You MAY!

It’s just about May - it’s been a very busy winter-into-spring, but in some ways, I can’t believe the time. Seems like just yesterday we were eating pizza and planning 2024 for “the business of Birdsong,” what has to happen behind all of the meaning and craft and music to keep things on track and rolling. I’ve never been completely rooted in the business side of what I do; it’s necessary and I’m extremely grateful, so it gets the attention and respect it deserves. But then it’s back to carving and writing and talking with you and with Luthier Jake… and that, my friends, is where the time flies!
(Speaking of which, here’s a pic from summer of 2004!)

So happy Chrysler Hemi day (426), for all you gearheads out there. How’ve you been? Good to see you here! Thanks for coming. What a few weeks! I mean we have to start by honoring Dickie Betts of the Allman Bros. Band. A key player on the soundtrack of my life, his long jammin' career has sent uncountable ripples into so many guitar players who came up listening to his special touch and blending of styles. We will carry and spread them until we too play our final notes. His album "Highway Call" (Richard Betts) is perpetual road music for me, and I'd trade a hundred songs I've written just to have come up with the first verse of "Ramblin' Man." Thank you for the music of life, Dickey.

And, I’m writing this on Thursday – which is the 2 year anniversary of the world losing Ben Vasquez, the second photo. A great young man I knew, shown here jamming on the sweat-soaked custom Birdsong bass he loved. To know him as a student, then as a kid taking off in his van to see where the road went, then as a friend and even a client... was a gift, and an honor. That call I had decided to make a couple of years ago to see if he wanted to finally make some music together was literally the day I then logged on and saw he had passed. In a life full of little victories, this will always remain a loss. To the circle of Ben Vasquez, including the circle of his friend and longtime bandmate guitarist Merlin Luck who passed two years prior on the same date, may peace be with you all.

These are significant to YOU – because it’s important to not waste time. Both of these cats (and most of those now gone onward into the great beyond) would tell you that, even though one got the long life the other did not. Whatever needs doing, get after it. Whatever needs changing, BEGIN. Whoever your loss, do some random act of beauty or goodness and hand it up as being their ripple. In this their good will continue through us. You are not alone in loss, it’s a part of still going. We keep on, and others don’t. In this case a mentor I never met, and one I mentored. It’s a strange but beautiful life and I will carry on grateful for both.

It's springtime and there have been some gorgeous days. I’m working hard on some things I’ll fill you in on another time; but in the workshop the first new batch of 5-strings in a while is well under way, among so much else! Seriously, I know Facebook is not the best thing to ever happen to mankind, but Birdsong (and the Scott Beckwith page, AND – our hero – Goede Guitars) are well worth friending/following. All inspiring instrument making, all the time. I toss in some posts about my travels and stuff, but it’s all fun. Speaking of which, just a reminder that the little Birdsong workshop is right where it should be – down a Texas dirt road off a two lane miles back into the “Hill Country” – and MAKING BASSES. All the time. I am in and out these days, here and there, but the shop is rocking. I manage things, my phone stays on, and you can call me anytime with questions or to order your own custom build from our benches, crafted entirely by hand, by Birdsong’s Head Luthier Jake Goede. We are truly rolling into the chapter of the best Birdsongs ever. I am so excited and feel SO good about what we continue to offer, what we’re offering NOW, and how it stacks up against anything even close to our 2-3K range. These are giant-killers. I’ve linked to some great videos on the models page.

OK, that’s it for now – back in a couple with another! Meanwhile be WELL, help make something good HAPPEN, and be kind to yourself and others. You have love and gratitude from us!


April Show-ers!

Greetings! And here are a couple of April show-ers. “Show” as in “Stuff to SHOW you.” April SHOW-ers. Get it? Thank you, thank you very much. Honestly, I thought that was a whole lot more cute than it looks in print here, but we’ll roll with it. Tip your bartenders and waitresses, I’ll be here all week. By the way, did you hear about the guy with five dicks? His pants fit like a glove! Yeah, I’ll show myself out…

So, the SHOW-ers; both happen to be both of local (Texas) spalted pecan. Very different, though – as is every piece of this wood, at the stage it is to be “spalting” (what gives it the black lines and beautiful, rustic, inconsistent look). Even sections of a plank and spots on a blank can vary wildly. It’s beautiful stuff, all of it, and Birdsong’s location in the south/central Texas “Hill Country” puts us within easy driving distance (and beautiful drives) out to a couple of special mills we go to for sorting through and picking the right slabs. We look, move body templates around, think about how to get good looking complimentary body halves (or even entire 1-piece bodies occasionally) from it, knock on it, scratch a little to see if the wildest parts are still structurally good. Same with mesquite. We do have a history of using these wild native Texas and southwest woods along with the walnut, mahogany, poplar, etc.

That’s part of the beauty of being the small workshop we’ve always been, those wood day drives and the picking of the planks by the actual hands that will be crafting them into guitars and basses. We don’t need to source a train car load of something or secure a shipping container’s worth of anything. The next couple of planks for the next few builds past the handful we’re working on that are waiting to be started, to take their places on and across the benches, to make their journeys in their chapters of change; hands greater sculpting them into tools of creation to come to life in this new way and sing as our voices.

The 4-string in the field of springtime flowers is a Corto2. Birdsong began with a handful of prototypes but the Cortobass was the one that really worked. I mean, REALLY worked – it built the company, we just built them. Then a few years later came the Corto2 – our most popular bass. Twin humbucking soapbars in a J-like arrangement, the perfect marriage of the warm-and-woody Birdsong thing, the colors of more traditional tones, and extra fullness and fidelity with no noise. This one just came off the benches and Jake ran out of details to obsess over, gave it the thumbs up, and it headed on out to its home. We do care - we do obsess. You’re welcome.

And, the Bliss. Not just any Bliss, though even a more standard Bliss isn’t just any bass. It’s the flagship, our ultimate, our most sculpted art-as-instrument. This one stands out even from there as it’s a lined fretless six string. And that means no templates except what was made during the build to make it, improvised jigs because nothing in the workshop was set up for this upsized body or headstock or those tasks in those spots on this bass. A 5-piece body of extraordinary spalt, stringers of black ebony; it’s being finished up this spring for hand delivery to the client by me.

For more sneak peeks on what’s getting crafted, tune in to all of these:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057190700974
https://www.facebook.com/goede.guitars
https://www.facebook.com/scott.beckwith.35
https://goedeguitars.com/birdsongs-in-progress-1
Friend, follow, finagle, fanabla, whatever it is hi-tech people do to ACTIVELY engage with us. We appreciate you! Thanks for reading my ramblings and staying up with our little guitar company for 20 YEARS!!! Catch you in a couple with another update… rock on.


Hello, Spring... but Goodbye, Ben

Prepare as one may, are we ever really ready?

The circle of Birdsong Guitars extends its deepest gratitude and love to Ben Bernales, and our condolences to his family and friends. Incredibly optimistic, extremely generous, and indescribably eccentric – noted bass collector and Birdsong enthusiast Ben Bernales is gone. My collection of people over the decades resembles a closet of curiosities, but even in the circle there were none like Ben. His first buys were the 2nd Anniversary basses, a pair, which he drove out from Georgia to Texas to pick up. In those early years following, he had an angel’s sense of exactly when to call and order a bass. I’d have some fee or charge or parts bill I wasn’t going to be able to shuffle… there with it in my hand… the phone would ring. “Happy Eastaaah! I think I need another bass.”

Over the years he was the first caller for every Anniversary sale. Every. Single. Time. I start them at midnight, and on the dot, the phone rang. “Heeappy Eeeeestah!!!” or “Hello is this where I order Chinese?” or “I’ll give you three guesses as to who this is…” or, right in… “I’m having trouble deciding…” It was always HAPPY EASTER, in messages it would be with a dozen exclamation points. The fact he would pass at this time is just… otherworldly. But really, so was he. His love for bass guitars and the culture of bass, his generosity with his treasures, his relentless positivity that only waned in moments in recent times after many years of health issues – these I will remember. His bizarre sense of humor, the unusual phone calls… including, in better days for him, more than one call asking “Is there anyone struggling to pay for their bass? I’d like to make a payment for them… don’t tell anyone…” You NEVER paid for dinner with Ben. To suggest it would be the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

The stories are endless. There was an entire series of basses made for him representing all the women he’d married, in chronological order. Real custom stuff for us that early on that really pushed us. His imagination was endless and completely untethered by practicality. His posts and pictures of his bass collection at its peak is the stuff of legends on forums – but never to brag, just to share. It was staggering. Like all that gathers, it dispersed given time. I helped sell off a lot of what was left of his collection last year and the rest is where it needs to be – if anything changes, I’ll let you all know here. Daughter Erin told me “He had everyone in his thoughts during his final days.” I hope he knew he was in ours, I tried my best with every contact. What a colorful part of this whole experience from in here he was, an amazing conversation started one night on the phone when he called at some weird hour because he never slept either… but now that conversation is over. Days ago I had sent a PM. I had a feeling. I hate those feelings. I’m a seeker, I have no answers, only paths I follow. I’d be lying if I said I knew for sure where a man like Ben goes… but I know wherever it is, I want to go there. Because I know there’s music, and love, and whatever form of the Divine handles the oddball file. And people who eat dessert first, against doctors’ orders. Those are my people. Those are my spirits.

I’m back in TX for a while, working on this Bliss and cleaning up behind it in workshop #4. I mean like benches, shelves, burn barrel kind of cleaning up. Small workshop in the Texas Hill Country woods number FIVE is rocking, what’s coming out of there is SPRINGTIME my friends. There comes a passing of the torch, times has its way with you, there is no getting around it. But to really find springtime again, to feel it in you, to see it around you… that is the gift. It is a gift not everybody gets, and of those who do, far too many do not accept for the blessing it is. Embrace it, change is messy and life throws curves. Ride them. It’s what you’re here to do. As part of the times, I’ll be posting unusual things for sale on Facebook and in my Reverb.com shop. Please remember, this is voluntary, good change – Birdsong is fine and flying in its new springtime and I’m still Captain, while Birdsong hand crafts the best Cortobasses, Corto2s, 5-strings, and a few surprises IN YEARS. Right now. Off to the side a bit, I’m just a guy adjusting for seasons, those outlived (what a blessing to be here to occasionally have to adjust for that), and to come.

NEW ORDERS are 10% OFF to celebrate springtime. Wait times are still low because Jake is ON IT like a force of nature; we have our 20th official company anniversary coming up around July 4th and some fun things, and maybe even another 20 years to look forward to! It’s all coming together, some dis-assembly required. Hey – speaking of Birdsong’s 20th Anniversary, here are a couple of fretboards, and that’s all I’m going to say for the moment. Stay tuned!

I’ll be back next Friday right here with more pics of the happenings and what’s coming together. For now, gather together and hug harder and jam a good riff out for Ben and for ALL we have lost on the way in this continuing great adventure of life. I leave you with this, from one of my books – part of a piece called “Some Climb Mountains“ from Old Vans & New Plans:

A boat’s designed to sail and a bird is given wings to fly. We are no safer tied to the dock or tucked in at the base camp – the run is merely longer. The mountain claims us all, and we go dancing with it or left lusting inside by chances we never took.

“HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Listening to on the road: Chris Knight Pretty Good Guy (I’d trade a hundred of my songs to have written Down The River and If I Were You); Gillian Welch Time The Revelator; Stephen Stills; Miles Davis Complete Bitches Brew Sessions; Orchestra Baobab Pirate’s Choice (Fantastic world music from Senegal with big Cuban influence).

A Good Kind of Tired

Hello friends, welcome to the Birdsong Guitars news page again - thanks for checking in! Captain Scott here. I’ve been doing a fair bit of driving, and pondering (as always), and today’s topic is “spent.” Feeling spent is a glorious thing; I don’t mind being tired, as long as I’m spent. Drained is different. Wasted is the worst. But spent? I guide that. I focus and aim that. I give my all toward and forward. Be it on a drive or a day in the shop, getting busy with getting on with what I’m there to do is a joy. “Take it all, I’ll make more.”

Luthier Jake has been spending great days in the shop crafting the Birdsongs, what a time to be in line for one. I was asked the differences in the basses and here you go: The contours are a bit deeper and more defined, and the entire bass is completely hand made because that’s how Jake does it. Neck and all. He’s carved a LOT of Birdsong necks over the years; I liked to start with some of that work done. He starts from big pieces of hand selected wood and works from there. Small rural Texas backroads Hill Country workshop? Check. Talk to Scott for questions and guidance, options and ordering? Check. Same basses, same details, same as our reputation for knocking ‘em out of the park and YOU falling in love sight unseen. That’s what we do. Jake’s ten years younger, twice as strong, and motivated to spend long hours at the bench. That adds up to far less wait time AS WELL as great basses. He’s spending.

It’s time to celebrate springtime and get our summer-making batch filled out, so we’re doing 10% OFF ALL NEW ORDERS on Birdsong basses, whether Cortobass or Corto2, 5-strings, Fusion model (details returning to the models page soon), or some “Custom” mashup of features of them. 512-395-5126 (calls) or email scott@birdsongguitars.com and let’s get one started for you. We’ll make sure it’s worthy of every penny you spend!

So there you have it! And my phone is on actually more these days for your calls and inquiries than it used to be. So, though bopping around a bit these days, I’m actually easier to catch. I’m planning a little batch of my superdy-duper special super-short-scale basses for late spring/early summer out of a very special workspace I’ll talk more about at that time. These are not “Birdsongs”, these are “Scott” builds with my signature logo, like the old Shortbass model and all the stuff I’ve done “on the side” and pre-Birdsong. Check that out at www.sbeckwith.com and get in touch if you’d like a Shortbass or Style B 25” scale.

And of course, Jake builds GREAT instruments, guitars AND basses of his own, aside from the 31” scale classic Birdsong 4 and 5 strings on this site. www.goedeguitars.com.

While taking this time for road tripping and re-arranging life, I publish reports on my Facebook page called “Scott wanders.” Little bits of writing from the road on various topics. Here’s one about driving into the morning, about replenishing. If you spend yourself, you need to refill. I hope you find it inspirational, and we’ll see you back here week after next for another update! Go make it happen, my friends. Now’s the time.

Roll out or rock on, or both,
~Scott B.

Scott wanders. Dawn. Sunsets are for the shoreline; sunrises for the road. Conscious decision to press onward and drive into the dawn. If you've never seen the sunrise reflecting off your hood and driven the dark into light, I highly recommend it for whatever ails you. It fixes things you didn't even know weren't right. Catch it where you can and be awakened - but drive, DRIVE INTO it, and be born again.

(Like & share please, I appreciate it. Peace be with you, ~S. www.sbeckwith.com )

Springtime For Joe

What? What’s this? Oh nothing. No, I’m fine, really. I’ll be OK. It’s just a guy saying goodbye to an old truck.

No no, I’m really not sad… it’s just hard, you know? Sometimes you character yourself around things in your life for so long it makes no sense to the brain, or the heart, when it’s time for them to go. Joe The Truck is a 1974 Dodge pickup that was THE first tool I bought in 2000, even before a chainsaw, when the change for that time was to settle a raw piece of rural land. Over the decades, he hauled lumber, supplies, truck-sized pieces of old buildings, engines for car projects, shop tools when we moved workshops, lots and lots of guitar making wood, and that was just for us. Others borrowed or otherwise were helped by Joe. A great old truck, a mentor for a young guy wanting to be sturdy and adaptable, useful and strong, low maintenance and not a lot of complaining. Joe helped me become that. My big influences who shaped who I’ve become? Some great women, a few good men, and a truck. This truck. Joe.

Today was springtime for Joe, who was parked a while ago because of all the work a 50-year-old machine can come to need. He’s going to get that work! I bought Joe from the older son of the original owner here in town, and now, as old now as that guy was when I bought it, just sold the truck to a younger man as a father-son project. His kid’s 7 and just obsessed with old trucks. Ol’ Joe is about to be a magical machine that showed up in a kid’s life one day, brought home by daddy, and became something incredible that changed it. He’ll teach his son how things work, how wrenches turn… and probably a lot about life while they wrench on old Joe together. Beats the hell out of sinking into the dirt like there’s no future. It’s springtime, baby! Go plant that garden. Go start something. Go find what you want to be a part of and help make good things happen! You CAN. But… you have to let go.

I have an old hat from a long-gone old Tennessee hillbilly name Joe who I learned some from when I first landed in Texas 35 or so years ago. He’s who I named the truck after years later. I’m keeping Joe’s old hat, but I did send one of my own on with Joe the Truck. Onward, friends.

Birdsong is in a springtime of its own, here’s something that’s next up on Jake’s bench - a gorgeous Texas pecan Birdsong Corto2 bass! The Corto2 is our most popular model ever, combining the beauty, proportions, and ergonomics of the Cortobass body & neck with twin humbucking soapbar pickups placed in our own “J”bass formation. It’ll do the 2-pickup traditional tones, but with higher fidelity, no noise, and - when you want to push the gas pedal down a bit - much more chutzpah. It’s got plenty of all of what it’s got! Back the volume down on the neck pickup and it gets a motowny P, solo the bridge pickup and Jaco out, and dial on both to shake the walls. All in a balanced 7-8 pound easy playing short scale bass. Want one?

Just get in touch! It doesn’t matter where I am, I answer the phone and YOU are my priority. I am, first, Captain of Birdsong. Don’t hesitate to call me, 512-395-5126, I’ll be happy to answer your questions or write up a custom build for you and get it rolling. It’s in good hands, my friends. Like that pecan wonder, and like Joe the Truck, and like I feel I am. We are so grateful. Thanks for reading my ramblings and staying up with our little guitar company for 20 YEARS!!!

Catch you in a few with another update! For now, keep up with all the goings-on RIGHT HERE and:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057190700974
https://www.facebook.com/goede.guitars
https://www.facebook.com/scott.beckwith.35
www.sbeckwith.com
https://goedeguitars.com/birdsongs-in-progress-1

And HEY - Head Luthier Jake has a guitar build of his own he’d love to finish up for someone in the Birdsong circle - he’s even going to hand-wind the humbuckers for it. $1950 gets it and gets it to you, and you can’t touch this kind of response and hand work for the under-2K price tag. I’ll back that up myself, I’ve owned a lot of Jake’s guitars, and I own my own guitar company!
Go to www.goedeguitars.com

Peace, love, and music,

From The Captain

Hello, friends!

Scott B., Captain of the good ship checking in with a Friday blog! 2024 Birdsongs are already making their way out of the nest, and it feels we’re finally making our way on from the past few years of parts and procurement poppycock. There were times it reminded me of my bass player “gun for hire” years where a songwriter would get a gig a little bigger and need a band, and I’d get the call but never know who else did. Brief instructions like “Key of G, 1-4-5, starts on the 2. Here we go –“ …and the drummer would count off and in we’d go. Ideally. But sometimes the drummer was a spaz. A couple of these guys, any time a groove got going, the beat would stumble; the downbeat disappeared coming out of a fill and you just hoped to all that’s Holy it popped back in on the “one” and didn’t turn around underneath you. But a good drummer could make a rough gig go much better than it should have! And it feels like a good drummer is on the beat again. Steady, driving, rolling on. Parts show up, they’re nice, we’ve figured workarounds around vendors whose ways of taking orders changed… and here we are, YEAR #20, still hand building really special short scale professional basses of our own design in a small Texas “Hill Country” workshop.

Birdsong has played on through five small actual workshops over the years, Head Luthier Jake carving wood in three of those. And boy is he carving up a storm this year! Beautiful work, true to tradition. The menu “officially” has the Cortobass, Corto2, and two 5-string models. But I’ll tell you a secret – we did take an order for a Fusion, and for a Cbass. The Fusion is a little swoopier and an elegant, wood-lover’s dream with wood pickup cover, I mean just beautiful brown walnut and rosewood everywhere. The Cbass was my attempt to meld the Birdsong Cortobass shape, size, balance, and ergonomics… WITH A HUGE SOUNDING “Pbass” tone. Like, a great, REAL Pbass tone. I had one of the best ever at the time, and designed the Cbass NOT as a shrunken P, but tonally from what came out of the speaker. Pickup, position, materials, I chose them because for whatever reason they did something to OUR bass that made it sound closer to THAT bass. Here’s a video from back then. We don’t like to just build onesies, so I can tell you there might be a Fusion started for inventory, and I AM sure I’m offering $100 OFF for the next few standard Cbass orders to get a little batch of them going.

YEAR 20. It blows my mind. It blows Jamie’s mind. She and I turned a few bass ideas, a name, and a few years of my building guitars into something that outlived all of our lives as we knew them. Magic, magic times and chapters, all continuing on in their own way, all involved ever-changed by being part of it. I’m still living and breathing Birdsong, but having put in my 20 (and the 20 in music path before them that led TO them) and grateful for every one, I’m now enjoying being freed up a little to just… meander a bit. Breathe. Make some music. Write more. When not carving scrolls or other wild stuff, or handling the business end of Birdsong, or talking with you to answer questions and write up orders (That’s still me, 512-395-5126, anytime, anyplace, or scott@birdsongguitars.com), I’ve been road tripping! Best part is I can do a lot of that WHILE road tripping. “So, where are you?” used to be the question I asked you, but now it’s one a few of you have ask me too - that’s fun. I wrote up an order in a ridiculous hotel in Florida with an eight foot giant golden dog’s ass by the front door AND car camping up to the Adirondacks in way way WAY (that’s three) northern New York, up by Canada. I designed a guitar on a shoreline.

A few of the conversations, you had no idea, which is OK too. It works. I’m me wherever I am. And I think that’s a good thing for ME to be learning too – sometimes we’re so deep in that we can’t see the sides anymore; the line blurs where we end and it begins; we lose ourselves a bit. Which is fine for a time, but as a healthy human that’s not perpetually sustainable. It’s good to know what you carry with you inside, in your tool kit, in your spirit, in your sense of confidence and all a good long deep journey grows in you, when you get out a little. You take that wherever you go. The road will show you this, it always has for me. So MUCH more to come of my side adventures and “Scott Signature” builds (www.sbeckwith.com) and for regular reports right here from the Birdsong workshop. YEAR 20, BRETHREN! (Here are some older pics…)

STAY TUNED!!! And thank you so much.