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Topic: New Book on Lap Steel & Bottleneck Tunings |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 May 2009 8:32 am |
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Shameless Marketing Dept.:
Slide Rules - my new book on lap steel tunings is finally done and at the printers!
It will be ready to ship on or about June 8th.
After 20 years of collecting tunings I had a huge collection of web page printouts, forum posts, books, articles, yellowed mimeographs, personal letters, etc. that I wanted to consolidate in one place. As a player, I wanted all that info in one place and able to fit in a guitar case. As a designer, I didn't want to see more tables - I wanted to see the information displayed in a very graphic, visual, easy to understand manner. Hopefully, I've achieved it. I tried to incorporate the many good suggestions I received from both living room players and pros.
The book includes more than 70 tunings but not every single possible tuning or personal variation. I wanted to keep things manageable and practical for the largest number of musicians.
Here's my webpage about the book with sample pages & ordering info:
http://www.volkmedia.com/Volkmedia.com/Slide_Rules_Book.html
Thanks for looking!
Last edited by Andy Volk on 29 May 2009 3:22 am; edited 1 time in total |
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AJ Azure
From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 28 May 2009 8:42 am
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| so simplistic in what it presents and yet it's probably the only place you could find these all. this will sell like hot cakes. nice job! |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 May 2009 10:37 am
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| Thanks! I owe a big thank you as well to John Ely who gave me permission to include his string gauge guide and recommendations in the book. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 28 May 2009 12:23 pm
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Andy shared a pre-release copy with me, and I can say that this is the definitive guide for steel guitar tunings. He shows you the relationships between notes in a tuning, recommended string gauges, etc.
It's very well laid out and a great addition to anyone's arsenal of steel guitar instruction.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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James Williamson
From:
California & Hawaii
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Posted 28 May 2009 9:12 pm Your latest
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Andy,
I'm in for about 12 bucks...great idea...paypal's in your inbox. |
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Mitch Druckman
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 29 May 2009 12:49 am
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| It looks like an excellent reference book. I just ordered a copy. |
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Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 29 May 2009 6:12 am
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Thanks all. I thought about this for a long time and frankly, couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the project until I thought about it in terms of information design. I'm a big fan of elegant information design. Check out Edward Tuffte sometime.
Looking at tables - even those I did in Lap Steel Guitar - makes my eyes glaze over. So I said to myself, "What do I think about when I look down at my guitar neck?" The answer was "What note is on which string and what are the intervals on each string". So I tried to find the simplest graphic way to convey that idea. I also tried to avoid the trap of trying to list every single tuning and every variation I could find. I wanted to go with a core group of practical tunings with a few esoteric ones thrown in because of the players who used them (Speedy, Herb Remington, etc). Hopefully it will be useful for players. Also - I included Harry Manx & Bob Brozman's exact set-ups & string gauges for Hindustani slide guitar - a way for those who are interested in this genre to get their musical feet wet.
Last edited by Andy Volk on 29 May 2009 7:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 29 May 2009 6:25 am
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Nice work, Andy. Hope you sell a million copies.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Guy Cundell
From:
More idle ramblings from South Australia
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Posted 29 May 2009 10:37 am
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| Looks great, Andy. A really good feel to the pages and the string gauge guide will be invaluable. I'll be needing a copy for me and another one for the college library. What will the best point of sale be? Amazon? |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Doug Freeman
From:
Los Angeles, CA
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Posted 29 May 2009 10:53 am
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| As nice as the sample graphics and layout are, the text reads beautifully, too. Great description of how, where, and by whom these tunings are used, and what makes each one distinctive or useful for a particular purpose. Sweet! |
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Robert Murphy
From:
West Virginia
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Posted 29 May 2009 2:52 pm
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| Just paypal'd a copy. How about a signed one? |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 30 May 2009 3:17 am
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| Thanks for for the faith of all the pre-orders, everyone. Hope you find the book a useful resource. |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Ray Shakeshaft
From:
Kidderminster, Worcs, UK.
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Posted 30 May 2009 5:02 am
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| Hi Andy, What is the shipping cost to the UK? Thanks. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 30 May 2009 5:08 am
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| The best option for the UK & Europe seems to be the international Flat-Rate Envelope at $12.95. Once the books are in I'll weigh them and compare with the Air Mail price. The flat rate envelopes are usually the cheapest way to go unless you want to put it on a boat for 3 weeks or so. |
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William Hoff
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 31 May 2009 2:49 am
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| I just ordered mine. Looking forward to having this fine resource. |
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Jason Dumont
From:
Bristol, Connecticut, USA
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Posted 31 May 2009 5:02 pm
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ANDY!
Nice job! I love the way the layout and diagrams look. Well done. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 1 Jun 2009 4:01 am
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| Thanks, Jason. |
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Eric Ebner
From:
Texas Republic
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Posted 1 Jun 2009 7:05 pm
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I really NEED this book!
Just sent you an order my friend. It looks wonderful. I've got a new steel commissioned by John Alison of Collings Guitars here in Austin. It's being built from a solid piece of quarter sawn Texas Mesquite. I want to try all your suggestions and tunings! Thank you for your wonderful books. I think I own them all 
Eric Ebner
_________________
Tribo-Tone™ Bars |
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Darrell Urbien
From:
Echo Park, California
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Posted 1 Jun 2009 11:52 pm
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| Just curious, for newbies like myself.. Are there suggested songs listed for each tuning (something like, "Hear this tuning on the song X by Y on the record Z")? Like a discography? It would help (me) to actually hear what the tunings are supposed to sound like. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 2 Jun 2009 2:52 am
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You know, Darrell, I thought about doing that but I didn't really have examples for every tuning and if I did, the example might be obscure and hard to find.
Moreover, I really wanted to limit the amount of text on the page and focus on the purpose of the book form the user's perspective: "What tuning do I want to use? What are the notes on what strings; what are the intervals; what string gauges should I use?"
In most cases though, in general, I did try to briefly point out the advantages of a particular set-up and who has used it. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 2 Jun 2009 3:05 am
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Shout out to Mike Neer: thanks for your support, kind words, and a public apology for a typo in the acknowledgements I just caught that identifies you as Miek Neer.
On the other hand, maybe you could use a stage name? |
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