Lollar book

[John_H]

There's a copy for sale on an online auction. I'd love to have it, but it's already bid up to $150. Is that realistic? To me that seems way over the top.

[David King]

I think that's hilarious and a bit sad considering the some information the book has to offer is quixotic and more than a little out of date when it comes to the current state of home pickup winding machines. Perhaps someone here needs to write the "new" pickup winding book since Jason has other fish to fry. I don't think the book has hurt his pickup sales any.

[Ruel]

There's a copy for sale on an online auction. I'd love to have it, but it's already bid up to $150. Is that realistic? To me that seems way over the top.

I am lucky to have gotten a copy some four years ago and I am very grateful to Jason for helping erase all the mysteries out of pickup winding. But $150.00 is way too much. It is ridiculous, to say the least.

Here in the Philippines, it is what an average income worker in the province gets a month. And to think that most of the information contained in the book is available to anybody who has access to the internet.

[bulldogguitars]

I have a copy of that book if anyones interested. PM me with a reasonable offer.

[Possum]

book

Actually I think that book did create competition for him. I am one guy that his book created :-) Alot of my customers prefer my work over his and other well known pickup makers, so there's that, (and some of you have heard that yourselves) but then I have no desire to work 120 hours a week and deal with pickup supplier insanity on a daily basis, so I am no threat to anyone economically. There are a couple of other companies and known individuals that learned their craft from Lollar but will deny it publicly. Not me, I thanked Lollar on my website and put a link to his website, he helped me a helluva alot back when he actually had time to be a forum presence. Torres is one guy I remember who makes pickups he learned from Lollar but he won't tell you that, not that Torres pickups are known for anything. Guess he didn't figure it all out.
I agree that book is way outdated, there's a ton of mistakes in it and it really doesn't tell you how to make GOOD pickups, just how to make fiber flats and a winder, well sort of. I made the cam version and the cam was such a nightmare to use I threw it away, you spend more time hand winding to fix the coil flares the cam did than anything else, and the heart shaped cam is something only a machine shop could really make right. I did keep the dual rod wire guide thing for a long time and never actually guided the wire by hand, I used the rod and worked that with my hand and used felt tension. I'm about to go completely in a different direction now, probably my 6th version winder..... 6.0 :-) You can actually find out alot on StewMac's site if you just want to buy their junk and crank out no brainer pickups. Designed2wind website has alot of geek crazy ideas, Dr. X's vintage plans have some interesting ideas, sure wouldn't want to tackle building that thing.....

[Spence]

My advice is to buy the book. I didn't have any idea there was such a thing when I started winding pickups. People started asking me if I could help them out with the Lollar machine. I didn't know what the heck they were on about.
I had a lot of heartache figuring out how to make a winding machine and had a few false starts but the prototype is also the finished product. I know a couple of guys who, like Possum are redesigning quite regularly but if you get it right first time, there really is no need unless you need to add on more bells and whistles. I got lucky with my design.

It's clear that Jason has been extremely helpful to people getting into winding. How many on this forum have plagued him with question?
I'd pay the money for that book but I think it's a little bit of a kick in the teeth that he wasn't getting $150 a copy when it was in print. But even so, if that book gets you off the ground you'll soon get your money back.

BTW, a nice little site to look at for pickup-winding machines can be found here :

http://www.guitarattack.com/winder/winder1.htm

[Possum]

pricing...

yeah, you know that book could have been priced way higher. I bought a book recently because of some serious health problems I've been having, the book was $90. The lady who wrote it said she tried to give it away free on the internet and no one took her seriously. Her work is very comprehensive and covers just about every kind of treatment, medical and alternative. So she priced it the same price as a doctor visit, now she sells them and people place value on the work becuase it cost the same as a doctor visit (well way cheaper than a doctor visit let me tell you....). Jason's book would get you up and running and your first set of pickups you sold should be the price of the book. I am embarrassed to say I was a royal annoyance to Jason probably while going through that book word by word, I had never used any of those shop tools before and to this day after burning up 3 of those circle cutters I still don't know how to cut a circle out of medium density fiber board with one of those things, no matter what I did the cutter burned up, and those things weren't cheap :-) He patiently helped me out alot, and I tried to have my questions well formed before I bothered him. Once I had a handle on it I totally did my own thing, just about every pickup I made and sold came from personal testing and experimentation and never once made any kind of copyist pickup, til I got into vintage stuff much later. Its a book worth having. As for anyone putting out another book like that, good luck, you'll spend a year at least if its even worth half a shit, doing drawings or photos will take forever to do professionally, you will write it and rewrite it and when you think its good you'll find it full of flaws and bad spelling :-) And then the book will only be based on your own experience with limited viewpoint, and how much of really valuable information are you going to impart before you end up with the kid next door selling more pickups than you after he reads your book :-) this has gotta be one of the most weird ass businessess I've ever seen....

[Ruel]

For those who have been asking why Jason refuses to come out with reprints of his book, now you know the answer.

[John_H]

Thank You everyone for your responces; I've never posted in this forum before, but read the threads frequently. I've wanted to try my luck at pickup building for a long while. My next project will be a winder. (Thanks Spence for the link) I've looked at a few different designs, but I'm not certain which I'll use yet.

I don't plan to make any money at this. It's just another facet to the hobby, and a skill that I'd love to learn. I'll get to work on my winder soon. I hope I don't ask too many lame questions of you all. Thanks again, John

[NightWinder]

Well welcome to the mad pickup scientist forum. No question is to lame, maybe already posted, but not lame. You will quickly learn that headaches and part sourcing go hand and hand. By all means.....enjoy the information. This is a great place to learn. I even get stumped on occasion. LOL, well actually alot. Good Luck.!

[pkpdude]

Basic Pickup Winding by Jason Lollar 2 edition for sale

Hi guys,
I'm writing this post to sell my original copy of Basic Pickup Winding by Jason Lollar 2 edition, it's in good shape and i paid it 240 euro on ebay(incluse an oversea delivery,I'm from italy).
Anyway I wanna sell it for 200 euro (315 USD) incluse delivery all over the world......
If anyone can be intersted ,contact me please
vonny@libero.it

[Spence]

Hi guys,
I'm writing this post to sell my original copy of Basic Pickup Winding by Jason Lollar 2 edition, it's in good shape and i paid it 240 euro on ebay(incluse an oversea delivery,I'm from italy).
Anyway I wanna sell it for 200 euro (315 USD) incluse delivery all over the world......
If anyone can be intersted ,contact me please
vonny@libero.it

I should sell it to your fellow countryman JazzBluesRock who made a right prick out of him/herself on this forum.

[Rosewood]

$150 ? not so bad, remember the person who paid $12000 for a slice of pizza that looked like Jesus? Anyway, that book is what got me started so I can either thank or blame Jason for it.

[chevalij]

I should sell it to your fellow countryman JazzBluesRock who made a right prick out of him/herself on this forum.

I believe he's currently having his own book specially made. It may look like Jason's, but it'll read better.

[David Schwab]

I believe he's currently having his own book specially made. It may look like Jason's, but it'll read better.

Printed on special paper his dad made.

I just couldn't resist!