May 1st, 2026

And a happy springtime to you, thanks for checking in!

Last month was a whirlwind, a giant road trip in part to visit the workshop and Head Luthier Jake, that guy in the picture. It was so good. Birdsongs are the best they’ve ever been, as it should be with decades of making them for you. But this is a special chapter in Birdsong’s journey… I always delegated parts of the build process, spreading it to other luthiers who needed the work. However much sawdust and wood shavings I got in my beard, it was never just my hands. Necks were big in this - made to my spec by a handful of others in a handful of different ways since 2004. In this chapter of Birdsong, you’re getting these basses completely hand crafted from bare wood planks to stage-ready instruments by one pair of hands! One pair of big, meaty mitts that have been working with Birdsongs since about 2008. I still run the business, but the shop is all Jake Goede. And these builds are special in that - it’s the single master craftsman vibe PLUS the decades-proven design performance! I am excited to see where Birdsong goes from here. What a run, and the adventure continues!

Another visit on the trip was to Jamie Hornbuckle, Birdsong co-founder (and wife of 20 years and now great friend). She’s doing GREAT, working in real estate still in the central Texas area. Always good to have some pizza and a beverage with someone you don’t have to explain yourself to, and we laughed and caught up and talked about Birdsong. She is loving the Jake vibe too these recent years, and… she helped save 175 pages of news page content from the old site! Many of the old blog posts back to 2015. As a writer and archivist, I wish I could have gotten them all, but that’s back through other site formats and you know, past a point… the past is gone. It’s here in ripples and morphed inspiration now its own with no tether back, but as far as gathering stones, let the waves on the shoreline do their thing. There’s much more beach to walk. But this is great and will end up in book form at some point. Bigger than big thanks to her!

And to Dax & Taryn, two incredible souls that are behind the scenes in my life and in Birdsong, without whom neither would be what they are. You don’t know them, but if you know Birdsong and vibe with it or me, you do know them - you know THEIR ripples. They’ve been helping the business since before day one.

Summer batch is underway, there was neck making and wood tracing and all kinds of sawdust everywhere, which is exactly what a Birdsong workshop should look like. I’ve always said, I don’t trust a clean mechanic’s shop. Where are the cars? That guy’s spending his time polishing his tools. I want the guy buried in work and smiling, with a trail of smiling customers and parts all over the place. This isn’t an assembly line, it’s alchemy! It’s a slow, controlled explosion. That guy’s making it happen. That’s been Birdsong since about a week after launching ourselves online in 2004. And, while I have some of my own sawdust and woodchips flying, the ones from Birdsong will always be special to me.

So… let’s make something special for you!

I’ll be updating THIS page more often, watch for info on the coming 22nd Anniversary bass, and what’s happening July 4th weekend for our Anniversary specials. Start getting your permissions and offloading that gear that just doesn’t serve you or feel good, and we’ll make you a bass you’ll play the rest of the way. What’s new? Stay tuned! If you have any questions or want to order and get in the que for summer or fall batches, I’m still your guy, even though my adventure continues in the rural northern Adirondacks.
512-395-5126
birdsongbass@yahoo.com
www.facebook.com/scott.beckwith.35
You can keep up with my own stuff and doings at www.sbeckwith.com

The BIRDSONG Facebook page… follow us, please, and tell your friends.

And remember, Jake has his own line of guitars and basses too, very much in the same family but different than what Birdsong offers. Whatever you need, he can come up with and make for you! www.goedeguitars.com

Thanks, wishing you and your circle all the best.
~Scott B.







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