Available bass! Info below…
The Birdsong News Page
March 13, 2026 “Beneath the bark”
There’s an inventory bass available, fresh off the bench!
A cherry and maple Cbass of selected woods with plenty of natural grain to look at, definitely no boring pieces for this one. Cherry is one of those woods that always holds some surprises in its grain, just waiting for that first coat of finish to reveal. And this piece was really something! Otherwise a standard workhorse Cbass where we blended the Birdsong Cortobass’ short scale ergonomics and form with the voice of a great old P-bass. We rarely have anything in inventory, our order book pretty much stays warm since 2004 and we slip an extra build in when we can to surprise you with. Surprise!
This one’s ready to fly the nest, only one, at $2700 USD including shipping in the continental US and a high quality padded bag.
Completely hand made in the Texas workshop by Head Luthier Jake Goede and ready to fly the nest, only one, at $2700 USD including shipping in the continental US and a high quality padded bag. Contact Scott by email at birdsongbass@yahoo.com or at 512-395-5126. “Thankyeh!”
Beneath the bark. Under the surface we see, lives are lived. They are very different lives; we share the planet but they live in different worlds. Sometimes, their lives become art. Sometimes it’s because to us with our eyes they ARE art. From the grain aberrations caused by a rubbing against the tree to the little holes and designs left by much smaller lives on their way through, to even the basic beauty of grain itself when a piece of tree is slab cut after its circular life… the beauty is there. It’s in there whether we ever see it or not. That’s life. In greater terms than what would present well to the eye as craft, it’s all. It’s you and me, it’s other beings. The tail wags from inside, the hug begins within, the poetry and art starts not with the page or the brushes or chisels, or hands even. The flower starts within a seed. It all lives beneath the bark.
It’s amazing what’s under there; I marvel at it with every piece I’ve been blessed to work over these decades, and what a journey it has been! I may sound like I’m on acid, but I assure you I’m not. I just live in a world of perpetual creation, and have for a long time, most of the time in a workshop beneath the bark. So even in winter, it’s hard NOT to feel springtime somewhere inside. In the smells of the working wood and rubbing oils, even in the sounds of the tools, TO the sounds of birds singing (where Birdsong got its name) and the music on sometimes as a sonic tapestry to filter the light. Sometimes by lantern with a pen. The faith in the inner workings. Creation happens. It happens around us and through us, much of it beneath the bark.
Once I saw it, I never looked at a tree or another or anything the same way again. I ran my hand over a handmade electric guitar 40 years ago and felt very slight variations in the quilted maple, and realized “This didn’t just appear…” It was a cause and result in the wood, somebody cut that tree, and other hands shaped and worked it into a guitar. There were greater hands involved than mine and this wasn’t just a thing or a product… it was a RESULT. What could my results be? What would result from my hands? What could result from this instrument? From my life? From the parts of it nobody sees? And the real journey began. These and I are ripples of lives now on or gone. Thank you for your interest in what we do, on their behalf, and for you. And all the best to you beneath the bark.
~ Scott B., Captain of The Ship
January 29, 2026
I was talking with a client the other day, he was ordering a second Birdsong and asked a familiar question. “I’m a Grateful Dead fan, and I was wondering about the name of the company…” Well, I’m going to tell you how Birdsong got its name. But first… it’s not the Dead song. By the way, did you know that song was written about Janis Joplin?
Birdsong the company went legit in 2004; as a name, a brand, it dates back to 2000. The first Birdsong instrument was a guitar named “Rainmaker” with its own story, completed in 2001. At this time in my life, I was just getting on my feet out deep in the rural Texas “Hill Country” woods; that guitar was made with the help of my friend “Uncle Johnny” in my corner of his workshop… a shop with its own story as well. But in there I showed Johnny how to make his wood art into guitars, and he showed ME how to make my guitars into wood art.
I was young and threw myself into a deep south summer and a defining life’s path out on some acreage with little prep, as an incomplete guy, but it was time. And I was going to settle that raw piece of land or die trying. I had no idea what I was made of or who I really was, but it was time to find out. There were lots of challenges in enduring and working it hard and living rough, clearing a spot and trying to put up a shack… again, another story. I was ill-prepared and ill-equipped. But when it’s time, it’s time for a big move, and you either do it and see where it takes you… or you don’t. And it doesn’t. From where you are, you start or you sit; it’s as simple as that.
In the middle of all of this, sleeping up under the stars on my van, I understood that so long as the birds were singing in the morning, everything was going to be alright. And they did. And it was. And that’s where Birdsong comes from. As well as the feather tattoo on my right arm. It was a new day, it was a new DAWN for me. And my soundtrack to going “back to the land” was birdsong.
That was 25 years ago, my adventure looks a little different now, but I have that same spirit that found its flight - and Birdsong looks a little different all these years on as well, but it does too. And that’s the story of how Birdsong got its name.
Check out the MODELS page, and the FAQ/ORDERING info, and get on board for a 2026 Birdsong. I still answer the phone, I still guide it all, and I still write up your orders and promise you absolute happiness with your bass and mean every word. If we can be a part of the music you make, we’d be honored to build one (or two!) for you, from our hands to yours!
Thanks and blessings,
~ Scott B.