October 8, 2025
Well, it’s been a busy time here at the New Shanti homestead, the old farmhouse getting some old systems upgraded and the workshop continuing its settling in as I settle into it. It feels more comfortable and right and “home” by the day. Not much has been done in the spectacular old barn on the east side of the house, but watching dawn rise over and around it is a glorious thing I’m blessed to see most days. When I was younger, I was big on sunsets… now, sunrise is my thing. It’s autumn and the leaves have changed and are dropping, and all little fuzzy life out here - yours truly the woodgnome included - are making the most of the time before the cold moves in.
Luthier Ken Parker has passed. For those unfamiliar, he was best known for the “Parker Fly” guitars, a total re-imagining of what an electric guitar is, what it does, and how - while still being an electric guitar. In its time it was both revolutionary and evolutionary. Definitely not to all’s taste, but to enough to grow a legend in the business and establish Ken as a guy who really knows his stuff. After Parker Guitars he applied similar out-of-the-box concepts to the world of archtop guitars. I salute what he did, what he accomplished, and his legacy of sharing and teaching.
In the workshop here, you can always click at the top on “Client” to peek at what is being worked on or in line for its next step. This update we’ll look at #2508, a VERY custom Sport bass. (Everybody say it out loud together: “How custom IS it?”) OK… lefty lined fretless maple board 29” scale BEAD-tuning with a one-off slightly recurved body to visually and physically balance the longer neck. Other than that, completely stock! Approached right, by an easy-going client, I do occasionally veer into out-there territory. When I was making the Birdsong basses, I remember combining a short-scale Sadhana with features of a Rickebacker; the bass guitar version of mating a Chihuahua and a Great Dane. Somehow, with a little off here and moving this and that halfway and such, you make it work like it was meant to be. It’s fun but it does take A LOT of time vs. a standard model there are jigs and templates for, and you know where to stand to drill that hole and how everything’s going to work. Watch this one come together over the next month or so, it’ll be something!
Have yourself a beverage of choice, hold it up to your own face and salute yourself from me.
~ Scott B., HWIC
Head Woodgnome In Charge
August 28, 2025
Here are three shots that sum up “What’s up?” First pic? “Elegant rustic.” Cabernet Sunset over barnwood. The custom guitar I’m making for myself. Next up, in a picturesque corner of the New Shanti workshop, the two Sport basses currently being worked on - a walnut-on-ebony topped (and walnut backed) Spanish cedar in final sanding, so a medallion can get bonded into the circle before finish; and a more basic “original recipe” poplar Sport in assembly. The third photo… just look at all of that going on in the sky over Irving’s Acres! That’s the field next door, on the other side of the old barn from the homestead, named after the man I bought it from. I tell you, I see the most amazing things looking out over the barn. I sometimes wish I had more time to sit and look. Then I remember, I’m in a place now where we don’t measure in years but in seasons, and coming soon will be a season with plenty of time for looking at the beauty. It’ll look different, and it’ll mostly be out big old windows from a warm and cost room in the farmhouse… but time will slow. In this world here, everything’s busy while it’s summer heading into fall. Everything. My little workshop and my continuing time as the Chief woodgnome of it should be no different. I am so grateful to be in crafting instruments and out making music, and I know those will both slow for the winter months. And I am grateful for that too! And I’m grateful for you. I hope there is magic in your world, and music, and that incredible space where the two meet. Peace be with you. ~S.
July 23, 2025
Well, Ozzy has gone on. It seems strange to be me now and owe so much to him, but I do. See, music saved me. And I came of age in the early 1980s, and it was rock and roll guitar that did it. That’s what turned me on, got me going, led me out and rolled me on. And a big part of that was the first three Ozzy albums and Ozzy-era Black Sabbath. I awakened to sound and life and possibility in my ‘tween years to a soundtrack of the FM radio of the times, heavy with guitar riffs and driving drums and heavy bass. The Cars, Journey, AC/DC. Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Starship cuts like “Familiar Stranger” and Billy Squier “Here in The Dark.” So much good music that still carries me as I carry it. I ended up not carrying it onto big stages, but into small workshops… and it turned to acoustic Delta blues and jazz and all kinds of great music and soundscapes. But I’ll still crank up some rock and roll - I’ll do that ‘til they plant me with the spring flowers.
In with the batch you can see coming together on the client builds page, that first one #2501 is MINE. It’s a guitar based on the Style B shape, crafted from a plank of wood from the loft of the old barn here at New Shanti. I have it together shaped but raw for parts fit testing, then it comes back apart for sanding and finishing. It’ll stay rustic and natural… as will I. There are gigs I do locally in the North Country of NY, and it will get played out. I think my journey has been unusual; what to say of the path of this piece of wood! Interesting features include a reverse headstock carved like that side of the body, and a clear humbucker - you can see the wire windings in it! It reminds me of the Edison lightbulbs, only as a guitar pickup.
The weather up here in rural far north New York has been beautiful and much is getting done in the shop. This week all of the bodies got carved and contoured and are about ready to sand. I have a special medallion to inlay in obe and some turquoise embellishments to put in a couple, but then comes sanding and finishing. Here’s a closeup of #2502, a Style B pocket bass in koa on mahogany, with its partial scroll roughed in. Thanks so much for checking in, and if I can make you something please reach in - 512-395-5126 for calls (no texts), wingfeathermusic@yahoo.com for emails. Whoever and wherever you are, may peace be with you and there be music in your life that makes you feel good.
~ S.
June 2, 2025
Not just the first instrument that has made it into finishing in the new old workshop… and this next chapter of life in rural far northern New York… but I rebuilt the old finishing bench for its fourth chapter! It was originally my uncle’s bench in the basement in Everett, MA in the 1980s. It came to me in time to become the original Birdsong Guitars shop wiring bench, then re-topped as the finishing bench in the homestead workshop for Birdsong and “Scott’s Specials”, and now it has risen again.
The bass is #2505 (visible here on the builds page), a client-order Amigo pocket bass in walnut, with a matching headstock on the mahogany & rosewood neck. The Amigo is my two-pickup model. More info here and, specifically, here.
Spring has sprung here, with all kinds of colorful flowers and bushes of yellows and purples, mostly planted by the folks who have lived here before me. The trees have exploded into full green and ferns are climbing up against the front of the house. I think of the rhythm these seasons have taken on over the many years of this place I know as New Shanti, the springtimes of those people now long gone, some at rest in the little cemetery down the road. I hope they would be happy to know their place is loved and good things are happening here in the old farmhouse and, when cars became a thing, what used to be the garage out by the road… now the workshop of a very grateful craftsman helping wood to sing in its own new springtime.
Peace be with you, my friend. Stay tuned!
~S.
May 11, 2025
The first of the new Amigo 2-pickup model is taking shape in the workshop. Here it is by the barn at New Shanti after routing and rounding and with the rough neck fit to the pocket. Next up is contouring (forearm, belly, upper fret access) and “drillout” where pickup routs and control cavity (rear on these) get connected by where the wiring will pass through, string holes, tuner holes, jack hole, etc. This will happen later this month as I have some non-shop things to take care of over the next couple of weeks. But this (#2405) and the others in the Scott’s Shop spring batch are all well under way (check them out HERE) and I’ll be right back on them.
And what a beautiful spring it is up here in the north Adirondacks! The rivers are flowing, everything’s blooming and colorful and growing, and the temperatures are absolutely delicious for a guy who spent the past decades in south Texas… 60s and 70s. Flannel shirt weather. I LOVE flannel shirt weather! Around the old farmstead, new to me, I’m getting to see what is growing, all the different flowers and flowering bushes and trees. I hope YOUR springtime is beautiful, and fills you full of it whatever season you’re in. Stay tuned!
~Scott
April 25, 2025
Spring batch progress!
The new old workshop - new to me, a century old to the universe - is up and running as a little luthier workshop here at New Shanti. The five pocket basses and one guitar of the ‘25 spring batch are all thicknessed blanks in progress. Individual pics are updated on the CLIENT BUILDS page. One cut StyleB, two blanks ready to cut (poplar Sport and walnut Amigo), MY StyleB GUITAR of wood found in the old barn loft, and two thinned blanks of mahogany that will get different wood tops for another Style B and Sport.
It’s springtime in far up and far out New York state, northern Adirondacks up by Canada, and I’m settling into the homestead - nesting in the old farmhouse, gearing up the workshop, dreaming about music in the old barn I look out over in morning sunrises. The field next door and little creek behind, down the hill, are now rejoined with the homestead.
SuperPat the handyman is coming by next week to start on a wall in the shop to separate the sawdust making part from assembly and hangout room, it will be a cool wall and I’ll share that and more updates soon. Stay tuned and rock on!
~Scott, Woodgnome of The North Country
Listening to: Collective Soul Collective Soul; Bruce Springsteen Greetings From Asbury Park; Neil Young Comes a Time.
Onward Through the Past
Scott’s new album is out! Songs from the heart and meandering grooves, available to listen and download.
March 29, 2025
Greetings, my friends! Thanks for following along as the thread of adventure in my life was seached for and found… now, as much comes with me, we unpack and arrange and get rolling again together. The picture of the fancy bass is one of the final pictures from the last shop in Wimberley, Texas. The photo above? A beautiful blue dawn (no color filter there) here in the northern Adirondacks this morning, and the workshop of this new chapter.
I’m now working May through October, building my “Scott Signature” stuff with the signed headstocks, and D’AQUILA - where I get my carving and turquoise and scroll kicks on a very few very ornate guitars per year. I manage the business and clients of Birdsong Guitars (Head Luthier Jake makes them in the Texas “Hill Country”) 24/7 all year. So in a few days I’ll be working in the workshop working ON the workshop, and sourcing wood and parts, and this is going to be FUN. It’s springtime, people! There is wood to help sing.
Stay tuned in, as I’m settling in and the updates will be more frequent. Look around in here and see if there’s a guitar or pocket bass you’d like me to make for you! I’ll be sharing the SPRING BATCH right here and on my CLIENT BUILDS page. Get in touch and I’ll make you something this summer. Warmest wishes and great new beginnings in your worlds, brethren.
~Scott B.
512-395-5126
PO Box 350 Mooers, NY 12958
Scott’s Thoughts - Feb. 5, 2025
Well everyone, here is the first official post from my new VERY old personal "Scott" workshop up in the far northern Adirondacks! It now has internet connection, so "we've got our ears on," as the old truckers would say on the CB. Yes, there is snow outside, and this is a quick post because it's 12 degrees out and no heat in here yet. I'll be starting on the spring batch of my little pocket basses in April - I have a few in the que, so if you'd like one built for you... you know what to do! (512) 395-5126, wingfeathermusic@yahoo.com (Also anything Birdsong related, I'm the guy to line that up with Head Luthier Jake and the workshop in Texas. Contact me at birdsongbass@yahoo.com)
The "North Country" in NY is beautiful, and it's where my life adventure picks up now. Much love, noogies to the kids, and rock on! ~S.
Scott’s Thoughts - Jan. 25, 2025
Evidently, there are somewhat nomadic woodgnomes to be found meditating on old abandoned railroad bridges deep in rural Florida. Here is indeed shown a woodgnomus nomadicus in the wild, chanting on mala, and sporting an adventurous hat.
If nothing else, it seems to be a great way to avoid any contact with alligators. I imagine gators to have a Cajun accent, only commenting on being a little cold and what they’re eyeing as a snack. “Mon’ eat dat.” “Little chilleh.” “Mon’ eat dat. Mmmm, mon’ eat DAT.” “Bit cold… hmmm… ‘mon eat dat.”
A mystic sky from one of last year’s roads reminds us to look up, that there is magic happening and beauty in the moments. We just need to look. Above, around, beneath. Within. Be blessed, my friend.
~Scott
