UPDATE: More than 40 Birds Play My Fender Strat

The latest episode in the quest to get 41 birds to play my Fender Strat.

When we last left our hero he was all set up to record the birds the following morning at the crack of dawn or “first light” as he put it. Our “hero” slept a little late and neighbors were loudly mowing all morning but tape rolled at the butt-crack of 11 am sharp or so. 18 hours of tape later I am here to report that the birds actually did play; lots of them did. The sound of my backyard through a mic is worth the trip.

Click through for the Day One video

If you missed it you can see Part One Here

You can see 40 birds play a Gibson Les Paul Here

Like a blues JAM at a dive bar, they lined up and took turns. Some were very good and some missed the point entirely. After two days now we have abandoned the hanger, placing the Strat right on the ground. Watching the tape showed that the big birds have longer beaks and they reach around the strings and are masters of jumping around on it, pecking madly at it and never hitting a string at all. No sound whatsoever, they reach between the strings grab a sunflower seed and get out without hitting a note. Rock off.

Occasionally, however, their tails would strum the whole thing. That we will be able to use.

The smaller birds seem to send out one soloist. It hops around and plays with its feet on the neck and pecks solos out single-string style with its beak. Rock on!

They seem to prefer the ground. Maybe it swings too much. It seems that the soloist is expected to brush the seed off the guitar and onto the ground where 20 of them will clean up. Again Rock off!

Sigh.

So tomorrow at… first light… we will try one more day with the guitar on the ground. I’ll leave you with a few pics and a teaser video. It worked and it’s cool. I need to collect enough to make a song, but I miss my Strat. It is covered in… bird seed. So I haven’t played it in days.  I’ve played that thing every day since my buddy Frank gave it to me, months ago. One more day of birds should do it, then I want it back.

UPDATE: We have a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed special guest soloist who stole the Day Three show.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: We are rained out this weekend.

Now, watch this Day One video, then get off the internet and go play your guitar!

Check back tomorrow for more.

DanG