Somogyi Vid

[Nick]

Damn, I've almost forgotten the original intent of the post and I friggin started it! Think it was the video's.
Thanks Ervin for taking the time to lay your side of the video saga out for all to see and judge, nothing like getting the full story before passing judgement of which I may have been guilty of with one or two of my statements!! and if so or you were offended by them, then I apologize.

dlodge wrote:
The books may seem overpriced to some, as a publisher you set your purchase price on what it costs for you to produce the book, size of the market, pulling power of the author and you look at other titles in the same market place.

As a publisher it's interesting to get your views on this. I have always intended getting the books but with the poor exchange rate of the kiwi dollar(although this is improving as we speak) both books would cost me over $400 to purchase,plus we get hit with GST on any goods imported over this magic $400 threshold so as you can see it is a fairly major expense and has to be given careful consideration when other outgoings have to be factored and prioritised.
I look forward to reading the reviews of those of you that are receiving Ervin's kind offer.

Ok update, with todays exchange rate I can probably just get in under the NZ$400 GST threshold, so the government won't take their cut

[Kim]

dlodge wrote:

Are we just undervaluing this experience, knowledge and quality again within our community?

Why not, everyone else outside of our community does


Seriously, you have made some very good points in the above post dlodge (Insert name here). But it should be understood before reading too much into what had been written earlier in the topic that before the quite recent release of Ervin's books, before his contact with us here at the ANZLF, Ervin, to many of us, represented the unreachable, exclusive, even 'secretive' Master of our craft, under whom it would be a dream come true to study the art of lutherie.

I think those circumstances which had created misconceptions for some about Ervin's willingness to share knowledge and led to a good deal of frustration for both them and Ervin, have now been very clearly explained. Like wise any question regarding the publishing cost and value of Ervin's books has been very well articulated by the man himself. No doubt your experience in the field of publishing adds further validation to what has already been said, but the bottom line is that anyone who had made there way through this thread from beginning, to this point, would now be hard pushed to find anyone here now questioning or undervaluing Ervin's worth to the stringed instrument building community or grumbling about the price of his most excellent books.

So much so, that as soon as i have had a chance to lick the wounds inflicted by the fiscal flogging that is Xmas with kids, i shall be placing an order with Ervin for my very own copies.

Cheers

Kim

[simonm]

I guess anyone reading this thread at this point will have pretty much come to the conclusion that Erwin's books are worth the money. For anyone with residual doubts, here's my take on it.

Any builder who does not have a fully tooled up workshop will save the price of the books in a a very short time simply by looking at the pictures of Erwin's very elegant jigs and building something similar.

Example. If I have been more decisive and bought them two or three weeks before I did, I would have saved almost almost half the total price simply by using his pattern for a rosette circle cutter instead of buying one (I am happy with cutter I bought - it's good, does the job well, but I could have knocked up one like Erwins for less that 5% of what I paid). I have seen lots of rosette cutters on various forums, his is the simplest, dare I say, most elegant I've come across. If there are any jigs/tools that you are considering buying or building, you will almost certainly save the price of the books by taking inspiration from his solutions.

In another forum I ventured the opinion that anyone who has 5-25 guitars under their belt would learn a vast amount from the books (I fall into that category). I strongly believe that anyone who is outside of the circle/generation of builders he himself belongs to will find a lot of value in the books.

Despite the fact that he is mainly known for steel string instruments, the info in the books is every bit as interesting for a classical guitar builder: after reading about soundboard bracing patterns I had a quick look back through Courtland's book and all bracing the patterns suddenly made sense - I could understand what the different patterns were trying to do.

I would say that the books are the best value technical books I have every bought in my life on any subject and in any price range. I don't have the dvd so I can't comment on that.

[Hesh1956]

simonm wrote:


Any builder who does not have a fully tooled up workshop will save the price of the books in a a very short time simply by looking at the pictures of Erwin's very elegant jigs and building something similar.

Good point and I completely agree. There were some things that I really wanted ideas for such as a voicing fixture and once I had these fantastic books there it was right in front of me.

[jeffhigh]

I have been away for a week so I am only just responding.
It is very gracious and couragious of you Ervin to offer copies if this to those like me who have been critical of some of your concepts.
I will certainly take you up on this and will take reviewing this very seriously.
thanks,
Jeff