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Post by lonelyjelly on Jun 26, 2018 9:15:45 GMT
Thanks for your responses chaps. My missus has a kindle but I think I’d like the physical copy, if there are any left Best Lew
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Post by Ian McWee on Jun 26, 2018 10:56:22 GMT
I have both of these books mentioned here and the best for National enthusiasts by a long way is Mark's. The B.B. book is really a glossy photographic memoir of his personal collection and as much recorded information of the original National company known at that time.
The most important instrument in the history of the original National Guitar company is the Duolian, that one instrument alone kept National afloat during the American depression of the '30's - B.B's book allows a third of one page to the Duolian - probably because it wasn't shiny enough to show!
Slide On!
Ian.
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Post by Stevie on Jun 26, 2018 12:13:50 GMT
I too would really welcome update insert sheets. The quality would be beyond question of course! Poor Mark- what a liability? Of course he ~does~ benefit from a solid user database, but things change remarkably quickly.
As a card carrying ostrich, I think too much speculation is not that helpful. I am grateful for what I have and would regard anything else as an unexpected bonus, so enjoy the summer Mark!
e&oe...
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Post by Michael Messer on Jun 26, 2018 21:48:32 GMT
Mark’s book is only available as a hardback. There is no Kindle version. Mark has done many updates since the book was published in 2013. Those who follow Mark on Facebook will have seen some of the updates. The idea of being able to buy them in some form is interesting.
Shine On Michael
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Post by Stevie on Jun 26, 2018 23:39:00 GMT
As a Facepage / Twatter / Linkdin (etc) conscientious objector, I was not aware of these addenda. Hey-ho. I haven't used a TV since 1988 either. Life goes on.
e&oe...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2018 1:28:37 GMT
I hope that Mark will see fit to add Sir Raymond Douglas Davies for his putting the National Style O into the Top of the Pops...
(I just checked and want to acknowlege that MM is correct regarding Manfred Mann Tom MacGuiness statement below...though I never heard that recording played in the USA)
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Post by Michael Messer on Jun 27, 2018 8:02:11 GMT
Fred, I think that Tom McGuinness (Manfred Mann - Pretty Flamingo) predates Ray's Style 0 appearance. I'd have to do a bit of Youtubing to be sure!
Ray's Style 0 made a big impression on a lot of people.
The Style 0 pages in Mark's book are represented by illustrations of Son House, Mark Knopfler and one or two others
Shine On Michael
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2018 8:24:33 GMT
I hope that Mark will see fit to add Sir Raymond Douglas Davies for his putting the National Style O into the Top of the Pops... Speaking of which: LINK
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Post by Mark Makin on Jun 27, 2018 11:26:10 GMT
I’m very gratified that everyone is still very supportive of my efforts considering that I really had not much idea about how to put the book together. It seemed that you should start with something you know and carry on until you can’t think of anything else and then try to assemble it in some form of order.
I know this thread is really about BBs original work. Of course, so much water has gone under the bridge in the 25 years since a handful of us collaborated on that book and “subsequent revelations” have put a serious colouration on how we view both the book and the man. The book itself was largely a personal vanity. It dwelt heavily on the personal shiny, valuable, Brozman collection that you would never see and sketched over the Duolians and the Trojans - in fact most of the instruments owned by nine tenths of his readership. It was almost unfathomable without an index. Much was out of place and wrongly sequenced including the serial numbers. It has much that is wrong and much that is missing.
HOWEVER… being positive, in my book, I intentionally did not include all the foundational information that Bob, Richard Smith and Gary Atkinson researched about the company formation, dealings and boardroom minutes. Also, the large section on company history and developments, Also, a very in depth look at the early history of the Dopyera family. He covered many technical details and construction elements that are not part of my story. In fact, I did consider that my book would sit WITH his and not OPPOSED to it.
I did have the luxury of watching Bob’s book for 20 years in the marketplace and realised it’s shortcomings. Because it was heavily weighted towards the rare and valuable, I tried to equalise my efforts so that a lowly, cheap lap steel is considered equally with the first Tricone or a rare Don. Bob’s book did irritate me in that it only told his story of his ‘love affair’ with shiny german silver. Very few people even had a clue that New Yorkers, Amplifiers, Supros, Dobros, Regals, OMIs, Glenwoods, resoglas etc etc were even connected to the same story. I was always aware that trying to track down everything in the Dopyera story was a huge task. The very nature of research by internet means that sporadically new things trickle out. Someone has always got a rare something or other that they are selling on ebay or reverb. All I can do is respond when stuff appears above eye level! Don Young used to speak of a guy in south Los Angeles who would “haunt” the Dobro factories and befriended the Dopyeras. He would collect any Dobro oddity or rare instruments that would never see the light of day and run off with them. Apparently there are dozens of these crazy one-offs out there.
This unfinished story was the idea behind the facebook page related to the book. I assume people with the book would follow the continuing story and also people who were into the facebook page would get a book to go with it! I did have the idea that people might collect and print out the related stuff from the facebook page even though the quality is not perfect.
I should point out that what I have been doing with all this stuff (apart from posting it as facebook additions) is changing and re-building all the pages in the existing book artworks so that (in theory) a new edition could be printed. That, I have to say, is highly unlikely. In fact, definitely unlikely. In the five years of shipping these things around the world, I have yet to make £1. Just to give you an idea for reference – to build a privately printed project like mine – EXCLUDING all my time and artwork and design and research etc.., is close to £40,000 (which I am still paying back!). I am glad that I did produce a “Book” but the future for all this information is most probably digital. It would be possible for me to send updated sections to people of, say, the complete “new” Style O page section as a pdf. The problem with that is security. A PDF is extremely high quality, print-ready and also HIGHLY COPIABLE!
I will look into the possibility of a variant of an ebook. The format is not good for an ebook because it is a full colour page. Text and novels are easy but not large format coffee table epics. I haven’t thought this out yet, but it seems likely that the best way is to run off sections of pages as high quality inkjets and send them out in the post. They would have to be cut down A3 pages, because the book is a non-standard size.
There are close to 100 new illustrations across the whole book although probably half the book is unchanged. There are many new variants of lap steels, usually new trade house versions in different colours, with different names and fret marker designs. Occasionally, we have really newly discovered important stuff like “Tenor El Trovadors” or “Silver guitar shaped national Tenor with a Tricone system”. Many new custom triplates have appeared – custom patterns, the prototypes for the Style 3 and Style 4 and also odd new bits of information – like the three different types (chronologically) of Style 35 patterns. As the days go by, I keep adding and modifying. I guess I will continue. PS. I might as well do the sales pitch again. Please let me know any numbers you have that are not in the list.
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Post by jono1uk on Jun 27, 2018 11:48:16 GMT
thanks Mark ..is there anyway the PDF files you mentioned could be "stored" on secure place on this forum ? and we would log in to it to retrieve them? Just an idea ..
Jon
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Post by bonzo on Jun 27, 2018 12:03:10 GMT
Truly a labour of love Mark, and as you must know by now VERY much appreciated!
Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Jun 27, 2018 12:58:56 GMT
Like wot Bonzo sez?/\
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Post by maui_chimes on Jun 27, 2018 20:08:38 GMT
Proud owner of a copy of Mark's book.
One suggestion to consider: a paid subscription-based website that functions as an electronic book. Rather than pdf format, just searchable html content with chapters, images, and indices. Content could be tagged and categorized to make navigating to similar items easy. Cost to create & maintain is far lower than a printed project. Unlimited editing capability. Near infinite possibility for growth & expansion.
It would always be up to date.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2018 21:11:39 GMT
Good idea maui-chimes.(wonderful moniker by the way) Mark's made it pretty clear there won't be any reprints so a subscription only website would be very useful and hopefully it would help Mark recoup some of his outlay. I'd certainly subscribe as I'm sure would many forum members.
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