The Woodshed Story
Howdy from Texas — Devin here 🤠
First off—whether this is your first time here or not—I really appreciate you stopping by.
Believe it or not, I used to be a CPA—spreadsheets in the morning, flatpicking and sanding picks at night—until a guitar lesson I posted unexpectedly took off. That’s when I left my desk job for what I now call the Woodshed—a place where my passion for country and bluegrass meets my family tradition of teachers and craftsmanship.
That’s when I started building Country Guitar Online (where I post country and bluegrass guitar lesson videos) from the ground up. But my journey has involved more than just lessons.
Things like making strings and picks in my workshop to jam and record with, dialing in guitar tone with different mics, and producing my girlfriend Soonka’s debut album here at home.
Here’s my story about where it all comes from.
My journey started when I saw my godfather picking blues-style lead on his acoustic guitar when I was 4 years old. I’ve been all about it since.
In high school, I was gigging on Sixth Street in Austin with my band and recording songs I wrote on a six-track recorder. I even started college for music before switching to accounting to be safe.
Around that time, my uncle invited a flatpicker over to jam with us—and I was totally hooked.
When I wasn’t playing guitar, I spent a lot of time with my grandma Flora in her quilting workshop growing up. It was a converted shed in her backyard where she made quilts (like the one you see in the video below), taught, and led her local guild.
She taught me and my mom something that’s been passed down in our family for generations: how things are made. Materials, patterns, how everything fits together.
That was just normal conversation in our family. At gatherings, everyone would talk about what they were working on — quilting, knitting, sculpture, whatever craft had their attention at the time.
I didn’t even realize how unusual that was until Soonka met my family for the first time and later said, “No wonder you make your own picks and stuff.”
That’s when it clicked for me too.
My grandma didn’t just teach us how to make things. She taught us the value of making things right.
That mindset definitely carried into my picking journey.
After I got into bluegrass flatpicking, I noticed that medium tension strings were generally preferred for tone—but I thought it would be more fun to have strings that felt like lights, with a tone that cut like mediums. So I started designing my own until I landed on a set I truly enjoyed playing.
Once I had that, I realized they were a lot of fun to play country with — but I wanted a little more tension for bluegrass flatpicking. So I split them into two sets: Country Series and Bluegrass Series.
When I found a US manufacturer I trusted to make them at the level I wanted, that became Woodtone Strings.
I still use them every day for jamming and recording—it’s what you hear in our From The Woodshed covers, CGO jam tracks, and soon—in our original songs.
Everything else I’ve added to the lineup holds up to that same standard in quality, feel, and tone—and is built with partners I trust.
I also still make picks in my workshop and test them in the studio. When I land on one I really like, I release it on the Woodtone site—these are the hand-finished picks that come straight out of the Woodshed.
To learn more about the products, you can go to: More About Woodtone Strings (and picks 🤠).
So when you see things like Soonka and I jamming, our dogs Rocket and Dakota, lessons built around our songs, or the Woodshed bulletin board where we share updates on music and gear coming out of the workshop, etc.---you now know where it all comes from.
Thanks for being a part of this journey and for letting me share a bit of my story with you.
Happy picking y’all 🤠
— Devin
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