My New Book on Lap Slide & Bottleneck Tunings

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

I have just gotten off the phone with the printers. Due to an error that had to be corrected, Slide Rules will not ship from the printers to me until June 11th, 2009. As soon as I receive the books from the printer via UPS, I will immediately ship them out to everyone who has kindly pre-ordered the book (approximately June 17th).

My sincere apology for this error and delay in getting you your book. As a buyer of products myself, I don't enjoy having to wait after I've already paid for something. Email me and I will refund your money via PayPal if this shipping delay is not aceptable.

I'm excited about this new book and I am sorry that it is taking longer than anticipated to deliver it to your door.

Andy Volk

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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, web BB 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.

Price: $10.95 + $2 shipping to USA. Email for shipping to Canada, Europe, Asia, etc.

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!

wsr · Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:54 am Post subject:

Looking forward to having copies in stock at OTM in San Diego,and also at brother store,Buffalo Bros......congrats again Andy.

wsr

Mike_E_McGee · Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 1:31 pm Post subject:

I'll order up a copy tonight. Looks good!

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

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.

knuckle · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 2264 Location: Dark Cloud State

Andy is this a book specifically for lap players? I wouldn't think it would matter. Also does it just give tunings or chords within each tuning?
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Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

Knuck, the book is for Bottleneck players, Dobro players, electric lap steel players, Weissenborn players, and people who want to explore Hindustani slide guitar (Harry Manx & Bob Brozman's set-ups & string gauges are featured). There are tunings for 6, 8, 10 and 20+ string Indian guitars.

Standard guitarists who want to explore open tunings can use it too but frankly, there are some books out there that I think are better oriented to open tunings on standard guitar. For each tuning, the book lists the notes and intervals with a graphic representation of the strings showing which note goes on which string. John Ely's great string gauge chart is included so you can find the gauges you prefer based on whether you like a tight or loose action. The book doesn't get into chord positions. I wanted it to be quick handy resource for just the tunings.

There's a sample page showing the format here:

http://www.volkmedia.com/Volkmedia.com/Slide_Rules_Book.html

Just click the page for a larger PDF view.

Fred Kinbom · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 681 Location: Brighton, UK

Great news Andy! Order placed. It was among the tuning listings (in the Bob Brozman interview) in your lap steel book that I found the G minor tuning that I have pretty much built my lap steel playing and songwriting around since then. I am grateful for that and look forward to checking this new book out.

Cheers,

Fred
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Ebner101 · Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 435 Location: Texas Republic

This is great!

Order on the way and thank you for putting the time and energy into producing this book. I NEED a copy on hand precisely because I've got a new custom 8 string steel on the way and am curious about tunings. Kevin Brown (from the UK) stayed here for about 10 days and I really liked the C6 add7 he came up with. I'm ready to experiment. All the best Andy!

Eric
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Tribo-Tone™ Bars

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

Many thanks, Eric, especially for letting me use images of your fantastic tone bars! In creating this book 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 wanted to include some commentary as to who use a particular tuning and why. Hope folks like it and find it a useful resource.

Ian McWee · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:43 am Post subject:

Ditto from us in the U.K. also Andy - congratulations & your new book will become a 'must have' in many guitar cases across the globe Wink

Slide On!

Ian.

Diamond Bottlenecks

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

And ditto, Ian for a public thank you for the images of your fine bottlenecks. The book includes a spread of photos and sources for bottlenecks and tonebars that includes Tribotone & Diamond.

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

FYI .... As of 6/4/09, only 11 copies un-sold from the first print run. I'll have the second print run in hand around June 15th -20th.

PaulData · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 420

Just placed my order for a copy. I really look forward to many hours of experimentation and discovery with this. Thanks Andy!

PS: I added a request for you to autograph my copy; if you can't do it, no worries... Wink

crocau · Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 321 Location: Quebec City

Hey, good idea !

I also want an autographed copy ! Cool

Ebner101 · Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 435 Location: Texas Republic

Hey Andy... grab that pen Very Happy

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Tom Austin · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:16 am Post subject:

funny thing....mere hours before this thread appeared, I saw Andy's earlier book on the shelf at Tall Toad music in Petaluma. Right next to Bob Brozman's National book, actually.

It looks excellent! Actually, I have a question for Bob based on something I read in the Brozman interview in that book.

in the interview, Bob is explaining the uniqueness of the Reunion Island rhythm. However, he describes that rhythm not as a triplet or 6/8 feel, but as a ten-count cycle: 1-2-3-4-1-TWO-three-one-two-THREE.

is that:

1) a misprint
2) a unique Reunion Island rhythm separate from the Reunion 6/8
3) evidence that I wasn't listening very carefully through all those hours many years ago?

Andy Volk · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 494 Location: Boston, MA USA

4) Poor transcribing by Andy?

Tom Austin · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:33 pm Post subject:

I'd fit that #4 under "misprint", but...I don't think it was a misprint. The 12341TWOthree12THREE does not sound accidental. It sounds like a real rhythm, and I'm intrigued.

I'm guessing there was something said, providing context, that didn't make the final copy.

at any rate, it's a fine book. I would have bought it even if I'd never heard of this Andy Volk character.

Bob Brozman · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:00 am Post subject:

Tom, It must be an error, there is no 10 rhythm from Reunion. Plenty in India and Greece though.

Tom Austin · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:44 am Post subject:

Hi Bob,

thanks for the reply. I was hoping you would read this thread. The ten rhythm did sound kind of eastern european to me. close but no cigar.

Enjoy the slack key workshop. Kim and I stayed at the Napili Kai last year. If you're going to be in west Maui, that's the place to stay. If you get a chance to go snorkeling, watch for the sea turtles!