Book milepost

[bassduke49]

No, I hadn't, Ron. Anywhere to view them online?

[mgauction]

Looking forward to it, Paul!

[ricosound]

...It took me years to get this shot from Rock Stars Guitars, and when they finally sent it, they had cropped it too close on the right edge so that the top half of the crested wave on the headstock was missing. It was also shot on what appeared to be a blotchy concrete floor. I wiped out all of the background (making it a "blockout") and cloned the missing chunk of the headstock. Honestly, I don't know where I would be without Photoshop. This will be spread across two pages in the book. It's Stu Cook's 4001 that was featured on CCR's "Bayou Country" album cover. Notice the custom mounting plate for a "jazz pickup."

Cookbeforeweb.jpg

Paul why did you wait two years to have a modded 4001 belonging to someone not really recognized for using a Rick spread across two pages? Seems there would be so many more representative guitars, even owned by forumites. Glover's with Jazz PU's is probably better known.

Can't wait for the book release.

[bassduke49]

Wes, please don't make the assumption that Cook's will be the only instrument treated to a full spread, and most of the others treated that way in the book are not celebrity basses. There are literally hundreds of instruments pictured in the book, and depending on the quality of the photograph, some will be treated more prominently than others. Example: I was just going through the preliminary layout of the first three chapters and realized I had only one Jetglo among them - an action shot of Glover with his restored Rick. Thanks to an outstanding blockout portrait of a Jetglo '72 from Bill Henshell, the oversight has been corrected. I'll use that as a spread, too. And I may reconsider the treatment of the Cook bass - you never know!

[pag]

Hey Paul,
Its great that you have put this book together.
I can see it outselling any other Rick history publication my a country mile!
I dont know of the intricacies of online book sales but I hope theres some way of holding on to
a stack for forumites to get a copy via "Rickenbacker for sale" somehow just in case theres any
difficulty obtaining copies outside the US.
(I see an international bestseller hopefully though with good reviews in the guitar press)

One thing about the 4001 in the photo..
why didnt he just get a Jazz bass like this one and leave the Rick as original?
(this is on its way to me at the end of the month!)

Will we have the book for Christmas or is that too soon?

[johnallg]

Pete, if any international forumites have trouble getting a copy, I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would be willing to help out.

[bassduke49]

Hey Pete, who knows what and why players did what they did with their instruments. I know that about half of the basses I have I had monkeyed with at least a little. We have people all over the forum exchanging pots, rewiring pickups, making single-pickup basses into twin pickup and vice versa, custom finishes, etc.

Book by Christmas? No don't count on that. My deadline getting the finished book to the publisher is 1 December, although I'm shooting for much earlier than that. They haven't given me a schedule yet, but I think it will be spring 2013 for a release date. Just don't hold me to it. Once I give it to them, it is up to them to print, publish, market, sell, and distribute. You won't be able to "order" the book from me, sorry.