Well it’s been a busy week here in the little shop that could, and did, and IS, out deep in the south-central Texas Hill Country junipers. Things start from endings here – some see it as a dead plank. I see it as phase one of rebirth. That rebirth, that reforming into an instrument – a tool of creation – is what I serve. Because it serves you, and the wood, and the music that happens outward and between us and others, and the ripples into lives and inspirations and worlds from there. And all of that serves what’s behind all of it, deeper within and without than we deal with on the day-to-day of the surface.
Shipping has gone up yet again. You won’t notice it here, but if you notice things changing on sites you do online business with, this is what’s going on. Just for simplicity, I like to price things shipping included. I haven’t always done that, trying to find the balance in numbers, but I have more than not over the past 20 years and think I will continue to going forward for that reason alone. It just keeps it simple. Do keep in mind though, the days of shipping an instrument insured with signature on the other end for $50 are gone. So when I say “shipping included” that usually means new box, new materials, about $100 for the shipping itself, and the labor/time of this guy right here. Plus I go out and run it to where FedEx picks it up so it’s one less day out all over on a truck. So, you’re actually getting more than an actual decent-level Squier P bass in shipping value alone. That should speak to the scale of things on both ends of the comparison.
You know, though, it’s just the angel’s share and change; neither of which I personally fear or begrudge the process. For change, I have answers because I’ve thought about it and prepared. Who knows if my work-arounds will be the right ones going forward, but I have answers to adjust with for whatever may come and that beats having nothing but flailing hands and surprise that things changed, you know? Like, after enough storms you buy some tarps and gloves and band-aids and find out what those are for other areas of life and business and plans and get a few plan Bs aside so things keep rolling. And the angel’s share, I mean, I’m Italian. I understand any move I make that makes me anything is going to have maybe 10 or 15 per cent that just evaporates. Up or over to the hands who set you up to do it, in to the system by which you play, and just even… lost.
Sacrificed to close the deal for the other 90%, something broke in the process, an extra fee from somewhere because they know they can, I mean you can spend half your time railing against the skimming of per cents… but I don’t. I’m grateful for what those who skim provide toward my 85% happening, you know? It is what it is. I’m not going to allow those to make me batshit crazy. There’s too much to do and it’s mostly fun, and I’m here to serve more than suffer. Life is a balance of both but I get to decide some of it most of the time. You grease a few palms and get on with your doings. The angel’s share is actually a wine maker’s term. They fill the barrel but by the time it’s ready to bottle, there’s some empty in that barrel too that wasn’t there. Evaporated, lost to the process, seeped away out into who knows where as a part of how the ingredients become the final product. That, my friends, is life.
I don’t run this by numbers. Of course I’m part business guy, that’s how you stay going for 20-something years. This run started for me in 1996. So there are numbers and balances one understands and plays within. But past that? I set the instruments up by feel and sound, not little millimeter specs on a paper. Never in my entire guitar building career have I priced an instrument’s lumber out by the board foot or climbed head first into that equation. Never. I need this board, it gets me those bodies, and these other boards too, the wood haul this time costs X. And that’s it. My questions from that moment are – will it fit in the car? Should this be the build I dedicate for resurrecting ol’ Joe the Truck? Can I do 5 other things while I’m out? I just don’t get lost in the numbers most fill their head with.
It’s kind of crude to diminish life to pennies and anger over per cents. Sometimes those add up to where you make course adjustment and change who you deal with. But I’ve known people who spend so much life energy bouncing balances between cards for a 1% interest savings, and I can’t help but think much of that focused on, say, a day by a river with no screens around or a good road trip through the mountains, would pay bigger benefits in clarity and gratitude and connection enough to negate whatever the fuck that few hundred bucks would really mean over the course of the next couple of years vs. the time and stress juggling it, you know? Like maybe another few percent of peace and beauty, forgiveness and balance inside would grow different decisions made in the first place and then maybe that percentage of load isn’t the straw that’s breaking the back. I don’t know.
I take the Rolls Royce approach, not because I’m of that class and can afford to not pay attention or anything, but because I can’t afford NOT to pay attention toward what I’m paying most of my attention TO. In a world of 1970s horsepower rating one-upmanship, Rolls would only answer “sufficient” when asked for the power numbers for their Silver Shadow engines. “Sufficient.” What a concept; and they moved just fine. And that’s how I want my life. Once something is sufficient, I treat it like the maintenance and growth of that part of the garden. Past a point if you’re counting cherry tomatoes, it’s going to drive you friggin’ bonkers and your overall bounty and the richness of the experience will suffer for it. Time is short, and the most valuable thing we have; there is music to make, sunsets to see, seasons to prepare for, and love to cultivate. For me, however tight it has been at times, I spend more time filled with those than counting life’s pebbles on the bank of the river.
And I shift with the balances – writing takes time. It’s like breathing but it’s not as necessary, and I feel I’ve said a sufficient amount today and this week, and looking at next week I should apply that time to the builds to stay on top of the wave. So, this’ll be the last news page blog up for a couple of weeks. Not time off, just using the time to finish up and start getting out of the nest the instruments in assembly, and working on some gradual changes going on. Which are always there and best to be pro-active WITH than re-active TO. I’m excited. It’s fall, it’s cooling off in the mornings, and I’m grateful. But I feel springtime inside, and I hope you dig in until you do too, whatever that means to you. May something I’ve said help you in some way, as you need it, in your life. In your garden. Have a great couple of weeks, keep an eye on the BUILDS and INVENTORY pages for progress, and my usual posts on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/scott.beckwith.35).
Laters to me!
Listening to: David Liebman Quintet, If They Only Knew; Jack Owens, Blues at Home ’78-’82; Vedic chanting; Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers; an interview with Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet.