The Book is alive!

[sys700]

PS: I don't want anyone to shy away from the book because there was a handful of complaints about the grammar. It's great!

[bassduke49]

OK, thanks, Rod!

[cjj]

Maybe you should have written the book in a language that's less ambiguous and confusing than English...

[bassduke49]

In more book news, I've heard from the publisher about the comp copies going out to contributors:

"I am taking care of it, but the contributors will have to be patient because it can take up to three weeks for the warehouse to receive/process the order and for the books to arrive in the mail, longer for international. I am sorry that this was not taken care of sooner, but I can assure you that it is now underway. Sorry for the inconvenience."

So hang in there, guys.

Last Friday, I was celebrating the launch of the book with some friends at a local outdoor brew pub adjacent to a community park. The town holds Friday night concerts in the park so I often check out the music afterwards. This time, the featured band was relaxing at the brew pub before going on stage. I could tell they were the band; bunch of good-looking guys in hip clothing being feted by one of our civic leaders. I took my book over to their table and said: "You're the band, right? "Yes" one replied. I said "Who's your bass player?" "That's me," one answered. So I handed him the book to check out. His eyes popped right out of his head, "I'm playing my Rick tonight! Wow! Look at this!" The band is Green River Ordinance out of Fort Worth, Texas, and the bassist is Geoff Ice. Personable bunch of "kids" and they played great. Geoff had a 2004 Fireglo 4003 and was coming through loud and clear during the concert. I showed the book to the sound engineer (a local company) who said, "Can I buy this? I want to give it to Geoff." So he did, and I signed the book –– my first personal sale! Geoff really appreciated the gift, and the sound engineer bought another copy for himself!

[cjj]

Cool story!

[bartyclue]

I just got mine the ther day. Very nice book. Curious though... no geddy page???

[bassduke49]

For years, I tried to find a source for photos of Geddy with Ricks. Sure, there are plenty of photos viewable on-line, but for publishing a "real" book, I need to obtain high-resolution photos and get the photographers permission and sometimes make compensation to the photographer. I chased down a few suggested leads, but every one was a dead end. I did take a shot of him playing his Rick at Summerfest here in Milwaukee about four years ago, but it wasn't quite sharp enough to my liking so decided not to put it in the book.

Geddy has been seen playing several Ricks; a couple of Jetglo 4001s, a couple of 4080s, a 4002, and a 3001. I would have loved to include all those photos I found on-line, but with no sources or photographers credited, the origins proved impossible to uncover within the time frame that I had. Now watch: Now that the book is out, people will come out of the woodwork!

[bartyclue]

Thats too bad.. your book is great and please dont take this as any insult... but to me its incomplete without him. Aside from Squire, the second biggest influence on my decision to play RIC's.. and at one time he might have been 1st!

[Ashgray]

But... Paul's book is about Rickenbacker electric basses - not the players of these instruments.

Ash

[bartyclue]

So the Squire and MacCartney pages were a mistake?

[squirefan01]

Just got mine from Amazon. Beautifully done Paul! I recall being involved more in this forum back around 2006, and I think you were talking about it a bit then. I hoped it would happen one day, and I am so glad that I saw it was out now (in a Bass Player mag email). I ordered it immediately.

That shark bass is stunning! I had never seen that one before.

Congratulations and thanks for the hard work!

-Greg

[Ashgray]

So the Squire and MacCartney pages were a mistake?

Obviously not, otherwise I'm sure Paul would not have bothered, but the main thrust of the book, IMHO, is the instruments themselves. An author can only add what content is available to him, and that's apparently what prevented shots of Geddy playing his Ricks being included.

[JackTheRipper]

Thats too bad.. your book is great and please dont take this as any insult... but to me its incomplete without him. Aside from Squire, the second biggest influence on my decision to play RIC's.. and at one time he might have been 1st!

I was going to mention this too, but didn't want to sound like a d ick.

It is a fine book and I look forward to reading it cover to cover, but I am also disappointed that there is no Geddy, my main bass influence.

--jack

[bassduke49]

But... Paul's book is about Rickenbacker electric basses - not the players of these instruments.

Ash

This is true. Photos of artists (or artist's basses) are really justification for the importance of Rick basses in general. If I could have gained access to publishable photos of Geddy, believe me I would have them in the book. But the clock ran out and I didn't want to delay finishing the book any longer on the slim chance a photo would come in. The artists pictured in the book are the best photos I could find (or were sent) and arrangements could be made for. There were others that I found that I wanted, but I couldn't find sources for or couldn't afford their asking prices when I did find them. For instance, there's a great shot of McCartney holding a 4003SPC five-string Blackstar!!! There was a watermark on the on-line photo, so I contacted the photographer. He referred me to an agency who handled his work, and they wanted several hundred dollars for the photo. No thanks. I received equally good photos of other (granted lesser-known) celebs for small stipends or even for just photo credit and a book. But the main purpose of player shots is to show certain models "in action" and to keep the book from looking like a stamp album of bass portraits.

And why would I want to pay an agency a lot of money for a shot I can look at on-line for nuttin'?:

http://www.rosshalfin.com/paul-mccartne ... tney01.php

(upper left in group)

[ben_brown]

Got mine as an anniversary gift from my wife via Amazon.....Love it!

Great job! Thanks Paul