Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
- Status
Birdsongs and the natural beauty of wood are a perfect match.
+1 to that!
Speaking of wood ... my C#105 has moved up to the woodshop!
What do you folks think, maybe three months more to go?
body honduran mahogany....
dragon inlay... Fedex gave us a scare and had to track down the bass and it arrived a day late but was in great shape !!!!
+1 to that!
Speaking of wood ... my C#105 has moved up to the woodshop!
What do you folks think, maybe three months more to go?
That sounds about right to me. You had the advantage of picking a body blank rather than starting from scratch, so 3 months sounds about right. Scott has been roughly 1 week early on the estimate on both of mine. But one of those was ordered right as he went from 3 months to 4 months per order (as well as hurried along so it would be done pre-vacation last year), and the other was rushed to completion before the Birdsong Gathering.
Thank you, thank you, thank you....My daughter Erin and her mother Kim love it !!!!!
Kim for whom the bass is named after...
Erin and her mother Kim...I am blessed!!!
The easiest approach is to give you the link:
http://www.birdsongguitars.com
Scott Beckwith is not a big guy and wasn't thrilled with the short scale options out there (either in tone or in comfort) so he started designing/building basses to suit his needs/tastes. They are 31" scale length bolt-on basses with the most comfortable necks I've ever played - narrow side-to-side but thick front-to-back so they fill your hand while still allowing pretty good speed.
Tonally - not like anything else. You can get "close to Stingray" or "close to Jazz" or "close to P-bass" but they don't really sound like any of those (short scale and different pickups - that should be a no brainer). He only uses passive pickups/electronics that he has done HEAVY R&D in selecting (it isn't "oh, I like Seymour Duncan, so I'll wire those in" - it was "who cares what name is on it, I've tried everything I could get my hands on and this one sounded best to me for what I'm trying to accomplish").
If you do a Google Search on "Millard Ellingsworth", you should find his page of reviews and sound clips - he is the owner of Cortobass #2 (the first cortobass Birdsong sold).
Just a question for all of you birdsong bass owners, what is the average weight on these?
The more I see these the more tempted I get to give them a call. Only reason I ask is being 22 with scoliosis isn't too fun with a heavy bass around the shoulders. thanks
The more I see these the more tempted I get to give them a call. Only reason I ask is being 22 with scoliosis isn't too fun with a heavy bass around the shoulders. thanks
Both of mine are walnut - one is 7.5 lbs, the other is about 8.25 lbs. Here is a link to their weights page, which is buried in the smaller links.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The other nice thing is "no neck dive" - these suckers are balanced right. Scott tests balance using a strap that is an exact duplicate of my first guitar strap ever (down to the colors) - it's thin and the back of it is SLICK. If an instrument will balance on this strap, it will balance on ANYTHING!
thanks for the link and the info, it can be kind of hard to find stuff on that site sometimes.
No problem - I've talked to Scott about that, but he considers the site structure something of a personal artistic statement in and of itself.
acleex, maybe you've seen that map they have with pushpins that show where all the birdsong owners are? (I saw it in the background of one of their photos a few months back). I think they should put that link somewhere on their site
I offered to redo it for them (no cost), because I have pride in the things I involve myself in. They were nice about it, but basically told me to blow off!
My African mahogany cortobass is around 6 and a half pounds! It's ridiculously light. My sadhana is a pound and change heavier, but of course it has heavier hardware, 2 pickups, heavier wood (Honduran mahogany is generally heavier than African).
I bet you could ask Scott for the lightest possible bass and he could recommend the best combo of wood, etc to get you there...
- Status
