Official Luthiers Forum!

the only message I've gotten was through Brock's post above...

I figure I'll give Ervin until sometime next week and then shoot him an email asking what's up....

Yeah - here's mine - I am going to go postal if you guys keep bugging Ervin.... (please note the 3 smiling faces Chris my friend I am just kidding)

John buddy you may not be last, I don't have my books yet either but I am sure we both will have ours shortly.

When I was a kid I absolutely hated when the adults in my life prefaced their remarks with "when I was a kid...." But now that I am an old fart I have a greater understanding of how my brain cells are dieing I think that this entitles me to use this phrase...

So when I was a kid, 9 years old to be exact, I wanted a new amplifier for Christmas. We lived in a small town with a huge state mental institution (and no I did not live "in" the institution...). So since there were no big box stores things that you wanted often resulted from researching the Sears catalog and then if one was feeling worthy and an event that resulted in gift giving and getting was coming up the drill was to rip out the respective Sears catalog page and stick it on the fridge door with the desired item circled.

Sears had a stinkin 50 watt, 2 X 12" speaker, transistor amp that I thought would be just perfect to annoy my parents and make me the loudest jerk in my garage band. My current amp was a 10 watt, tube Kalamazoo that to this day I wish that I still had. It would break up nicely above "8" and even though it was not very loud it did have a 10" speaker and was tube powered so it sounded good - at least in my memory....

So I stuck the catalog page on the door about a month before Christmas and circled the "Silvertone" amp that I wanted. In our town there wasn't a Sears Store but there was a Sears catalog outlet where you dropped off your orders and went to pick up your stuff about 2 weeks after ordering it.

Time passed and Christmas was only a week or so away. I was nervous because there hadn't been any telltale signs that there was any amp action happening. Then one wonderful day a large box wrapped in brown paper appeared on the floor in my mom's closet... Yeah I peeked...

I was overjoyed and sure that my amp was soon to be under the Christmas tree. The next day I could not stand it any more and decided that I needed to know more... So I looked up the amp that I wanted in a second Sears catalog and copied the box dimensions down and promptly went in my mom's closet and measured the stinkin box. It WAS a match - this was MY amp...

On Christmas morning I tried to act surprised as I spied a large box under the tree just for me. Upon starting to open it I continued to act as if I had no clue what was in the box.

And then one of the greatest traumas of my life happened... It was a STINKIN typewriter... I could not imagine why anyone would get a 9 year old boy a stinkin typewriter...

Anyway to make a long story short I never got my amp, my dad a few months later noticed that I never touched the stinkin typewriter so he took it to his office and I never saw it again.

The moron of this story, other than me, is that patience is a virtue and typewriters suck...

And if you got this far reading this perhaps you would like a typewriter too???

Maybe you should tell the young people here what a typewritter is.

I received my USPS shipping notice this morning via the new age virtual reality typewriter. Should have the books tomorrow since I am less than 100 miles away.

Picked mine up today from the PO.

For what it is worth I ordered the books back in May. I got no emails or anything, not even a Pay Pal notification. I had to double check on Pay Pal to makes sure I ordered it. Today they showed up in perfect condition at my door. (I am glad I was home, I had to sign.) I counsel patience. Mr. Somogyi must have been incredibly swamped by the whole thing but if he will take care of me then he will take care of everyone I am sure.

I had about twenty minutes to look over the books today and they are so completly wonderful that I am not sure if I am inspired or convinced I will never be good enough. It is hard to process forty years or so of knowlege in such a short amount of time. I forsee reading these books bi-annually for the rest of my life. The first reading starts in earnest this evening. I figure it will take about a week.

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

They were sent insured, which is why a signature is required.

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Jim Hansen

Oh Man! Now I can't leave the house, signature required.

Chris, just get in the car and follow the post person around. I'm sure that would be some good fun.

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Jim Hansen

Yea, I left the house for an hour and in that time the dreaded pink post office notice arrived..."We missed you".
Picked them up at 5pm.
After 2 days of leafing through, I'll venture to say that you ain't gonna have any big revelations from a quick read. These books are going to take some serious time to wade through. There's a mountain of information here, but nothing is handed to you. Rather, it slowly soaks in...and allows you to add your own input for formulation.
That's a good thing!

Got mine on Wednesday!
Going on vacation this week - will bring them along !! They look great.

That's how I understand the classes are too. He gives you the information and it's up to you to do with it what you will. Makes one think it through. Sounds like I'll like it. I'm looking for some clarification of what's going on with the structual forces and the such. Does he get into the air mass and the resinate tone aspects to the guitar like Alan Carruth discusses a lot too?
Hopfully that after we all have read it we can have some farther discussions on these things without the cloat of secrecy which seems to surround those who have taken his class. It seems almost like they went down to the crossroads .

I ain't tellin'!

I'm not much on reading books........I'm waiting for the movie

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Got mine in Texas.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

You will see after you read these books. There isn't any secrecy. You just can't explain it (well) to anyone else. It is a system of thinking about the guitar, not specific answers to they mysteries of building good sounding instruments.

These books are basically the readers digest version of the class.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wanted to formally introduce myself and say hello, and most importantly, shed a little light on the current book situation as a first hand account, as opposed to hearing it from others. My name is Jason Kostal, and I am Ervin's current apprentice, and have been working in that capacity for about 7 months now. In addition to helping Ervin build guitars on a daily basis, I am the single point of contact regarding the books. While Ervin is definitely signing them, it is I who is unpacking them, packing them, and shipping them out to you while also working to get everything else done each day. I don't get on the forum as much as I used to, and as such, had no idea that the shipping issues were bothering everyone as much as they seem to be. I appreciate the patience that all of you have shown and am happy to announce that all of the books should be shipped out by the end of the day today. To give you a little background on the books and why things happened the way that they did, we initially started taking orders for the books in May, offering a pre-publication price. The intent was to raise enough money to actually cover the printing costs and get them out as soon as possible. We paid for the books and initiated printing. We received an original printing date of July 15th, which at the time was an estimate from the printing company. Ervin sent out an initial emailing saying the books would ship out then, as we had faith in the printing process, etc.

In all seriousness, the process was pretty straight forward and without any major issues. The date shifted slightly by about 10 days and the books arrived into the Port of Oakland the last week in July. There were 9 pallets of books, and they ended up getting held up in customs for about 10 days as they opened every 3rd box and had it checked by dogs! Gotta love it. We picked up the books on our own, breaking down 9 pallets, loading them into a truck, brought them over to a storage facility, and then began individually unpacking them, signing them, and repacking them for shipment. I have to remind each of you that we are not amazon.com, we actually build guitars for a living, and so while all of this was going on, we were also finishing five guitars for Healdsburg Festival, which was happening the next week. Unfortunately, the guitars took priority, and the books sat for a while as we got the guitars ready to go. We are essentially a two-man operation, and between Ervin and I, there just wasn't much time to do much of anything else. When you think about it, signing hundreds of books also doesn't sound that exciting either, and we just kept moving forward as best as we could.

The show is over, we have sent the guitars to their new homes, and things are returning to normal here in the Somogyi Shop. As such, I have spent the week printing off labels, and shipping about 200 sets of books. Most of my label printing has been at about 1-2 in the morning as that seems to be the only time I can get it done while still building during the day. The carriers that we use have also limited the number of boxes that we can bring in each day as they have limited storage space as well. The bottom line is that while it has been a long process that started for some of you almost 4 months ago, the books are heading out, and we are excited to get them into your hands. I did a lot of proofreading on them, and have probably read each book 15 times now, maybe more, and I can honestly say that they are worth the wait in my opinion. Prior to starting the apprenticeship with Ervin, I was an instructor at Roberto-Venn where I taught Acoustic guitar construction and business development. I value well thought out information, and while I would argue that there is little substitute for hands on learning and education, these books are well thought out, and very true to our current building style, methods, and ideas.

The books do not give answers, as many of your are probably hoping for, but rather they tell you the right questions to ask, and give you the necessary information to get to that point in your building process. Some of you will be upset by this, but if you think about it, it is honestly the only way to teach. What works for one of our Somogyi Mod-D guitars may not work for your parlor style guitar, etc. As such, it is far more valuable to teach you the thought process than give you measurements and answers. I attended Ervin's top voicing class before becoming an apprentice, and was upset to come here and not get answers to the holy grail question. It wasn't until I left and went home and began applying his concepts to my own building that I realized that he had given me a gift far greater in teaching me his process and helping me to understand what goes into building a great guitar. I think that you will find these books to be both informative, exciting, and most importantly, thought provoking. I am excited for each of you to get them into your hands as that will mean that I can get back to building guitars instead of licking address labels!

Most of you have probably dealt with me directly if you had a question, and I am more than welcome to entertain questions about the books if you have them. Likewise, if you get your set and something is wrong with it, please let me know immediately and I will work to get it resolved. You can contact me directly at jasontkostal@hotmail.com or at the shop at shop@esomogyi.com. I am really not interested in entertaining guitar building questions or questions about the content of the books, but I will help you in any way that I can otherwise.

Many of you have also made comments about the price of the book set. Each of you will have to decide whether or not the value of the books is worth the value of the information provided. In my opinion, the information far exceeds the cost. These are comprehensive books that cover 40 years of experience. The books are priced less than a quality set of wood and will allow you to learn from someone that approaches his building method in a way unlike any others that I am aware of. The are costly to print when you are doing it all on your own. You can think of it in terms of buying wood. Taylor guitars can buy a set of wood for a lot less than I can as a result of their volume. We didn't print a million copies of the books, and so, while there is a modest profit, you would probably not be surprised to learn that it is a lot less than you think. I also look at some of the DVDs and books out there that cost in excess of $100, and most of them, while informative, are not written by someone with as much experience as Ervin has. Just my 2 cents, and like I said, only you can decide what price you put on your own education and personal and professional development as a builder. For those of you that opt to buy them, I sincerely believe that you will not be disappointed.

Thanks again for your patience, and enjoy the books when you get them.

Respectfully,

Jason Kostal

Jason,

Thanks for the update and all your work in getting the books out.

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GregH
Fot Wuth

Thanks Jason,

Hey Chris,
I ordered mine last night and got shipping confirmation this morning by email. ha


Can't wait to get them.


Hutch

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

I'm glad for you and don't take this wrong but that really stinks.
That just isn't right.
If they were shipped today then why haven't we all got the notification?

Believe me, I know the pain you are going through right now. When you order something and are really excited about it and can't wait to get it, and then shipper doesn't even acknowledge he even got your payment.
I'm sure you'll get them soon. Hang in there buddy.

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Chris: Jason said the books are in the mail today.

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I know he got my payment as he told me that, no problem there.
I have to chill. Going to have a cold one and walk across the street to the bar. I think Hot Tuna is playin there tonight.

Well I just got back and I got Marty Balin, Jack Cassity and Jorma to sign the side of my guitar. Three of the original Jefferson Airplane members. That's pretty cool I think. Jorma said he like the guitar.
Jason emailed me and didn't have my address and thought I had picked it up as others did that Ervin didn't give him the addresses for. He's going to send it out Monday over night.
I sent him an old email that I got from Ervin as a reminder about signing it so I hope it gets signed.

Still no notification here. I guess I'll wait until after the weekend to see if anything transpires.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu