I talk a lot about the balance of tool vs. talisman that IS a custom instrument or something hand crafted from other hands to yours. Even items of true quality… I mean, you can build a cabin with a $10 hammer and pawn shop tools and move in. I did that. But a quality tool is something. I remember my first expensive hiking boots as an adult. What a difference. And not just in price, but in VALUE. Past the barest essential function every shoe has, or every hammer has, or every bass guitar has in common, what is it? And what makes one special specifically over another even past feel and looks and craft and wow factor? Why do we buy when the offer is on the table, when it’s on the screen and you just KNOW or it’s in front of you and that magic extra something is there?
Here I am at Martin Guitars in Nazareth, PA. It was a bucket list check-off to go, and I guess a souvenir hat wasn’t going to cut it. A Custom Shop 000 Cherry Hill sure did, though! And, though I have always been buying and dancing with and selling guitars, after so long, I think I know what it feels like to get a Birdsong. I love instruments, I’ve owned hundreds even aside from the music shops I’ve been involved in. They fascinate me; all kinds. All price ranges. But this? This wasn’t something I do every day. Or ever, really. Or likely again. But I’ve been on the other side of it for a lot of people over the decades!
And that pretty much started right here, at The Music Shop in Melrose, MA. I took a detour in my wanders and stopped by. Don’t worry, Head Luthier Jake’s in TX making the basses and they’re actually better than ever! That says something for a 20-year brand known for doing it right in the first place. And THAT all started as my chapter in this little store. Though I’d bolted together parts and modified and repaired guitars and basses, behind this glass in 1998 was the first time I tasted sawdust. And once you taste the dust, the nature of what’s possible and the scope of your craft change significantly. I thought after 24 years and 2 owners later I’d just sneak up and take a selfie, but it was about four seconds before the door opened. “Scott? Is that you?”
Yeah, it’s me. The adventure continued for sure! And it keeps rolling now. And I think in many cases it’s not just the value - what you get for what you give, whatever the numbers involved - but the experience. Not only what transfers in the intangible from craftspeople’s hearts and souls through their hands to yours, not even legacy. I mean, we dance with that a little after 20 years… that’s really something in this business. It’s a certain little glow on everything; it’s in the conversation, the making, the offering, us and the client. All feel that extra warmth of legacy. But Martin’s been around for 191. Think about that. I bought a new Martin to make old memories. And you buy a new Birdsong to do the same. Tool? Check. Legend? Check. Devotion to the client? Check. Great instrument? Check. Now… down the road when we’re done playing, done sharing this active soundtrack musicians get to craft out of moments and inspiration and share with others, what will we have? The instruments will be in other hands to continue their journeys. The tools will be in other workshops to keep serving the process of creation, in other hands themselves. And we will have the memories… of the experience of discovering that special instrument that is OUR VOICE, and of the times making the music, and those moments being played BY it, and the ripples out of all of this… and we will never doubt that we have truly lived.
Peace be with you, and stay tuned…
Listening to: Lots of music while roaming, but a couple of standouts on this last run have been Robert Plant’s The Principle of Moments and the John Coltrane & Kenny Burrell album. Sublime, each in their own manner.