DThomasC
Senior Member
To put it plainly, Bluesbird production was in Westerly RI up until mid 2001. There, all of the 'regular' Bluesbirds came with humbucker pickups, block inlays, and neck binding. The Blues90 was essentially a Bluesbird, but with P90 pickups, dot inlays, and no neck binding. Oh yeah, and a huge neck. Rumor is that it was the same neck that originally came on the Songbird, which was another instrument with the same profile as the Bluesbird, but a very different top, bridge, and electronics meant to emulate and acoustic guitar. I don't recall ever seeing real verification that the Blues90 neck was in fact the same as the one on the Songbird.
In 2001 production was moved to Corona CA. Reportedly, some kits of parts were sent from Westerly to Corona (i.e. partially completed instruments.) It's possible that one or more Blues90s were completed in Corona as kits, but officially no Blue90s were made in Corona. Instead, they offered the Bluesbird P90, which was exactly like the humbucker equipped Bluesbirds - block inlays and neck binding - except they had P90 pickups. Oh yeah, and a huge neck.
As GAD says in his blog, there were also Bluesbirds labeled "custom shop" that came out of Corona, but as far as I know, they all had block inlays and neck binding no matter what kind of pickups they were sporting. So, at least technically and probably literally, all Blues90s were made in Westerly.
In 2001 production was moved to Corona CA. Reportedly, some kits of parts were sent from Westerly to Corona (i.e. partially completed instruments.) It's possible that one or more Blues90s were completed in Corona as kits, but officially no Blue90s were made in Corona. Instead, they offered the Bluesbird P90, which was exactly like the humbucker equipped Bluesbirds - block inlays and neck binding - except they had P90 pickups. Oh yeah, and a huge neck.
As GAD says in his blog, there were also Bluesbirds labeled "custom shop" that came out of Corona, but as far as I know, they all had block inlays and neck binding no matter what kind of pickups they were sporting. So, at least technically and probably literally, all Blues90s were made in Westerly.