April 11, 2025

Some words from Birdsong Head Luthier Jake Goede about the process in the workshop. Some picture a factory; we’ve never been that. Always a workshop. Always a workshop somewhere in the “Hill Country” of south-central Texas, with skilled hands turning planks and parts into performing musical instruments… from our hands to yours! Here’s Jake:

Truly hand-crafted instruments! Here's a little story about how they are made.

Craftsman built by ONE set of hands from block of wood to completed instrument. In a world of automation, assembly lines, and technology, we still do things the "old school" way. Yes, there are power tools involved. Of course. But those tools are guided by a craftsman's hands.

From the actual drawing of the design, these instruments are laid out on paper, with pencils and rulers. Then a board is cut, and a basic shape is formed. All the holes are drilled and routed, using patterns created by the designer, in the same way the drawing is made. Then the carving is done; A LOT of love goes in this stage... This is where it starts to FEEL like a guitar!

Then the neck... This is where the science meets art! Carefully calculated fret positions are sawn into a fretboard blank. The fret board is then glued onto the neck blank, with truss rod precisely installed underneath. After all the final glue-up work is complete, the basic dimensions are drawn in place and the neck is "rough cut" into a basic shape.

Now the fun begins! We carve the neck, using an antique spokeshave, getting our basic shape. Then a leveling rasp comes out, and we get "close" to final dimension, then the final rasp and round files. These tools do the "fine-tuning" if you will… After this step, all file marks are sanded out, and we move on to installing the frets, once the fret board is properly leveled and radiused (also by hand; this can be tedious work, but so worth it! This is what makes or breaks a build!)

The neck is now complete! Now we go on to the finish process. Oil finish requires absolute patience, and attention to detail... As any missed scratch or imperfection shows itself on the 1st coat. The oil, a special blend, a recipe we hold dear, is applied by hand in several coats until it's just... right… then hand buffed to a durable lustrous satin glow finish.

After the finish is dry comes assembly/set up. This stage is where it all comes together! Parts are put in place, the neck firmly attached to body, bridge, tuners, (all high quality); the electronics are copper foil lined and soldered very neatly into place, and the nut is accurately hand cut and glued onto place. Then we string it up, and a meticulous and accurate setup is done... Frets are dressed and crowned, and shined to perfection. We test play it and make final adjustments...

And then....

I take it outside and take pictures in front of a natural setting. Because that is where this all started. This is how we do what we do. There are so many more steps involved, and if you read all this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Because that means you care about this art as much as we do.

Thank you for your support!!!

-Jake

And thank you, Jake, for those words. And for your devotion of many years, and your workshop sweat and craftsmanship far beyond what I imagined when Birdsong was a dream of a workshop in the woods and a few guitars. This is a fascinating chapter of Birdsong for me, with Jake at the helm of the workshop and me more free to be and run the business. I see my designs getting their day of truly individual craftsmanship and, though that may grow a little in the future, it’s the chapter I always wished for them. I always had a team around and none of this would even exist without their help. Jake? In the workshop, Jake is his own team. A true American craftsman in an age when that’s not so celebrated or very easy to be.

So, we’re here for you. Birdsong has been here doing these short scale basses as our focus since 2004 and the launch of the Cortobass. STILL in the line, still the basic most pure Birdsong DNA. Right up to the recently offered Fusion2, and onward into what’s to come. If what we do is what you want, we’re grateful that our work and instruments can serve you and your music and what you share of all of that. Cheers, and here’s to the next 20!

~Scott B.



March 29, 2025

Out of the workshop in Texas and from the meaty hands of Head Luthier Jake come the Birdsongs, better than ever, as it all should be. From the rural Adirondacks far north, I’m Captain of the ship, Scott B. It’s springtime, and things are happening.

The newest model, the Fusion2, can be found here: Fusion2
With a demo video on the new 2025 and onward Official Birdsong & related YouTube channel (like & subscribe, please):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Uzsf5gDmvr8

There are currently TWO fresh Birdsong basses available on the Reverb.com page - contact me for any further info, birdsongbass@yahoo.com “Inventory bass” or call (no texts) 512-395-5126. They will ship from the workshop in TEXAS, not from where my account shows up as (MOOERS, NY).

Keep up with my on-the-side goings on at www.sbeckwith.com.
Check out Jake’s own line at www.goedeguitars.com.
And of course the new Birdsong site right here, still being added to and worked on.

I like to work life from a space inside that understands every new day as a little springtime of its own. What’s new? What’s happening? What can be gathered and what good can be made of it? I design instruments like that, and to be a part of music moments coming together like that in your world. Just like they turn into jams and songs and parts of bigger times there, they do in life too.

We who spend time in workshops often feel it like a garden. It’s hard to be too down or whatever in an environment where things are constantly coming together and becoming, moving forward in various steps of creation, deep deep deep in the process of that. It’s what we do. In our way, it turns wood and components into tools of music. In others’, woodcraft or sculpture, art or a really great bowl of soup.

I want to wish you - YOU, RIGHT THERE - a happy spring! I encourage you to at least tune out some of the noise, turn on that part inside who remembers why you made your music and sing your song, and turn up. At jams, at open mics, at times it’s time to play, even if it’s your music room looking out at late season snow falling on a rural 2-lane highway while the soup is simmering. Feel the call, be pulled, and go play. OK?

OK. We’ll talk soon. As always, thanks so much for being with us! On behalf of all the hands at Birdsong, “Rock on.”

~Scott B.

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2-21-25
NEW Birdsong YouTube channel is up and being added to!
www.youtube.com/@BirdsongBasses is where you’ll see content from the Birdsong circle including Jake’s Goede Guitars builds and Scott’s signature instruments from his own workshop. Onward we roll! ~S.

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If you’re reading this, the new site has been launched! We’ve only done a few total redesigns in the 20 years since birdsongguitars dot com launched, usually due to programs going obsolete. This time it was to make the site useable on handheld devices… yeah, we know, “Welcome to 2010!” Thanks, smartalec. But here we are and here we go! I’ve plundered the archives for pics and it’s still getting tidied up a bit, so forgive any little glitches. We appreciate you, and I’ll be posting on here regularly! Rock on, ~Scott B.