible. He still thinks he's getting his building chops together... but not with a "still learning" healthy perspective, more of a "boy if I could just figure this out I could get started" mentality. This has been going on for years... his first guitar was amazing. But you're never gonna hear about this guy, go to his site, any of that. Every time I drive by the local coffee shop his truck is parked outside. I've told him five times how easy it is to make a basic site, but someone took some money to do it one time and it didn't happen so now he's soured on that and wishes he knew how to do it. I've told him everything he needs... heck, I told him I'd do it. But every time I see him, "Man, I don't know how you do it."

His first experience with PayPal went awry ~ his own fault, he entered a wrong number or something and hit a wrong button and he had to call and wait and get it all sorted out over a few days ~ so he's sworn off ever using it. "It just didn't work for me." I mean how can you debate logic like this? His work is flawless. He's built some great sounding guitars, one every couple of years. I approached him years ago about how we could work together. A couple of times. How he could hitch on to the Birdsong train and get moving. He just wants to know my secret. "How do you do it, man? What's the secret to all this? I feel like there's some code I don't have." He's always got questions, though. Wood, wiring, concepts. He must think I'm some kind of sage. He knows more about woodworking than I ever will! You're seeing what I do well; this guy can build anything, whole kitchens, a chair, tables, boxes. He could trim out a whole house. And he carves beautiful guitars. But somehow he looks at me as smarter or luckier, as some kind of miracle worker. The fact is as far as skills go, if I can be blunt, I'm not fit to carry his nut in a spoon.

All I was and am is open to the experience; beginner's mind is not a hindrance of fear but a new world to explore and a will to grow. I have little fear and lots of confidence I can handle the next step along the path. He does not. He's been just getting started for at least the six years I've known him. He wants to make guitars. He wishes he could have a site... he just hasn't figured out how to make it happen yet. Hasn't come up with a name. He complains about the economy and drinks coffee. And works really really hard doing something he doesn't like doing. Somewhere between whenever and now, like so many, his confidence was replaced with fear. And it's a shame because a lot of folks like this are the kindest, most good hearted people you'd ever hope to meet. The kind you wish nothing BUT success for. The kind you show the water and show how to drink... but instead they just wish they knew. "I can't figure it out." They take no chances. And they're never good enough. "Everybody else gets the breaks, everybody else knows more. What's the secret?"

You really want to know the secret? How it all flies? How to succeed, or even have a chance at it? How to magically get something off the ground? How it happens?

C'mere, get in close; I'll whisper it in your ear. We don't want just anybody to hear it now do we? Ok man, my secret, I'm gonna let you in on it. I look into my own eyes and recite ol' Mr. Baldy's Secret Hawaiian mantra of material blessings! "Owa... tagu... siam! Owa... tagu... siam!" No really it's pills bro, it's pills! It's reverse Viagra. I pop one and THE REST OF ME is like a rock for eight hours!! Primal scream therapy! Just kidding. I really drink melted Himalayan snow!! I bother God, wake him up first thing in the morning with my little list before anyone else can get to Him. No really, ok ~ the real secret? Every day I wail myself in the junk with a cast iron skillet...

Would you believe me if I told you the secret is to dive in and do it? You start walking and keep walking. It means enough to you to keep going. You run down each "what could happen" as you go until they start forming patterns. It's called getting good at it; you don't start there, you walk there. You start the journey and cope. You refuse to be distracted or complacent or veer. You attract the "working" by doing the "work"; you invite the blessings by showing you're ready and stepping up to the plate with whatever you have to bring to the game. You DO IT. That's how it gets done! It may not be a guarantee, but I guarantee it won't happen if you don't!

(If that little bit inspires one of you to go do something or attempt something or make something beautiful happen, it's a humble offering I thank you for the opportunity to make.)

Listening to:
Thelonious Monk Monk in Japan
Impossible Objects

~

March 11th

There was an article in Bass Player about Dickie Peterson from Blue Cheer. Blue Cheer's first album was, to this Suburban East Coast '80s coming of age sprouting force of nature, more than an artifact from the era which had so fascinated me... it was a high water mark of sonically what intensity could be captured. Like a Coltrane album, or later on a Nirvana CD. The wail of Leigh Stephens' (ummm, BP... does it take about five seconds to spell a guy's name correctly? I mean a few months back my ad with a bass we so lovingly created gets heartlessly tossed in next to a muscle powder ad with some musclebound jock in a banana hammock and now this?!)... anyhow, Leigh's guitar, the cry of Coltrane's sax, the scream of Curt Cobain... the cries of the Universe as far as I'm concerned; tapping into vibration that is barely controlled. But every transcendent vibration is made that much better with some bottom to it, some earth, something big and rhythmic and pounding and foundation-shaking. It's what busts things loose for that other stuff to seep into the cracks. That monstrous bowel-quaking force was, in Blue Cheer, partly Dickie. The V8 Pinto of bassists. He was a small man with the roar of a lion. Unrefined, hairy, frightening, but enough torque to reverse the earth's rotation. Not going to outhandle you, but off the line will rock and roll you senseless. It was an honor to shake his hand and talk with him.

Dickie departed the planet a couple of years ago and these pictures are from a few years before that, in San Francisco. 2/3rds of Blue Cheer's original lineup reunited for a tribute to Chet Helms in Golden Gate Park, and Leigh plays one of my early guitars (as well as a "Scott Rodded" Strat)... wasn't going to miss this.

"Hey buddy... wanna buy a short scale bass?"

"You wanna give me one?"

"Damn I wish this little guy would update my fan page..."

Yessir, that is the legendary Leigh Stephens. This man made more chaos come out of a guitar than you could believe. The very cool, eclectic music came later and never really got heard by as many... those first two Blue Cheer albums were psychedelic with a bit more force than you'd get out of a Dead or an Airplane. Power trio, bigger hammer, locked and, well... loaded. That first album, Vincebus Eruptum, I was a geeky turtleneck sweater wearing loser when I got a hold of that old piece of vinyl and before the last swirling feedback subsided I was "The bearded one" with the beads and the feather on my arm, running an electric guitar up the mic stand and slamming it up against a speaker cabinet in full wail. Not exactly what a Tom Petty cover needs, but hey I'm a little touched that way. Thanks, Leigh!

And thank you, Dickie.

Listening to:
Impossible Objects
Tom Verlaine Warm and Cool (it's great, a new favorite.)

~

March 4th

What's in a name? One question I get fairly often is about "Birdsong." I wish my name was Birdsong but it's not. Perhaps when the beard is all gray and I look like the guy inside the fold-out of Led Zeppelin 4 and I'm just another ancient lump of robed granola sitting in a circle somewhere chanting the sun up every morning, that will be what I call myself. It is who I am really, though; many luthiers & builders would say the same thing even if the company started as their actual name. Working this close to creation & vibration puts you so far through the tunnel all behind you grows very distant and there's even a rather tenuous grip on all around you. We're a little touched by the side effects of the mojo; a bit warped by being this close to the medicine. Age becomes just a number you're not that connected to. Name? What's that mean? What does Scott mean? That was that geeky kid in the turtlenecks everyone hated that kind of exploded in the 80s, the little guy with the painted denim vest and frosted hair, playing the living zonkers out of those pointy guitars. Then everyone wanted to be friends. I think I recall some of that... but that's Scott stuff. I mean I remember the guy, but that's about it. Birdsong, though, holds much meaning. Now meaning. Deep meaning.

Some put their name on what they help manifest. Sometimes it's an ego thing, but much of the time it's a very deep devotional act to put the "who you are" literally on the "what you spend yourself doing." That's huge. What bigger thing does a human have than their very identity? I mean sure we can go all transcendent and take the renunciate path but even then you get another name and that's still who you are to the rest of the world. You put any of that on something and that's leaving your mark. "A real person made this." "This is a part of what I will leave as what I made of what I had to offer." You leave your mark as an offering. In the Jewish tradition when you visit a passed relation, you put a pebble on the headstone. "I was here and this person meant something." To me, though different context they are similar acts of similar intent. When the feather gets burned into a Birdsong headstock, it signifies "I was here and this collection of woods and efforts and intent now strung and singing means something." It has less to do with me than with the devotion of myself, my identity, my "all I am and all I have to offer" being physically marked in symbol onto this work.

Birdsong right hand man Jake Goede inlays his initials in beautiful crushed pearl or stone in the instruments he builds. Humbly, on the back. Like a tattoo of great importance and reminder of what has been given in the process tucked up under the shirt sleeve... there mainly for you, not to flash. Marked by creation. A "Guitar by Jake" carries all that intent and goodness and presence of being that IS Jake. It's one of my favorite parts of the guitars of his I have and play. This seems to be a good moment to show some of what he's been up to when not carving out Birdsongs here with me and 3D...

Good God, I feel like I'm looking at early Paul Reed Smith prototypes... that voice in my head says "Buy 'em! Buy 'em all while you can!" but I can't buy them all, I build guitars for a living and need parts for the old heap car projects I motor around in.
NOTE: The carved top guitar & Mesquite topped bass are now SOLD! All that's left is the Purpleheart fretless ~ yours?

(More details on what we have available are on the inventory page.)

That's Jake and he's Jake-ing right along! 3D is 3D-ing up some stuff too. And our friend Brady (yes that Brady from the demo CD) is in here learning how to build himself a bass... it's a garden around here I tell you, a garden. I know I was Scott and I Scotted; I was "VanDweller" for a time and certainly lived up to that! So Birdsong... named after the Grateful Dead tune? Mesozoic geology? The book? Naaah. When I finally left the city for good, and sailed off into the sunset in a van called Blue Moon (named for that once in a great while chance to do... just what I was doing), I cleared a path into a chunk of woods way out in the nowhere of what then was complete ruralia and parked it. From there I made my stand; atoned, built, reconfigured, cleansed, remapped my whole world inside and out. The tether? The constant? The beautiful songs of the birds in the morning. They sang me awake with their music and filled my heart with hope for the new day; with its beauty and potential. Scott rests out there; The Bearded One emerged and with a feather on his arm to remind him, started a new chapter, and named it Birdsong.

I hear a craggy voice in my head saying "Now you know... the rest of the story." It's good to name your endeavors, your chariots of freedom, your sanctuaries, after inspirations. Kind of perpetually seeds the garden you know? But Pizza Guitars doesn't have a ring to it. One might say it's "easy to top that." (Sorry.) And let's face it ~ "Opening up an American V8 on an empty 2-lane with Bob Seger On The Radio Guitars" is bit of a mouthful as well.

Here's to all being together on the green side of the grass!

Listening to:
Bob Seger Beautiful Loser
Niyaz Nine Heavens
Son House Delta Blues & Spirituals
John Scofield Flat Out
John Coltrane A Love Supreme
PJ Harvey To Bring You My Love
Zen Guerilla Trance States In Tongues
Rolling Stones Get Yer Ya-Yas Out
Frank Sinatra Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
Oliver Nelson The Blues and The Abstract Truth
Pat Martino Remember; A Tribute To Wes Montgomery
Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack, disc one

What is life without variety, eh?

~

February 25th

Hey everyone! I'm really spent, very very busy days in here and Jamie is going to be waiting for me at this great little below-sidewalk-level restaurant with a glass of wine, so basically, respectfully, I'm OUT of here.

All I have left to offer is this picture of the first caterpillar of the year, taken on the screen to the homestead porch. For a moment I was not sure which end I was speaking to, but I did welcome this cute, fuzzy little being and wish it well.

"Hi everybody ~ it's almost Springtime!"

I relate to caterpillars; the Birdsong experience daily turns me into a butterfly. That sounded so ridiculous, but you know, I don't care. I'm blessed to live in a magic little world of creation and vibration and connection, and I thank YOU for being here with me.

Have a fantastic weekend and I'll spin more of a yarn next week.

I'll fill you in on the music later.

~

February 18th

Some things have what could graciously be referred to as an image problem.

See? Wow, I bet you all just gasped in anticipation right? Oh the heritage! Oh the grandeur! Oh the glory I shall behold!! Uhh... no.

Ok, let's try another...

"SHORT SCALE BASS."

Now if you're here, and I'm assuming most of you are, that may excite you; it excited me enough to design really really good ones and build them for a life's work! But there are still those people out there that think, as a whole, "Short scale basses" suck. They're not real. They don't balance. They sound bad. They're not professional tools. On and on and on... a lot of it comes down to the fact that ~ like so many '80s bands ~ many did suck, and the historical benchmarks of the suckage of the really bad ones was so bad it's almost like extra care was taken to figure out how to make them suck as much as possible. I mean why go only halfway right? Why do it half-assed? Everything's good at something. The truth is, they were not all bad. It's just that rogue 95% that gave the rest a bad name; like Pintos. Or... well, lawyers. Every now and then you find one that's been properly made, brought up to a better way with love and care, and provides exceptional service without making you want to push it off the end of a pier.

You can drive anywhere in the most road weary, clapped-out, six cylinder, banged up 4-door weather beaten flat black heap of a '69 Dart and get thumbs up, smiles and everyone wants to talk about it. That's easy, it's like showing up with a Fender P bass. It's safe. It can be the lowliest, cheesiest sounding, un-set-up, fake worn, off-the-rack, import-via-Guitar Monolith Inc. example but nobody says anything but "Cool, a real Fender!" Try that in a Pinto. A nice one; paint it any color you want. Do anything to it you can think of; stripes, mags, spoilers... it only adds to the mullet factor. I mean let's face it, it's still a Pinto. You're in a Pinto... now you're in a Pinto dressed up to look like a real car. Image problem.

Now I'm not comparing Birdsongs to Pintos, I'm comparing short scale basses with other things, perhaps also puny and lesser evolved, with image problems... and I say it with affection, because I still have an old EB3. And a Pinto. I'll admit to your face that Skid Row kicked butt. And even more amazing and unlikely than that, I've known a good lawyer! I think. A Birdsong is a much much much (that's three) higher bit of craftsmanship... but a lot of other short scales of the past have not been, and I still almost daily answer questions like "My friend Dick tells me short scales don't sound good." Sigh. They're cool, they're old (oooh, I guess that means they're "Vintage" too), they may have some good association that makes them appropriate for some circles (I call it "The McCartney effect"), but they're basically Pintos. "I get the distinct feeling I'm not driving a real car." Like it's in some advanced larval state, not quite developed all the way.

Well, Dick has never had one that's been reengineered and fortified; redesigned and refined. Dick's not as wise and worldly as he thinks; he's missed out on a few tricks. There are a few things he doesn't know about. Dick's never played a puny little image problem with a little extra under the hood. Poor Dick! Dick's never driven...

...this.

This is kinda like what happens when you plug in a Cortobass or (especially) a Hy5. Nobody sees it coming. Nobody. It's small! And it's... it's a Pinto! Oh yes, but it has the 'gones of an alpha bull mastodon. What on the streets of Detroit or back on the East Coast we'd call a "sleeper." The deception of the vehicle think you see vs. what is really inside and underneath it. The oft referred to bigger hammer theory in chrome and cast iron; the proverbial big stick.

"Why don't you just buy a Fender and be done with it?" Oh really?
"That's not a real car..." Say again?
At the top of first gear it's so real you'll be back there thinking you powershifted reverse. After that, you can have the ticket. You can keep the technology, you can load it up with blinking lights and pimp it with bling. You can bolt on all the image you can buy, call it whatever you want, put whatever name on it makes you feel better. Game over. Pay up.

"It's a short scale bass, it can't... it won't... but Dick says..."

Well, what can I say. Let the Dicks of the world generalize.

And, unlike a Pinto with a ridiculous V8 stuffed into it, your Birdsong isn't still a project when it gets to you. It's fully refined. It's finished. You won't have to get under it and wrap the fuel lines or do things the guy who put it together should've done.

Just plug it in. It's not like those others. It's not designed for numbers of units and market share and building down to a price. It's the concept of smallness reborn, rebuilt, and refined. This is a horse of a whole different color. And let's face it; in life sometimes a little extra horsepower helps too. Crank it up and let the naysayers naysay... or whatever it is they do... somewhere else. Like on their Mom's computer.

Ask these guys if they're for real. :)

Wanna go for a ride?

Listening to:
Elastica
Explosions In The Sky
Los Lobos Colossal Head
Mike Doughty Haughty Melodic
Best of Chess Blues, Volume Two
Steve Earle Train a-Comin'

~

February 11th

Greetings to you all from the Executive Chef of Birdsong, the nutty professor, the Head Cheese, the Mal de Mer, the... oh alright. Let's move on.

Well well... another little cold snap this week. Not enough to slow us down like last week, so there are some exciting things to talk about. First off, I think all this cold weather and snow so much of the country is having makes it the perfect time for a HEAT IT UP SALE!

Starting today, prices on what we have in inventory are dropped down to heat you up; and we all know 4 out of 5 doctors recommend getting all hot for a new Birdsong to be a sure cure for your Winter doldrums. So what's in inventory right now? How about 3 Cbasses, a one-of-one 2-humbucker 22-fret Cortobass, a prototype... and more! Go check it out. If you see anything you like, let me know.

And if nothing in there grabs you, I might casually suggest you check your pulse... ("I find your lack of subtlety disturbing..." Where have I heard this before?) ...but hey we just went wood shopping too and have lots of great wood to build you something a bit closer to your dream Birdsong too!

~ALDER Lots of Cbasses to come!

~MAHOGANY My personal favorite; you have to really try to build a bad sounding instrument out of Mahogany! It's the butter of bass woods.
~WALNUT Some gorgeous stuff, some suitable for 1-piece bodies, some "simply elegant..."

~ZEBRAWOOD Maaaan we scored a 10' long 2" thick plank wide enough for single piece bodies! Pics next week...
~MAPLE Great stock of hard, dense Maple for the "Benchmade" necks, and the "D'Aquila guitar" necks (we're getting that rolling) among other things.
And some beautiful SPANISH CEDAR for warm-sounding super-duper lightweight builds!

(Another wood pic on the client builds page)

Maybe I can tempt you with this delicious shot of some fantastic carving by Jake on this "Benchmade" set-neck Sadhana...

This is pure sculpture in Walnut, Maple & Ebony, my friends.

Lastly, here are some pics from over the assembly benches; I don't think Birdsong has EVER had such a diverse group of instruments coming together simultaneously, or even at the same time...

A couple of years ago it was destined to either be all this or... just me in my backyard workshop working on many fewer of much less variety. There's a beauty to either path, and though someday I'm sure it will return to that, the opportunity to do it like THIS would be something I'd have been sitting on the porch in my later years as I creak and coagulate really regretting it if I hadn't seized the chance. What we'll build all year in number won't even come close to one HOUR on the line at the Samick plant; even companies like Alembic and PRS absolutely dwarf our little workshop even though it's three times bigger than it was. Heck, your average home woodshop hobbyist probably has more tools & machines. Someday that may change too; I have no idea where this is going. I'm just steering the ship guided by what I know as a personal "True North"; how one rolls; what one will do, what one will not do; what of the experience is essential; what is more important, what is less important; priorities and standards. Wherever that takes this little ship is where it's supposed to go, and knowing that, I accept whatever is to come. We're having so much fun in here. I feel like this is the time, this is the team, and things are really happening.

Thanks for being with us!

Listening to:
Tim Buckley Morning Glory (Anthology)
The Fixx Reach The Beach
Steel Pulse Smash Hits
Jim Cullum Jazz Band Chasin' The Blues

~

February 5th

Yeah yeah, I know it's Saturday... but this kind of thing, though completely laughable to those of you in, say, Massachusetts or New York, my people, getting snow by the foot and making it a point of pride to get to work, to walk to school, and to sport those icicles dangling from your noses, here in South-Central Texas it shuts down our whole slice of the universe.

Maybe once a year... all ice, no salt.

The roads, buildings, infrastructure, communications... none of it is set up to work all that great during sustained below-freezing temperatures or with any hint of ice. It's insane to watch the world go down over a few days of 20 degree temperatures, a wind-chill of 0 and a half inch of snow. I laugh out loud at it. But it does. Everything shuts down, roads are closed, pipes break, trees explode and fall, and people have no idea how to drive. I mean, the natural world is never as distant or under control as we like to think it is and past the whole birth and death thing and the seasons and all, nowhere is anything more unpredictable than in the natural world. One day you're the mighty hunter armed to the teeth on expedition, next day a steamer on the Amazon trail. One day it's 80 and we're out on the porch at sunset in short sleeves with cold beverages involving hops and fermentation, the next the heater's cranked up glowing like the desert sun and we're dripping the faucets with our fingers crossed.

This isn't BC Rich in the '80s... a snow day here means this.

You get folks a bit unsure of what's coming next and out of their comfort zones, it makes 'em a bit wacky. You can see it all the time on the news. Here, by the way folks act, you'd think a dusting of snow was nuclear fallout. But if you're from the North or the East Coast, living by choice where there's ice under your feet and snow falls from the sky on a regular and alarmingly generous basis, you're already a bit wacky so this doesn't phase you. I'm unphased. Still bewildered by why you still stay there, but unphased. I remember well pumping gas in worse. Still, it wreaks havoc with the infrastructure here and makes it dang near impossible to get anywhere. So here I am Saturday, butt unchapping and other parts dethawing nicely, doing an abbreviated Friday list; including this update. Shop's fine, heat in the assembly area (the only place in here with heat) stayed on thanks to whoever could get here doing the propane tank shuffle (Thanks 3D & Jake), little heater stuffed in by the pipes worked, so no broken pipes. All clear. Out at the homestead we did pretty good... 3 out of 5 unfrozen, 1 of those 2 I think unbroken, and the other one, well...

Hey, nothing's that big of a deal so long as the toilet still flushes.

...but living simply and rurally I know the system well, most of it's up under, easy to get to & cheap to fix. Once it got above freezing, we turned the pump off, and when I get home after doing this and taking care of some stuff here at Birdsong, I'll turn it back on, find the leaks and fix them. No problem. It's PVC; cut, sleeve, and glue. The rest of life should be so simple...

Frosted Dart

Except that last week was a washout. Sure, we still got in here some and got some good things done but the majority of the big cutting gluing, finishing, the big assembly days with Coltrane or Zen Guerilla or Howlin' Wolf blasting, the pictures, the big update... didn't happen last week, my friends. We all found warm places, drew those we love close, cooked up some good hot food, said our little prayers for those who had it worse, and waited it out.

Some days that's all you can do.

Listening to:
The wind howling
The faucets dripping
The birds chattering (man I wish I could translate, but I get the gist by the tone and inflection!)
The crunch of my feet on snow which perhaps one a Winter does a soul good

~

January 28th

While most of the world is all atwitter over the latest big mergers towards the inevitable McWorldMart Products, Services & Communications Corporation and whether (insert actress name I don't know since I don't watch TV or many movies here) is adopting, like it's real news or any of our business anyway, amazing little seeds of real meaning are carefully cultivated in The Little Workshop That Could. That's what it feels like from in here, on this side of the screen. The nuttier it gets out there, the more exciting it gets in here. To all of you I was privileged to talk with this week, I'm so honored to be of service to you... you are my reality and I'm very grateful for that. We will do our part to do our best to help our best become a part of something real! :)

Here's what the finish/assembly side of the workshop looks like right now...

Look at all this fun... Odyssey #2, an inventory customized Cbass, Fusion #15, BX ("Custom") #001, Sadhana #45, Hy5 #33; then Sadhana 48, C205X, S46, the amazing 2006 39th Cortobass in for sale on consignment, The Great Cedar guitar, and the 6th Anniversary EJ guitar (these will be made under the D'Aquila name). On the far left table, C203 whose neck is in finishing, going into assembly next week; left table, C216X, a custom 2-humbucker 22-fret Cortobass now in inventory; on the right bench, a prototype lap steel and some other stuff I can't tell you about yet.

Definitely check out the inventory page, some new instruments have been added!

Man, it's late, I'm spent, but it's a good kind of tired!

Play nice.

Molcajete,

Listening to:
The Pixies Best Of
The Best of Chess Blues, Volume Two
Los Lobos Colossal Head

~

January 21st

As promised, this week it's picture time!

So things are up & cranking again; there's a few of you I need to call back, I'm almost there where I can come up for air. I haven't forgotten you, and thank you for your patience. I'm almost caught up with emails too. Just an observation here, but even with good junk mail filtering, if I took advantage of even a quarter of the male enhancement pill offers I get I'd never be able to roll out from under this desk.

And on that note, I'm outta here!

~

January 14th

Not many pictures in this update, but lots of news... next week I'll devote the time to the tons of new pics I want to put up on the site and go a little easier on the one finger I type with. There'll be pictures of your basses in progress, you out playing your Birdsongs (I think this'll be a fun addition on the client page and to help those in the waiting process to realize yes, it will really come... and it will be good...) all kinds of pictures. For now? Those thousands of words that will just have to suffice.

At least after this one...

"Born to Be Wild": The mysterious 3D rides again! Yes, we are an eclectic gathering of odd talents.

On the revamped Instruments page, you'll notice two things; "Custom Birdsongs" and the "Odyssey" as a model in the lineup.

Custom Birdsongs
Feeling confident in the new shop and the hands on the benches, I'm widening the options on custom orders a bit ~ I've always done some but I've had to decline others for many reasons which don't make sense on that side of the screen but help keep things moving on this one. As we're a little bigger ship now, which is nothing but good news, we can do more and vary it up and still get it done in a reasonable time frame. If your serial number has an X at the end, that signifies a "Custom" of sorts, maybe a non-standard body shape for the model or other deviant features... well once we started with that stuff it blurred the lines a little, so now anything can happen and it's a bit more clear with the BX serial number. That's "Birdsong Custom", so when you decide you like the Fusion Body but with the Sadhana stringer and Cortobass contours with a Cbass pickup and no controls, I know what the heck it is now! :) This should also take care of those of you who want customized "Cbasses" ~ which I won't do, that's a whole package of wood and chrome, cosmetic touches and tone, not just a pickup ~ because now we can just start your build with a blank order sheet and you can spec out the best bits of your favorite Birdsongs, and so long as it'll work together and be a great bass, we'll chop it up, oil up the skillet, and sautee it 'til golden brown as a "Birdsong Custom" for you. Yummy!

Odyssey
Maaan, did those three fretless Zebrawood & Ash prototypes get some fan mail! Ok, game on. 2 pickup, fretted or fretless, rear routed. Pickup-wise, think of a Cortobass but as a two humbucker with a high output bridge pickup, sort of a bigger set of cojones to go with the bigger body. I really dig the body in thirds, a wide center wood with matching wings. But there's no wood specified as standard, so we'll figure out what'll make it "yours" together.

Speaking of Odysseys... over the Holiday break I did 2400 miles in a '79 Chrysler 300, one of the great machines in my life. Wife Jamie was with her various pockets of Texas relatives and the Birdsong guys were in their own circles. This left me free to prep & saddle up an appropriate and suitable great white land shark and hit the road. Rekindle. Reconnect. Refocus. Realign. It's a time machine really, yet another manifestation of this '70s fixation I have. We hit two old car museums, rumbled in to visit my mother (called her "Mumford" for decades... used to put random customers on the phone with her when I had a retail store... I got to cook for her this time) and a cluster of Italian relatives now retired to a sunnier climate in Southern Florida. Then a great New Years visit with some good long time friends in the Gainesville area. For me there's nothing like a road trip to unclutter the heart and clear the mind.

While on the road I did a tremendous amount of thinking and writing. Some kind of a music book is taking shape after all these different chapters along the path of a life in music... something like Walden but where the shelter was a guitar, or Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential with strings attached, less sex & drugs but more rock and roll. Maybe all mixed in and seasoned with Thomas Merton... if he was half Sicilian from the East coast. Strange partners I know, but what can I say? I never really planned any of this. It was all just the next step on the way.

I share this with you in case you have the connections to those ligamental linguist liasons I don't, as I am looking for an agent for some of this writing stuff that's been piling up for the past, oh, 20 years. But mainly to let you know the little hairy guy, the Captain of the Birdsong ship, the nutty professor, is feeling totally refreshed and completely inspired. And that was even before I stepped back into the workshop! Hugs and handshakes, high fives and the blessings of plenty of good work, good brothers to do it with, and the coolest clients in the universe. What a family I have. What a great circle.

And the year ahead will be filled with excitement. The biggest news around here has just entered the D part of R&D. That's "Research & Development" for you all who don't run into that abbreviation. Well it's an abbreviation for a long process; this is something we've been working on since last Spring and is another piece of the puzzle as to the new bigger worskhop we set up over the Summer & Fall last year. So while Birdsong's capacity is ramped up a little (and it's capabilities a lot), and the prototype D'Aquila guitar is coming together, the really big news... well you don't know about yet! But boy oh boy do we have a great treat in store for you in the months to come. I get nutty like a 12 year old with his first electric guitar all over again just thinking about it! "Must remain in control. Must remain in control..."

Though on any path of greater pursuit it is unwise to completely abandon oneself to the senses (that whole "wonderful ally making a terrible master" dichotomy), there is something to be said however for every now and then, while one is able, taking to the highway in something sculpted and obsolete with eight big cylinders in a V under a long hood, and cranking the big machine up on some pre-dawn empty interstate; high beams blazing, hammer down, windows open to the cool night air, and Foreigner's "Double Vision" blasting out of old-school 6x9s. The dashboard glows, the engine's steady, throaty transcendental chanting drone song driving the mind to a different space as the road is sucked into the grille and shot out the tailpipes. It's you and me, oh great horse of steel. Let us ride the wind while we are able. In the red & chrome console, a pair of mirrored aviators and Bob Seger's "The Distance" for the morning miles ahead... and the road stretches out into the new dawn before us.

Thanks for being along for the ride!

~

Jan. 8th

Have gotten some emails on this: Birdsong Hy5 on eBay... yes, it is white! Very, very white. We called it "the tooth", I remember... it's 1 of 1. The client arranged the paint job during the build and it was sent & shipped back to me for assembly. It's Mahogany under the paint. It was for a lady in a show band, to match her outfit. It's one of the first dozen or so Hy5s, having the different pickups, narrower string spacing, all 6 strings "double string through" and the hand made Ebony bridge. $1200 is a STEAL compared to what that bass cost new. It's 100% legit and a definite piece of Birdsong history! From what I remember, very beautiful in person. Someone cool grab it!

Those early 5s take D'Addario "extra long scale" strings, with the "SL" suffix.

No, I won't do it again. :)

Jan. 6th, 2011

We're baaaaaack!
Happy New Year everyone, we're digging through a little mountain of calls & emails but should be caught up during next week. Hope you all had warm & wonderful Christmas & Holidays; we're looking forward to getting cranked back up in here top o'the week... thank you all so much for being with us!

~

December 15th

December 10th

This will be the last News update of 2010 as we are simultaneously gearing down for the year and gearing up to finish and ship the builds finishable and shippable before we break for the Holiday season. A strange juxtaposition, but it's juxtaposition we have to take. :) Oh, already with the puns? Does it have to start now? Yes. Yes it does ~ this is a time of much joy & high energy! And that means humor. We will be in here working for most of the next 2 weeks so it's a great time to call & talk about your new order for next year, too; we have a bunch of basses to build and the one you've been thinking about ordering could be one of them!

With anything crafted by hands with a lot of heart & devotion in it, there is so much invested in its becoming that's given away in the process ~ that's why a break away is good. You buy the bass but we give you the life energy, health, vitality & mojo that went in during the process of its creation. That is not for sale, only to be gifted with intent. And honestly that being the primary focus of what we do (we don't just "move units", I rarely even use the term "product") it is necessary to regroup rekindle reconnect, re-whatever you want to call it, with our sources & inspirations. For me it's time to plant my feet firmly on the path and regather. As part of the fuel consumed by Birdsong I spin with the manifesting of these instruments, and it's an incredible and inspiring spin, but it isn't sustainable. Like a car on a road trip, sometimes you gotta pull off the highway and refuel, maybe take care of that tire that went a little wonky; check your directions; stretch the ol' bod. Still the mind. Get the circulation back in your cheeks.

We're having a blast building all the instruments that we will be able to finish given the parts on hand. We were hoping for more necks than we got, so the completion of a handful of predicted "10" orders will have to be the first batch of 11s. No worries - you will play your Birdsongs, and like home cookin' they'll be worth the wait. As always, thank you for your patience and know we always do our best to keep it rollin'. I predict what I can but if I've learned anything so far is that there are always delays & surprises. It's just the reality of doing it by hand and with custom-spec parts.

The State Of The Birdsong speech, gosh things are looking so exciting for the coming year. With the team of hands we have and the bigger San Marcos workshop we've been in since the Summer, it feels like the dreams of all that could happen as a part of a real guitar company are taking root! The vision all along was of more than just a cool, better-designed short scale bass. The D'Aquila guitar will be a stunner (along with the Electric Jazz guitars we'll make), the "benchmade" Birdsongs are just a miracle to watch being carved into being, and there's more that will bloom in 2011... I wish I could tell you more but all I can say right now is thank you so much for being with us. This is our lives, this shop, your instruments. We live it & breathe it.

So as I do feel relationship, a circle if you will, between and among us ~ reaching far beyond "product" or "business" and rippling outward into the pond, I want to take this time to peel back the thin curtain just a little bit for a few thoughts and all. This is - if not any other time - THE time of year to gather and communicate, to break bread, to give thanks, to reflect and to look forward. It is also a time of gifting, and I speak for myself personally and for Birdsong... if you were thinking of sending any gifts this way, please know I thank you so much ~ having you along with us is gift enough; please donate to your local homeless shelter instead "In honor of Ace"... a long time ago in Burlington, Vermont, a kid new to the road in an old van just about out of gas met a very kind homeless veteran and was taught things he never forgot. It was a short crossing of paths but I would not be me if I hadn't met Ace. I was never able to find him again. But I think about him a lot - have for 20+ years and uncountable miles in old vans since. And I know how few my wants are and how lucky and blessed I am to be here to type this at all. So I thank you, but please - whatever it is - give it to one less fortunate.

So what do I want for Christmas? You mean other than sanity and civility to become the latest craze? For courtesy to be the "in" thing and for YOU to be warm and well fed? Geez... well, here goes. There is something.

I have very few wants other than to serve good through music. Birdsong has been the coming together of sets of skills and lessons and everything I have ever been, combined with so much given by all who have been involved over the years. For me it's the latest chapter in a path I began walking consciously at 13 when music became my life. Along the way I wrote, I played, wrote, put some stuff out, wrote, did some producing, wrote wrote wrote. People think a notebook and minicassette recorder are parts of my body. I think a notebook and minicassette recorder are parts of my body. All this is to say I try to stay in a state of perpetual creativity and don't let much get away. And I have stayed there, despite anything else that was going on - and in more recent times, the goings-on have fueled it even moreso.

I consider it all a gift, and what do you do with a gift? Honor it and show respect to the giver by using it. So here I sit with hundreds of songs, dozens of albums in various states of recording, manuscripts for various books, and the ideas and rhymes and tunes keep coming like so much water. It has always been my priority to create more rather than market & milk it. So now, with Birdsong in flight and a network of so many people in so many places, I need help. I just feel it is time and in life if we never push over that first domino, we'll never know what might have come of it.

I am looking for music management ~ perhaps an independent label, some distribution, etc. I'm happy to submit demos and talk to anyone. Styles range from pop/Americana to acoustic blues to soundtrack music to psychedelic electric fusion. Whatever sticks to the wall is fine ~ I just want to see something happen with it. As an artist I'm low-maintenance, self-contained and can hand you finished masters. Somebody's got to know somebody...

And I'm looking for an agent for the writings. I look at it this way ~ we all crossed paths for a reason, so if anything's supposed to happen, it's through a Birdsong connection. I have lots of writings on being creative, living simply in hard times, intentional community, car culture, music... if you know anyone in the field, again I'm happy to submit samples and talk about paths & prospects. There isn't enough of me to go around to do all this myself, to "DIY" it. If it was just one project or one path, sure. But it's way way WAY beyond that. I need connections to an agent, and again - as the music path has brought to me all important in my worls (or me to it) - somebody out there knows somebody.

It's time. It's time to gather, it's time to look to the New Year, it's time to not put off things that are important. For me, it's time to go slot some nuts, string & test some basses, and call & email a whole BUNCH of clients I'm so grateful to serve doing what I love. I am here through teachers and taught skills, fed by gifts already given to me. I am honored to be of service through this gift of music and so grateful it sustains me. All this and Mike Doughty on the stereo; I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. Please share with those less fortunate. Please let others know they are not forgotten. Please separate empathy from politics. Please be kind to each other and leave nothing good unsaid. That's what I want for Christmas...

On behalf of all in the inner Birdsong circle, THANK YOU.

Peace be with you, whatever your path.

Listening to:
Mike Doughty Haughty Melodic
REO Speedwagon Hi Infidelity (Arena rock = guilty pleasure)
The Eels Hombre Lobo

~

December 3rd

Well folks, it's December & time for the Birdsong Odds & Ends Sale! Yep, oddities & leftovers YOU just might find interesting enough for them to become YOUR NEXT BASS! Gimme a call (512.392.4400) These prices supercede the ones on the inventory page from now until the break!

And here they are, the contestants for 2010...

	Fretless Cbass with Alder & Ash body I generally don't do special order Cbasses but that doesn't mean I don't think about it occasionally! Here's your chance to pick up one of those occasions. 3-piece body of Alder & Ash, old-style 3-pointed control plate in cream, Maple knobs, gold hardware! CAN SHIP THIS FOR THE HOLIDAYS!! SALE $1800
	"One-off" prototype Soapbar Cortobass A prototype, 1 of 1. Jazzy bluesy and full of mojo. Built & only played in-house, 'cause we were testing some stuff... I wish I could tell you more, but I can't. But I will sell you the bass! Chrome hardware, your choice fretted/fretless. Yes I will redesign the control plate for you if you find it hideous. SALE $1500
	SOLID Zebrawood 2-pickup Cortobass SOLD
	Wild Texas Ash Fusion If no one grabs it, I'm keeping it and I'll play it. "Neener, neener, neener." DEAL: NO UPCHARGE over standard for this wild body & 10% off final build price!
	Cherry fretless Cortobass A really pretty bass, great sounding. Been in Inventory for a while and I just don't understand... maybe it's waiting for you! SALE $1950 You save $175!
	Cbass "Rat Rod" A cosmetic 2nd body now being painted & distressed, to be dressed up like an old-school hot rod! SALE $1500
	Mahogany Hy5 w/Pau Ferro fretboard SOLD
	ON CONSIGNMENT: The 79th Cortobass! SOLD
	Colorful Cortobass Here is what some would call a "Cosmetic 2nd" and others would call "A little more hand made than others." It's a a 9-piece Cypress, Ebony & flamed Purpleheart and during sanding the darker woods left the Cypress a little tinted. Not flawless but VERY cool! Rear routed... this all would be a $600 upcharge! DEAL: No upcharge for the wild body, and your choice hardware color!

And great things going on in the workshop - we're pretty much cojones to the wall 'til we break on the 20th. We didn't get all the necks we wanted but we did get some, and those basses are going together and going out; we have parts, we have pickups, we have cases, and all hands are on deck. I can feel it winding down even as we push on, doing what we love, building these basses for you. Thanks for being here with us!

Listening to:
Jim Hall Live
Bruce Springsteen Darkness On The Edge of Town

~

November 19th

We must be making some basses, because we went through that last gallon of wood glue "right fast like", as local vernacular would tell it.

And it looks like the big push is on for the next month or so; boxes of pickups are here, cases are on their way, parts are being finished to rush my way; bodies coming out of finishing with that soft lustre, the amber glow of cured oil... Jake, Don & I are going to get as many done as we can, and work hard to set things up so the ones we just can't finish up are ready to go very soon after we crank back up in January.

Speaking of Jake, he has a custom bass he made for sale - it's a 34" scale fretless of Flame Maple, Cherry & Purpleheart. Details are on the inventory page... and it's quite a machine!
Bass by Birdsong "right hand man" Jake ~ from his own little workshop to you! $1850...

Next week is Thanksgiving, so there won't be an update, but I did want to share some thoughts on a day of thanks and wish all of you the best wherever you are - whether you're on in years or young, to be with family and warm or out on one of the roads of life somewhere. It's a day for reflecting on what you do have; not the lost of the past or the will of tomorrow, but right now. I don't know about you, but everything I have came from somewhere else. Anything I call mine was another's. It is only, if we trace it back with a big-picture view, through grace or sacrifice or generosity that I have anything at all. Sure I 'worked for" or "earned" this or that, but I didn't MAKE any of it or CREATE any of its raw materials and it all came through others to get to me. Other hands made it all. I just use it all as best I can and try to remain grateful and reverent about my gifted life and all borrowed that fills it while I'm here.

That's what Thanksgiving is to me, it's not about the traditional story to me and I tend to celebrate it differently. I see it as a day to remember the sacrifices others made ~ willingly in some cases, and against it in others ~ to somehow add up to my being and being here, here in a free country in my workshop with my friends, and home in the woods with my wife, knowing I have scattered family who may not be in my daily life by now but I love them and an extended family of brothers and sisters who are; knowing I do love them as well... blood kin and spirit kin. Knowing my back is watched and I can't help but feel watched over, when I look around at it all. Fifteen years ago I felt this in the back of an old Dodge van, out in a truck stop somewhere. It's not about what I don't have; it's about what I do, seeding what I can with it, working to make it all add up to something while the process honors and respects those who provided the means. I think about those who took me into their family circles on Holidays when I was young, far from home, and finding my way. Now I have made a home, and I think about the strays of the world. Cat bodied, dog bodied, human bodied... a stray is a stray and this I have been, and now I have this shop and this computer; these tools and this wood; these words and one finger that knows how to type; and you reading my words, interested in what I do. And I look around me... and I cannot help but give my thanks. I am one lucky set of circumstances.

Be blessed & keep each other warm & fed.

Listening to:
Bad Company 10 From 6
Bob Marley & The Wailers Confrontation
Debashish Bhattacharya Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey
The Black Hollies Softly Towards The Light

~

Thursday November 11th

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, VETERANS. WE SALUTE YOU."

This is my moment of silence...

Listening to:
Bucky & John Pizzarelli Passionate Guitars
Bad Company 10 From 6
John Coltrane Heavyweight Champion box set
Joe Cocker I Can Stand a Little Rain
Don Cherry Complete Communion
Dinosaur Jr. Beyond
The Wallflowers Bringing Down The Horse

~

November 5th

Ahhh I can see the end of the year from here. This is where a few "11" serial numbers change to "10" and a handful of "10"s change to "11"s. I've been shuffling folders, laying out bodies on wood, looking at what's finished, what needs finishing, placing parts orders, checking up on orders that well... kinda sorta shoulda been here already. It happens. And if I expect others to be patient and go with it, I've got to be the same. Neck Man says I'll have 10 coming this month though, possibly more into December, which means it's mostly up to us and the parts companies as to what gets finished before we break for the Holidays just before Christmas and what waits 'till we gear up again in early January. I always sleep easy (when I sleep) because I know I'm on top of everything I can possibly be on top of, the boys are kicking ass and taking names on the other side of the wall in the woodshop, and we give 110% every day. If, given all that, something has to get bumped or pulled forward or put on hold for a while, that's the reality and like other things in the "Things I can't change" file I accept it and roll with it. I work for the coolest clients in the world because most of you totally understand this, and I thank you all for that especially during the November & December crazies.

It makes me think about my Aunt's lasagna; I never did it but God help the misguided child that didn't grasp the concept of home cooking from scratch and would've said "Hey Auntie, you said we'd be eating at 5 and it's 5:15, what's the holdup?" Not only would you end up dizzy for the rest of the evening, you'd also hear about how grateful you should be to even have a table to sit at, let alone food put on a plate in front of you, let alone it being homemade Italian food that'd make your tongue slap your face silly before you could even shovel the first forkful in. ("Look! It must have already happened.") Wassamatta you, eh? So instead I steal a cookie and bide my time, and let the folks with the magic hands do what they do 'til it's done needin' doin'. I learned young that home cooking is worth waiting for, because it's always worth the wait. If you don't need a drool bib when you open up the case on Birdsong day, I'll take it back.

We won't be closing up for a month over the Holidays this year, I'll just be absent from around the 20th to around January 5th or so. Though it is on my bucket list to spend all my birthdays (1/10) "somewhere on the road" from here on out... the great thing about having a great team is that they can be in here getting it done and I can go off for a few days and keep that promise to myself (and some other important people I now carry on for). I don't like my birthday to be a celebration of me, I'd rather make it a quiet ceremony of gratitude that I have the opportunity to be here at all. A day to really honor those who made, kept and make that possible... with some enginesong, some road under the wheels and some wind in the hair helping to realign the vibrations and recharge the batteries. The road is pure tune-up for me. Sure it'll be cold with the windows down... but I'm alive to feel it and it makes me feel alive. Comes a time you can feel the rain and not just get wet. That's when you know something's happening! The rain doesn't stop you, the cold doesn't stop you, and the unknown ahead doesn't slow you down. If tomorrow's coming it's going to meet me face first. To become the past, it's gotta get through me first... and I'm going to chew it up and savor every bite. Extra time is lasagna from the universe.

It's hard not to deepen when you do what you love, what you feel you've been called to, what you hung it all out in the breeze on a limb in one basket counted before they hatched to do while the whole world lines up to remind you of the dozen ways you're crazy and the hundred reasons it won't work. And you set out on the path and you follow the threads from one chapter to another and... you don't starve. Amazing. And the little ship keeps righting itself through the storms, and the process rights you a little more every time as it happens. And eventually you transcend the mundane of it all and focus on the service, the ripples, the meaning in what you are doing - by choice what you are spending yourself on. And nothing else shakes you down.

What does this all mean to me right now?

1. I'm very grateful, but you know that.
2. I'm suddenly very hungry for Italian food.
3. A box of Lace pickups just came in the door so I'm suddenly very busy... gotta run! Play nice!

Listening to:
Niyaz Niyaz
Boston Don't Look Back
Andres Segovia My Favorite Works

~

October 29th

Do you know why witches don't get pregnant? Because their husbands have Halloweenies.

Yep, I said it out loud... a juvenile schoolyard joke that doesn't even make sense. It's even second-rate by pun standards, which means it's third-rate humor at best. So much for the veil of professionalism.

It is that time of year though, that time when everywhere you go you see candy corn. From the small actual candies to big decorations, it's candy corn time. Pumpkins, even carved into ghoulish monstrousities, are a sort of a kind of a bigger symbol of fall in general I think... but you see a candy corn and you know it's trick or treat time. Now for some that's fun; but for those of us that, as a precursor to later indulgences, ate it in such quantity as to grow nauseous at its mere mention down the road... well, I guess I'll be ok so long as I don't have to smell it. (And here come the baggies of candy corn...)

I used to dress up for Halloween when I had a little music store in Melrose, MA. I used to dress up as a normal person. I'd get up in the morning, shave off my stashenbearden, slick my hair back under the collar of a button-up shirt, and wear a suit & tie. Dress shoes, black socks. No hat. A perfectly groomed 7/8ths scale businessman behind the counter where usually stood... well, me. The usual me. Folks would come in and ask if Scott was around. "Why yes, that would be me sir. How may I help you today?" It was great.

The only time greater was when I was whor... uh, selling my bass services to a commercial country band in the early '90s. It was a Halloween gig at one of the "The oldest dance hall in Texas" places out in the Hill Country. I'm not sure how there can be so many of a definitive, declared, absolute singularity but there are some things you try to figure out about this place and there are some you just nod and smile and have another Lone Star. This hall was a big one, we were a good draw, and it was packed. Now, other than again being a tad scaled down, if I let my hair out and had a few days' worth of five o'clock shadow, with the proper props I bear a striking resemblance to Slash, famous guitarist from Guns 'n Roses. So I was Slash, and all night long everyone was complimenting me on my get-up, how great the wig was, the tophat, the whole deal. By the end of the night, everybody wanted to know what "Slash" really looked like. So during the band introduction, I step forward. "Ok, Scott, go 'head and take off the wig."

So I take off the tophat and bow... and my hair stays on. It's my real hair. You could hear the gasps and whoops from the crowd. I could've mooned them and gotten less of a reaction. Every now and then you're handed a hand of cards and it all goes your way.

Here are some Odyssey pics ~ the Odyssey is an as-yet "unofficial" model, another one of those where I got the vision, drew it into the notebook, and collected certain cuts of specific woods (Zebrawood, Ash) so as to manifest it as closely to the vision as possible. Shape, cut, colors, features, it was all there. That's represented by #1, with the round control plate. #2 was me making it even fancier; rear rout, Ebony stringer, wilder cuts of Zebrawood, special edge carve. It'll have a Zebrawood headstock overlay too. And #3 was the integration of the Odyssey as a more standard Birdsong with the Cortobass pickups & wiring. All 3 are fretless. The first two will have black hardware and #3 will be gold. For November, I'm offering 10% off on each of these three prototypes, they're the only three, so if you'd like to claim one please get in touch. Pretty sure I could get them out to you (or that really lucky bassist acquaintance of yours) for the Holidays, too!

The intro price on the Cbass ends this weekend, but if you're interested in one just drop me an email or leave a message ~ as far as I'm concerned, so long as we even started talking about it in October, you're in.

Oh come on, just do it.

Here are some pics from this week at the workshop... the 6th Anniversary package in process, which I think we have found a home for; Cbasses in process, the finishing rack, and Todd who came in from Florida to pick up his HUGE sounding new Hy5 and get packed full of world class Italian food. And the birdies in the old birdhouse over the shop. Just the cutest little beings...

Well kids, watch out for the ghosts and goblins. It's a strange time of year; all the hoopla, all the decorations, the sugar-coated handouts, the screaming, all the parties and noise and I bet if you ask 10 people what it really means 9 of 'em will have no clue. It won't stop half of them from pontificating, of course; "Well, when I was paratrooping over the coast of Borneo..." but really it's a confusing time when everybody's all dressed up tryin' to scare us into giving them stuff and there's no tellin' just what's really under the costume. Funny how voting time and Halloween kinda coincide. Don't eat the apples.

Listening to:
Boston Don't Look Back
Santana Moonflower
Various Coltranian goodness

~

October 22nd

Loving the cooler weather, having some incredibly productive days in the shop and some beautiful drives home looking down the long white hood, wind in my hair, "Born To Run" or Aerosmith's 1st cranking out the 6x9s... what is this, 1979? Could be. I mean look at me. Anyway, Jake, 3D & I piled into the truck and set out in search of wood. We came back with Zebrawood, interestingly grained Fir (yeah odd luthier's choice, I know), a bunch of native Texas stuff like Sycamore and Mesquite, a total heckload of Alder for Cbasses, some great Maple and Walnut, and lots and lots of Mahogany!

Speaking of Mahogany, a Hy5 build in process is becoming available... putting the word out on this, a good standing member of the extended Birdsong family was adding a 5 to go with his Cortobass but got a not so great doctor's diagnosis and needs to bow out of the build for now. So if anyone wants to help a really good guy get off the hook AND get yourself in on a Hy5 already in finishing, you can still choose your options, the only things set are that it's a standard Mahogany 2-pickup and it'll have a control plate. For more info & to jump in for a first half payment, call Scott at the workshop (512.392.4400) or email with "H36" in the subject. Everyone thanks you & I'll make sure you love the bass!

Speaking of Hy5s, 3D shot a quick video of H38's first flight. Getting some YouTube video up from the new shop has been in the plans but hasn't happened yet, so this is just a taste. There'll be more with better sound to come. But here's the Hy5. 3D hadn't heard one yet, so I strung it up, plugged it in, and walked down to B. We're in a big metal building and the ceiling started buzzing. He grabbed his phone and shot this. This bass is basically a standard Mahogany build but represents a very fun thing for me - when someone says they have a little extra in the budget and they love a certain other wood. This is what happens, kind of a "theme" build ~ the theme here is "Cocobolo and Mahogany". So we dressed the bass up with a Cocobolo fingerboard, headstock overlay and control plate. The client liked gold and it looks like royalty; he's driving in from out of state to pick it up and be stuffed full of Italian food Monday afternoon.

Speaking of video, Marciano from Enanitos Verdes let me know of this video with decent sound. You can see him grooving on his Cortobass (Spanish Cedar, 6 pounds). That's 50 pounds of sound coming out of that little bass, and he plays it very well. You can also see Felipe tear it up on his Les Paul ~ it has P90s and in person through his Bogner amp could be one of the best guitar tones I've ever heard. Mahogany has a beautiful voice for instruments, no matter what kind is built. Used right it is magical and speaks. Good video, very good guys, you meet them and they make you feel like old friends.

Speaking of old friends, 7C-079 and 7C-076, two Cortobi from the original workshop, were in here together for about an hour today (and we got to visit with our friend Dick who owns #76). C79 is a unique "two-tone" build in for resale, it's now in inventory (grab it, there's none other like this) and the Texas Mesquite 7C-076 was visiting the shop for some TLC. Busted nut. Boy, I hate it when that happens. (Awrighty, this juvenile comment brought to you by...) Yep, 3 serial numbers apart way back in 2007... they probably hung around in assembly together at the first workshop! They fly the nest and go about their own lives, rarely to cross paths again - so this is kind of nifty.

And speaking of nifty, the D'Aquila Guitars (D'Aquila means "Of the eagle") site is up. This will be where organic looking, great sounding "Birdsong style" electric guitars come to be. The Electric Jazz guitar will be there, and other cool concepts in unique electrics. Not much there at the moment, but for you who are on the journey with us I wanted to let you all in first. Yes "You all", not "Y'all"... I'm in Texas and I love it, but I'm not from here and to resort to faking a Southern patois... well I tell you what, that'd just be a dadgum shame.

Keep your top knot & your powder dry, there, hoss.
I'm headed 'round the back 40, catch you on the flipside, homes.
(Wait a minute, I think I lapsed through CB lingo and into jive...
well now there's a trifecta for you.)

Listening to:
Boston Don't Look Back
Dum Dum Project Export Quality
Sonny Rollins +3
Grateful Dead (Live)

~

October 15th

We all do it with a little help from our friends.

They rescued the miners in Chile; I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. I wish to someday have half the courage of Luis Urzua, foreman of the crew, who insisted all his men be rescued before him. Such honor gets rarer by the day. Makes what I do seem kinda tiny. Any one of these men have more callous on their pinky than my hands will ever see, and I've done some things friends. God bless each and every one of these miners, their rescuers, and all who put themselves in harms way to put bread on the table.

Truth is, none of us make it however far we get without the hands of others. Everyone's got their crew, formally or informally, that keeps them moving towards the front and covered from the back, hooking us up directly or indirectly along the way so we can keep on keepin' on. Cousin David might have been weakened by chemo but word has it he jammed his butt off, Dan's Sadhana & improvised suspension framework helping so rather than having to hold it up, David could concentrate on gettin' down.

Where would we be without our crew? Our rescuers of the moment? Our everyday saviors? And again... courage. Courage. So many fold so quick over so much less... let me tell you, the business side of all this that I do just fades into a speedbump when I think about something my hands helped come to be helping to make this guy feel good for a while. We're with you, brother.

So here in the world of us mere mortals with our little daily problems but really nothing to complain about? I come in the other day and 3D has built this incredible 2-tier bass case storage rack out of construction scraps from the recently-new shop. And I watched Jake scratch-build some more advanced scratch-building jigs we couldn't quite swing to buy yet. How is it I just do what I do as best as I can and others wind up caring so much? Having my back? You might not know the names of the others behind the scenes along the way to this little Birdsong experience we all share, but there's no question... they're with us, they've got our backs, and I like to think I'd send every one of them up the escape tunnel first. They sure deserve it.

Who's your crew?

Here's a cool shot from assembly ~ individual update shots on the client page are a little thin this week. Quoth Burt Reynolds, "I'm too pooped to pop." Incredible day in the shop, with my friends, making basses. In this shot there's a Cortobass, a Fusion and a Sadhana. They're all going out Monday if all goes well. There are roundwound strings (Cortobass), flatwound (Fusion) and tapewound (Sadhana). One goes to Germany, one to California, and one to Wisconsin. First to guess all three wins a weird piece or two of Birdsong memorabilia from the workshop.

And here are two old friends passing through; 8C-129 (Walnut on the right) came in for an unscheduled pit stop after an unexpected trip down to the concrete. The fall wasn't bad, it was that sudden stop. Anyhow it's all fixed up and headed out for home on Monday. 7C-079 (the Maple & Mahogany half 'n half) is in to be sold on consignment. I'll personally give it a once-over twice, full restring & setup, and it'll be over on the inventory page next week... unless one of you grabs it 'tween now and then.

Hey ~ we love you, man. Stay strong and look for the patches of blue in the sky. Life is glorious... especially on the other side of the rough stuff.

Listening to:
The Trio Of Doom CD (For like, five minutes. For all the talent on there, why do I picture a monkey humping a typewriter when I listen to it? Mother of God, five minutes in my ears thought they'd listened to a double album. It's a soundtrack for night two of an all weekend speedball bender. I bet at half speed it's fantastic.)
Sonny Rollins +3
Bruce Springsteen Hammersmith Odeon 1975
Bob Marley Confrontation

~

October 8th

Quickie update, as I'm leaving to go deliver this Spanish Cedar beauty to a band playing in Austin tonight... more details & pics over the weekend!

"Do the basses sound good? How long does it take to get used to the smaller bass? Are they really professional quality?"
Ask Marciano of the band Enanitos Verdes ~ he strapped his new Cortobass on, plugged it in, and played the whole concert with it!

Some footage can be found here (not mine). The house sound is a mix of direct & amplifier. This is a fantastic band that has been rocking the Spanish-speaking world for 30 years; the crowd sang along to every song and the whole group from the band members to the crew are good, good guys. Special thanks to all of them, all our blessings & continued success, amigos!

This is what assembly looks like right now... yeah, staying busy at the moment. :)

Here are a couple of Fusions coming together... you can see there's still distinct personalities that come out during the build. Some basses ask for dark pickup cover & knobs, and some for more complimentary pieces. This is part of the fun, like "playing for the song", making it groove... these are our songs and while we guide them into being and flavor them a bit to the client's taste, we still answer in some ways to the forming instrument, to the muse, to the spirit behind it all.

When I can do what I do as well as Don Caruso spun a pizza, I'll know I'm somewhere far up the mountain.

Be well, thanks for checking in!

Listening to:
Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
Meat Loaf Bat Out Of Hell
Grateful Dead Grateful Dead (the live one)
Ben Harper Both Sides Of The Gun

~

October 1st, if you can believe that

Time flies when you're having fun. When you're not, it goes really slow... obviously not the case here, as just yesterday it was July. Or so it seems...

And you know it seems like just last week we were sweating our... oh wait, we were. This is central Texas. But the magic gray sky came and took the sweltering heat away for another year this past week... one little rainy spell and -poof- 60 degree nights and 80 degree days. I love this time of year, the workshop is cooler and the ac can stay off for a bit. The evening cruises through the hill country backroad 2-lanes are delicious with the windows down. I used to bum out over Fall because, well, we all know what comes after that. Maybe not so bad here, but I've been where it's bad and it's in me and that's the part that dreads it. But these days? Hey, I know on the other side of that's a Springtime and however many Springtimes one gets to see, that's one measure of how... well, how lucky one has been. How many bullets one has dodged; how many freak situations one has been delivered from. How many chances one has been given to make a go at it. Glorious Springtime. So a few months of the chilly willies, aw heck that's a cakewalk. You're not gonna hear me complain.

And it seems like just last month we were house-sitting for our friend Frank (it's been years...) and now he's cashing out, so if you have a wad of extra loot and want a hill country artist handmade riverfront home on acreage check out these pics. If you're interested I'll put you in touch. Think "Six numbers beginning with a 4." For those of you just choking on your latte, you know that'll buy you about a quarter acre on Cape Cod with no building and it snows there and it's full of curmudgeons. Who knows what's a safe bet with that much moulah these days; banks? Ha. I hear the Pacific Northwest is a happening place, and I know there's a punch line in here somewhere about how the heat in Texas "still beats stickin' it where the sun don't shine" but I'll be doggone if I can tie that all together this late on a Friday evening. I tell you what, it's a sawdusty~good kind of tired.

Hatched a plan while laying out the beginnings of a bunch of ordered builds for a really wild inventory Sadhana that'll come together probably early next year... you know that's technically only 3 months from now. Now that bass won't be done, but three months from now we'll be saying "Seems like only yesterday it was this same time but a year ago." Does seem that way, doesn't it, when the seasons change? It triggers something. It triggers wanting to do something grand, to be alive with a capital A, to want to just plumb get it on with a pile of Walnut and Bloodwood. Ok, maybe not in everybody, we guitar builders are a little special. Touched, some would say. "He's a little touched, that boy."

Check it out - I'm doing it. Intro pricing on all orders placed for our new Cbass extended through this month only. There's a number of you guys workin' on your wives, negotiating deals and agreements, selling off ponderous and large basses... I know because I get your emails. So I'll do my part to help. And I just finished the latest Birdsong demo CD with sound samples and updated info, so if you're new to the family and are just kinda gettin' interested in what's going on over here in the hills with these cool little basses, send me your mailing address and I'll get one of these off to you so you can hear for yourself. Seems like not all that long ago I already updated the dad gum thing but that was 2008! And it seems like 2008 itself shouldn't have been all that long ago, but I'll tell you 2010 is on the next bus out of town at this point. Might as well just start practicing writing 2011 so we don't mess up all those checks again.

Yep, time flies like the wind... and fruit flies like bananas. All in a day's work. Catch you on the flipside.

Have a great weekend!

Listening to:
Aerosmith Greatest Hits (the red one, the old stuff)
Bruce Springsteen Born To Run
Van Halen Van Halen 1
Jackson Browne Running On Empty
www.somafm.com

~

September 24th

Just plum tuckered out; incredible, productive day. Here are some pictures for you... and some words!

This is Odyssey #1; the Odysseys are manifestations of a vision ~ represented as close as I could get in this very bass ~ with 2 variations to follow. #1 is about ready... if you want your tool of creation to be one that actually came to me in dreamtime as you see it, well here you go! Ash & Zebrawood, Ebony fretless. Will have a warm, organic sound and plenty of sustain. Call the workshop: 512.392.4400. More pics on the inventory page.

Cbass: The soul is unchanged... just the fitments & flavor!

Thinking about extending the introductory price on the Cbass... I've heard from a number of you "making arrangements" and selling off other basses, etc. etc. so I'll probably run it through next month. To keep the price down the Cbass has very limited options; it's a complete "package" and a very vintage-style build. Maple or Rosewood fretboard (or Ebony fretless), aged pearloid or tortoise control plate. Might make some from Swamp Ash, and I'm sure there'll be the occasional exception to the rule but that's what the Cbass is, a melding of traditional vintage single pickup punch with Birdsong mojo & Cortobass ergonomics. Lemme know if you want one, I'm keeping the skillet cookin' on these.

3D cleaning a nut slot before carefully fitting an Ebony blank. I'm so blessed not only to have you on that side of the screen, but my brothers on this side in the shop that help it happen. Don't for a minute think just because I'm the nutty professor & Captain of the ship that it sails because of me alone. My team formed around me, as Birdsong grew. Words can't express my gratitude to them for taking up the slack and taking on the tasks. They mean everything they do & bring their best to it all... so we can offer our highest in service to YOU.

What a beauty... this one will be on tour starting next month, hopefully all over South America!

We're rocking and rolling... it is amazing what gets done when each is offering their best. I'm grateful to be here, helping these instruments come into being. I'm glad I don't have to do everything, but I'm glad I have DONE everything. Sometimes along the path the universe engages you in service that has tasks you're not the best at; that don't come easy; that push you outside of your comfort zone. But this is where something even greater than your highest skills can be offered to what you're doing and its ripples... your will to humbly do the best you can in spite of difficulty, to accept these parts of "getting there" and giving them your all. It gets easier, sure... but the best seeds of success (whatever it means to you) are sown along the path when they're shaken out of you.

Have a great week!

Listening to:
Andres Dominguez Observance (Devoted Birdsong player - check him out & BUY THE CD, it's fantastic & has Cortobass all over it!)

Also...
The Black Hollies Softly Towareds The Light
John Legend & The Roots Wake Up!
Keith Richards Talk Is Cheap
Zen Guerrilla Trance States in Tongues

~

September 17th

This week in pictures...

Speaking of the good stuff, thanks to all of you for everything... the interest in what we do, your time, your attention. The emails from all over the world and the calls... we're honored to do whatever we can for you. YOU are the good stuff. I'd especially like to send our warmest out to Andres Dominguez up in Massachusetts, truly a brother ~ and a bassist among bassists. He send us his new CD "Observance"; you can hear cuts off of it on YouTube, including one he graciously named after my wife Jamie & I! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF3-2AA6s6I) We built him a Birdsong a while back and he's been playing it a lot... the music is fantastic and his bass playing is supportive & superbly groove-nacious. Amazing the things that manifest when you follow the path you're guided to and step to the beat of your inspirations... life is good, life is good.

Have a great week!

Listening to:
www.somafm.com (the Suburbs of Goa channel)
The Best of Bucky & John Pizzarelli (the New York Swing CD)
Niyaz Niyaz
John Scofield Flat Out
Andres Dominguez Observance
and of course John Coltrane. But that's like breathing to me...


Here's a "Nugget" in solid wild local Texas spalted Pecan! Twin humbuckers with the trick wiring. Maple neck & fretboard, 24" scale. Hand rubbed oil finish on beautuful, character-filled local wood! Nuggets sit great on the leg, tuck the neck in nice and close and play very easy. Oh yeah, they scream with some distortion! 3D Pecan Nugget $450 SOLD!	I own one just like this and can tell you it's as much fun as you can have for five bills. Well, I mean that won't have legal repercussions... though there was that escapade just off the coast of Borneo I look back on fondly, but that's neither here nor there. Beautifully made, plays itself, a world of cool tones. 7 pounds of joy. 24" scale. 3D Junior T in Walnut $495 SOLD!	A Nugget with a carved top, and this one is solid rustic Pine! Sounds very warm... you know Leo made the very first Teles out of Pine. It's not that odd as a guitar wood. This is a great, small bodied guitar that sits well in the lap and, like the others, has a rainbow of voices to play with. Also has a short 24" scale; everything falls under the fingers! 3D Pine Nugget carve top $450 HOLD	Here's an interesting piece, a bit longer than the others. This is a prototype of what became the Nugget. It's a full 25-1/2" scale neck and a Pine body topped & backed with Poplar. Same wiring as the others, D's offering this one cheap so someone can get a funky hand built "something different" for short cash! No gig bag with this one, but we'll pack it well. 3D prototype $295

	*Let's start with a handful of road trip pictures.* To me this directly relates to hand building basses & guitars because to do that well, especially as an in-demand small workshop, requires a certain level of devotion and it consumes you. It's a total blessing to be consumed in the process of doing something you love and feel really good putting out into the world, that filling the world with music and the tools of its creation is some part of something positive, but time comes you need to recharge. And this is how I do it.
	I have a thing for machines. Big, old, sculpted, obsolete machines. Time machines. They help clear my head. Road trips have sustained moments of in-the-momentness, almost a Zen state that restores from the inside out. Put a guitar in my hands, it happens. Put me on a highway in a *good machine*, it happens. Ahhh, Mecca; the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida. When I nick myself in the process of building your basses, musical notes come out... at all other times though, it's Valvoline.
	*This was the good machine... if the journey was a spiritual thing, and it was, meet my temple. The USS Ricardo Montalban* is a 1979 Chrysler 300. Basically a Cordoba with every high performance piece Chrysler had in '79 in it... cop motor, cop suspension, cop brakes... geez I'm starting to sound like the Blues Brothers. It was me, the machine, and 2400 miles of left lane bliss.
	*Of course, this happened a fair amount.* Now before you lecture me, let's compare "Carbon Footprints" on an overall lifestyle basis... I guarantee unless you're living in a yurt off the grid in South America, you'll lose. :) So cut the time machine a little slack.
	All of this is in every Birdsong. It may not have been born by the side of the road like I was, but the highway is in the genes and they get passed along in the process. So when you journey with anything out of this workshop, you can feel confident it knows the way. If you hold it up to your ear, not only will you hear the ocean but you'll hear a truckstop and highway sounds, the crackling of the CB, and the roar of some distant engine... the song of one lone rider.
	And, as always in my life, there is music. The soundtrack to it all. Can't imagine a road trip in a machine like this without this CD. Or Foreigner, Boston, The Cars or Aerosmith for that matter... it would be completely absurd. There is nothing, I tell you, nothing like heading out to drive into the night and feeling that engine and ticking off those miles to Bob Seger. Moments like this are how you die without ever doubting you have truly lived.
	And is it ever truly a road trip without Waffle House hash browns? Covered, diced & peppered, baby!
	And then...
	*Back at the shop* head luthier Jake holds the first set-neck Birdsong Sadhana, "Benchmade" entirely to this point by this man's hands. All of you wanting to do this, reading up, honing your craft, learning your skills; you who dream of woodgrain and spokeshave; the glories of being a luthier, of bringing wood alive again to sing. How bad do you want it? What will you shoulder for the chance? How deep will you go for it? What does it mean to you? You think you can handle it? You, the wood, and the weight of the world? The heat? The cold? The dust? You wanna taste it? You wanna breathe it in, get it all over you? Well this is what the real deal looks like. Purpose, essence, sacrifice, drive, pressure, intensity, paid dues; the good kind of pride, the total commitment, and the call to carve wood. Respect.
	*Just a knot in an old piece of wood?* Try the beginning of a branch in a piece of Cherry from someone's grandfather. It's going to be the back of Hy5 #21... the pencil markings are instructions from me to Jake during cutting for placement & glue up. "Put this by the player's heart." You think I'm kidding around with this?! We have lots of laughs and fun and it's joyous but I tell you it's DEEP what we do, we don't take it lightly at all, we're not concerned in the least if most would rather buy a factory guitar off the rack than wait & pay for something of meaning, and we will not rest until - for those few who understand - we have made you the absolute best tool of creation we can possibly conjure up, whatever it has asked of us in the process. "Good Vibrations" is waaaaay more to me than just a Beach Boys song.
	*Here's a sneak peek* at Artist build #1 started last year. It'll be available when it's closer to presentable. I'll tell you it's made of one piece of totally wild Walnut, and that the big carved out line will be filled with crushed Turquoise...
	*The last batch of Cbasses* flew outta here so fast I didn't get pictures before I flew outta here for my road trip. Here's one on the bench now, with Maple fretboard & pearloid control plate.
	In case you bookmarked this page and miss the site's front door, this is a picture of the "Cover bass"; it had been a Cbass leaning up against the front of the machine, but now it's this Cocobolo, Quilted Maple & Mahogany Hy5 we made last year.

	Variety is the spice of life; how many woods are in this picture? If you can guess and name them, I'll send you a little piece of Birdsong history. Put "woods" in the subject line of your email.
	New basses "becoming." This is when the magic kicks up a notch for me. When routing the bodies, it's when they get rounded over. During assembly, it's when the neck goes on and they take their place above my workbench.
	This row left blank intentionally (they do this in official documents and I never understood why, but I'd always wanted to do it myself. So here you go.)
	There's just something about a standard Cortobass. I love these... and it's not an ego "Ooooh lookie what I HAVE CREATED!" kind of thing. I'd love it if someone else had designed it... just a fine working design and a great little bass to play on. I'm merely the lucky guy that helped manifest it into reality! This one has a special tortoise control plate and the honor of being #199. It's flying the nest Monday.
	We've got a great little team, it really feels like something special is happening in here. Some very cool pieces coming together from the wood stash! This is the second Electric Jazz Guitar and the last to be a Birdsong... from here on out we're staying focused on the best short scale basses going. Our guitar designs will emerge under the D'Aquila name very shortly... including the EJG and the Starbird. What's a Starbird? Well, you'll just have to wait... This EJG is a part of the Mesquite, Maple & Walnut "6th Anniversary" set of 6 instruments. Read more on that project *here. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially in the zone*."
	Is this the coolest headstock overlay or what?! Spalted Pecan, for an equally-wild Sadhana #006. This was an already serialized build from... geeez, 2005, 2006 sometime that was for inventory or something and got set aside. We discovered it and looked it up in "the book" and we hadn't reassigned that serial number. So even though we're working on Sadhanas (Sadhani?) in the #40s, here is the 6th Sadhana, and of "Uncle Johnny" wood to boot. This headstock just makes it complete. Wait 'til you see this one. Next up for this neck is to rebore the tuning machine holes open to finish size, mount on some black tuners and load the bass full o'the good stuff...


Completely hand carved chambered electric... ...with 1-piece flamed Maple top, 1-piece Mahogany back, and lots of Wenge ~ fretboard, hand crafted tailpiece, neck stringers... Jake even wound the pickups and they're Glenlivet for the ears. Top it off with a Titanium bridge... the lacquer isn't perfect and there's 1 ding from a klutz, but look at these pictures and tell me it's not a work of art... Offered at SOLD	The fretless bass... The most striking thing is the Purpleheart fingerboard with the 12th fret inlay; next you notice it in the stringers, thumbrest, neck strips, truss rod cover... and that Maple, on the top, back, headstock; the Cherry core, the carving, the VOICE from all this via DiMarzio P/J pickups... then you notice a hunger, an emptiness only this bass can fill. SOLD	The fretted bass... "Texas Native" of wild local Mesquite and Pecan. A Mesquite fretboard with Turquoise dots (you have to see this in person). Full 34" scale, Kent Armstrong pickups ~ the bridge pickup kicks like a mule. A big gut bucket of awesome hand carved Jakey goodness! Yes. Offered at SOLD

	$2250 512.392.4400