5 STRINGS, CORTOBASS, CORTO2 RETURN!

What a beautiful season – Texas went from 90 to 60 like it saw a cop in the median. Well OK, the nights did - it’s 95 again today. But I’m not complaining, it is what it is. These are busy times, and as always, we’re making things happen. Here’s the wildest group in assembly at one time in the history of the company! Some you’ll be seeing on the inventory page, all will be off this rack shortly and singing their songs.

And as cool as all of these are, there’s something missing up there. It has been a rocky road over the past couple of years through the parts supply chain shakeups and outliving arrangements to have the certain hands Birdsong needs to do what it does best AS it does it best, and as it has done it THE BEST around, for coming up on 20 YEARS. We had to put a hold on new orders of some classic Birdsong models that were the core of our line and roll with the changes. BUT, with that said…


BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Birdsong Guitars has made arrangements with our brother-in-craft and former workshop right hand man Jake Goede of www.goedeguitars.com to help continue a few classic Birdsong 31” scale bass models – the Cortobass, Corto2, and the 5-string in BOTH modern C5 and original-body H5 versions, the first time ever with both on the menu.

After some time of uncertainty through parts supply and help situations, we are thrilled to announce WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING NEW ORDERS for these short scale, big sounding, classic Birdsong wonders!

Info & pictures of the models and current pricing is on the BIRDSONG MODELS page.

Brethren, if you’ve dreamed about ordering a 5-STRING or a Cortobass or Corto2 and having the whole experience with the build pictures and having one custom made FOR YOU, now is the time - things just happened to line up, so hop on into the family! Half down will get an order for one (or two even) started RIGHT NOW.

Happy to answer questions, talk options, and write up an order for your dream bass!

Email: Scott@birdsongguitars.com
Phone (CALLS only): 512.395.5126
Message: Facebook friend/message me at https://www.facebook.com/scott.beckwith.35

Have a GREAT weekend, I’ll keep my phone on and checking Facebook & email. Thanks so much for your patience and support! What can we build for you?

Listening to: Steve Miller Greatest Hits; mastered version of my next album (info to come); Bollywood Steel Guitar; Grateful Dead American Beauty; The Wallflowers Bringing Down The Horse; Aerosmith Rocks; Bob Seger Nine Tonight.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING

Tune in Friday, right here… right now? It's Monday. Every week is a good sized hill; I get my head around what I'd like to see on Friday, and the steps to those goals become the lists of the days between. After that it's up to me - show up UP, ready to GO, grateful for the chance to SERVE in some way through what I do, this life and others, these gifts and potentials... or not. It really is that simple. It may be autumn, but it's springtime. It's a new day. Go get it. ~Scott B.

Sunrise, sunset, and what's for sale!

Greetings and happy Friday! Or, Weekendus Eveus Joyii, as they’d say in the lower Tiber. A quickie update from the woodgnome, who is still working…

I’m helping to sell some basses for a friend and Birdsong collector to help him fund continued care and defray some medical expenses. They will continue to pop up on the inventory page here, and also in our “Strings That Sing” Reverb store, and on Facebook. Some may not be aware but, in addition to the Birdsong basses, there are a few from other builders – off site is where they will be seen. I’ll be putting some more up over the weekend. Here’s a quickie look at a handful of what’s available as of right now, from that collection and our inventory, and my personal stash. Some won’t be in some places… so check all three! More to come.

Left to right: A real Carl Thompson, built BY CARL; a gorgeous Cliff Bordwell; an incredible Jake Goede bass; a Birdsong GUITAR in front of a ‘77 Ibanez hollow body of all flamed maple; Birdsong 19th Anniversary super-short scale Companion with real turquoise inlay. But wait, there’s more…

I’ll be taking the weekend to put a few more up; if you see something that speaks to you:

Email scott@birdsongguitars.com

PM me on Facebook

512-395-5126 CALLS only.

Here's a beautiful pic of a sunset I took on the way home from an errand last night. I’ve always loved sunsets… I remember being on the east coast as a young man, with one van or another, going and getting a pizza and driving down to the beach to watch the sun set. I’ve loved them on the road too, there’s just something about driving into one with the right music, out on a road trip. Gradually it turned into sunRISES that are my favorite. Maybe it’s a shift in the road becoming shorter ahead than behind, or just a fresher outlook on what there is to do and why I’m doing it, that gets me up before dawn to greet the day and sort myself out and get on it. Long ago I’d watch it get dark… now I’d rather watch it get light. But either way, I’m very grateful, and it’s springtime baby! Go plant your tomorrow.

Listening to: Taraka (Taraka Larson), Lost Lathe Cut Demos EP; Los Lobos, Colossal Head; Bill Evans, Moon Beams; Johnny Hodges, Jeep’s Blues: His Greatest Recordings 1928-1941; The Allman Bros. Band, A Decade of Hits 1969-1979.

Circles

It was more moonset than sunrise this morning. Slipping out of the tiny home to greet the day, I saw it through the trees – thinking it to be the sun but somehow strangely placed. I moved through the brush into a clearing and saw it was the moon! Full and glowing a light orange, as if reminding us that this is a new dawn, not just an ending. That these things are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, are ever present with each other... even in times that is not so visible. This morning it was visible.

I usually offer to the sun and accept from the moon. I’m very grateful for the sun, even when it’s trying to kill me. I work mostly by natural light. I rise with it, and try to settle in when it goes down. The moon brings the peaceful hours. The woods I’m in are way down and way out; as was I in ways when I came to them. Deep in the Texas “Hill Country” I slept under the stars and walked the sanctuary by moonlight. I learned Native words and spoke to the land in its language. I had no idea what life would be like; I was not following some formula of tradition I didn’t feel fit, I was never one to paint by numbers. It was just the path that called me on; the road that called me out had led me here and I noticed. So I kept going. And decades later, here I am, and here YOU are. (Here’s a pic from then.)

Had to push a couple of things I wanted to get done for some of you to next week, because THREE basses flew the nest this week. That hasn’t happened in a while, but that’s what shaped up and what they needed was what I needed to do. And, once ready, you know who packs them? This guy right here. You know who runs them out to the Mail Stop in town where they get picked up so they don’t spend the extra day going all over hell and creation out here in the back of a truck that extra day? That’d be me. So, I bounce and my bounces change as to what I hit as things happen through the days. I make my lists for Monday but by Wednesday they’re being rewritten. When there’s 20 things needing attention and stuff slots in, that’s what happens. When there’s only 5 things on the list for the day, slotting in one more does not require reconfiguration of the entire universe. Watch the builds page this week for some beautiful things happening…

The computer had some cleanup done and is working fast and reliably again. It will play mp3s and open a dozen pictures at once. Slowly over time it becomes more quirky to where everything has additional procedures to remember and special ways of clicking because the old just freezes it up or that button doesn’t make it happy so click on that other one over in the list if you can remember how to find it instead. You know what? Screw that. When it becomes that, it’s long past time to fix it. It’s broken even if it still functions. So I called my computer guy, in his chapter of easing out of his brick and mortar shop and balls-out schedule that got him there… into part time and the mountains of Colorado. The guy cleaned and fixed my computer FROM THERE. It's weird to watch the screen change and shit get typed in and the little arrow clicking stuff and moving around… but here we are.

Birdsong has a Reverb store now and stuff is starting to trickle up there. You might even see some overlap with the birdsongguitars.com inventory page. Occasionally the prices will be different. Reverb definitely slices off its “angel’s share” on a sale, so sometimes I have to factor that in on top up front. But I don’t begrudge them that – it’s their house I’m selling in and 90% of something beats 100% of nothing any day. Life’s too precious to get all indignant about somebody taking their cut. I mean, I’m half Sicilian. I understand the concept. There are some unique pieces going up in both spots, and selling fast. I’m helping a longtime client and friend liquidate his collection to defray continuing care costs. A few are from other builders, so they won’t be up on the inventory page. I’m slipping these in as I can, so stay tuned to both and jump on what you want. The world changed over the past years, but Birdsong keeps on rolling and there are always people who want them. I am so grateful.

In music news, I have a new album coming together. I have no idea how it will be released, or by whom, so if anyone has any ideas or an indie label they’d like a completed, release-ready acoustic-based album for, get in touch. I’m easy – I just want the stuff out. Hot on the heels of that one going off to be mastered by Billy Stull (absolute behind the scenes legend) down in his sunny paradise of South Padre Island, I’ve written and gathered material for an electric/band album to be ready in the spring. Fall is going to be VERY busy and I’ll record it after that, during winter break, out here in the woods on the same gear I used for one that happened 22 years ago that was called “American Bandwagon.” It will bookend that nicely somehow. Given time, things do circle around somehow.

Having come through this summer, uncomfortable in many ways yet sustained by the glory of life and the depth of what I do and those I keep close in the circle, I reflected as I deliberately took the time out back behind the workshops to watch the moon disappear down into the trees and past the horizon. My first summer out here was brutally hot and uncomfortable too, and in that were lessons and preparation that carried me 23 years on to this one. One could say had it not been for that test I rose to, none of what happened after could have taken form. There would not have been enough me; of me, to me, in me. I would not have understood as much as I would have needed; my focus would not have been honed or will been tempered by such specific adversity. I was being made into who I was needed to be for the next chapter. To all of you in change, which judging by who I know is quite possibly most of you, have faith in the way life changes.

And so, this morning, I offered to the moon – to an unusually large, orange moon itself reflecting the sunrise in its setting. I thanked it for all it has shown me and wished it a good travel around again… while knowing that, though I appear to stand here, it was as much me spinning along on my journey as well.

Ashoge.

Listening to: Bill Evans Moon Beams; Soundgarden Superunknown; John Coltrane Meditations; Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall 1970; The Ahmad Jamal Trio The Awakening.

Support Independent Art

In honor of Jenni Finlay Promotions' 17th anniversary, please go download a few volumes of my song recordings! Three are available at https://jennifinlaypromotions.bandcamp.com/.../the-audio.... It's not easy doing anything independent to the point you can earn your way through with it, I know this from Birdsong Guitars and the other things I tried before my music path turned into building basses. Success to that level comes from being long consumed and completely devoted, and takes its toll on you and those around you. And then once you're there, you have to learn to maintain... it AND you. So many go at it, so few last. And "making it" is really just that - being able to make a living at the craft you're called to, at whatever level. So, from one who "made it" in honor of another, on this day to all of you, please check out EVERYTHING https://jennifinlaypromotions.com/ is promoting and doing, buy yourself some new music to help support such things and put some fresh stuff in the soundtrack to your life, and know that ALL independent artists, craftspeople, and folks behind the scenes in the business of it all THANK YOU so much.
~Scott B.

On 9/11

I will never forget this day, though I was thousands of miles away. For all who felt and feel it still, my thoughts are still with you. And for those lost, as one still here, I stand for you and offer the ripples of my good work today. In any good they may do as they too spread outward, may you live. May you be honored. And may I also be reminded that, years later around this time of year, a very diverse circle came TOGETHER to help build this workshop, as we had for them; and that it is a choice. May the ripples carry that as well.

Payments on Attention in Fall's Springtime

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.