4 Sept 2026
MusicPAF: The Pickup That Should Not Exist
Gibson printed the wrong patent number on its own legendary pickup for years. The PAF fails every modern QC test — and that failure is the tone.
Bertrand
Surfer. Guitarist. Photographer. Thinking Machines Shaper.
Eight companies across six countries, because borders are administrative fiction and the best work happens wherever you plant yourself. I write code like I ride a wave — with intention, not decoration. Wave Artisans is where the research lives. No committee. Just the work.
Four obsessions
Observe. Practice. Refine. Ship.
Ocean Waves Power
A 5'8" fish twin fin glides where a shortboard fights. Not because it is better. Because the wave was asking for a different conversation. I paddle out every day — since the age of eleven. Board designs, shaper stories, surf culture, ocean protection. The lineup has rules. Most are unwritten. All of them matter.
Sound of Emotions
The 1959 Les Paul Standard shipped with PAF humbuckers wound on a machine with no automatic stop. Every pickup came out different. That variance is the point. Keys since six, guitar since twelve, 7+ years producing in studios — 70s-to-90s rock, hand-assembled rock machines, Marshall Plexi and 2203 JMP that still hasn't been bettered. Tone is a conviction, not a setting.
Captured Beauty
A 50mm lens is an untamed beast. Not wide enough to cheat with context. Not long enough to compress without consequence. That constraint is the point. Black and white, Fujifilm X-E5, Lindbergh, Ritts and von Unwerth as permanent references. The photograph is an observation, not a deliverable.
Notebooks
Primary sources. No secondhand summaries. No influencer junk.
25 Aug 2026
PhotographyThe Case for Printing
The screen is a proof. The print is the photograph. An image that only ever lived on glass is unfinished work — a mix you never bounced.
20 Aug 2026
OceanThe Wave That Never Reads You Back
A soliton is a wave engineered to never change. That is the point of Surf Ranch — and the exact reason it can teach a turn but never teach the ocean.
12 Aug 2026
MachinesThe Nine-Stage Mind
Nine stages around a 27B local model. On my own tasks it beats a trillion-parameter model alone. Architecture beats parameter count.
3 Aug 2026
MusicThe Accidental Circuit
The Neve 1073 is the most worshipped preamp in recording, and the sound everyone chases is a defect its own designer set out to engineer away.
24 Jul 2026
PhotographyHow to Read Light
Reading light is a trained skill, not luck. You see the finished frame before you raise the camera — the same way you read a set before it stands up.
About
Never tired of making things. Only tired of meetings about making things.
I chase primary sources — AI lab research papers, not blog posts about them. Producer interviews from the analogue era, not articles about producers. Photographer monographs, not Instagram feeds. Eight companies across six countries, because the best work happens wherever you plant yourself. One of Estonia's early e-residents. I ship production code before most people finish their slide decks.
The full storyNewsletter
Dawn Patrol
Whatever shipped, whatever cracked open, whatever the ocean or the signal chain taught me that month. One email, last Friday. Primary sources. No influencer junk.