Someone is now selling five Copies of the old 1950’s National Triplex Chord Changer tuning booklet on eBay, and the bids are up to almost $30.00 so far (for one copy). These are copies made by an individual and sold without the permission of the company. Of course, National went out of business in the 1960’s, but they are now back in business making resonator guitars, picks and accessories. Is it just me… or is something not kosher about selling such copies?

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My Site | My SteelTab

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1975 Sho~Bud Pro III Custom (8-7)
1981 Peavey Session 500

If we wanted to get into ethics, I would argue, from an ethical point of view, that the people who own those old Nationals have a "right" to purchase service information on the old guitars and amps that they own. But that has nothing to do with legal technicalities.

Carter has the Fender 400 manual posted on their site as well as a Stringmaster wiring diagram. John Ely has old Fender wiring diagrams on his site too. These hard-to-find, out-of-print guides should be shared by steel players.

I have no problem with selling Original old manuals, as collectibles and as useful guides. As far as copies... taking $30.00 for a couple of copied sheets of someone else's work seems unonscionable to me, even if the material is no longer under copyright.

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 11 June 2006 at 03:34 PM.]

For example, I don't see anybody complaining when somebody makes, markets, and sells a songbook of old public domain folk or blues songs. There are hundreds if not thousands of them, including by major publishers. It's making the compilation that is considered to be the "contribution". No writers or estates of writers gets a cent of royalty on that. We've had a bunch of these copyright discussions, but mostly about song rights. The issue here is basically the same, IMO.

BTW, I'm not saying that these old manuals are or are not under copyright - I don't know if they are or not. This is purely a hypothetical discussion. If they're under copyright, copying and selling is illegal.

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A work in the public domain can be copied freely by anyone. Such works include those of the U.S. Government and works for which the copyright has expired. Generally, for works created after 1978, the copyright lasts for 70 years beyond the life of the author. Works created before but not published before 1978 have special rules. For works created and first published between 1950 and 1978 the copyright lasts for 95 years. For works created and first published before 1950, the copyright lasts for 28 years but could have been renewed for another 67 years.

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1975 Sho~Bud Pro III Custom (8-7)
1981 Peavey Session 500

Evidently the old steel guitar manuals that are being copied and sold (see original post above) are no longer under copyright protection so there is no legal issue. The only issue in my mind is the ethical one of steel guitarists selling hard to find information to other steel guitarists, often for a high price. Of course the reason for the high price is the auction environment. I notice that the seller of the Triplex Tuning Manual relisted another Copy immediately, as soon as the first auction ended. And he listed the second one with a $10 opening bid. I think anyone wanting to buy a copy from him should wait a couple of weeks. When buyers catch on these copies will be selling for $2 each, as they should be. What a country.

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 12 June 2006 at 12:04 AM.]

I think it's good that us steel guitar players share information freely - and we do. But consider the possibility that some of the people who unearth this kind of stuff are not steel players, or perhaps not musicians of any kind - they're just business people. In general, I think it's OK that they have an incentive to collect and distribute this kind of useful information.

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...people who have been happily selling Ebay photocopies of free stuff for years.

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After all... it is in the public domain right?

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I don't think that matters, I don't believe that anyone (a judge, for instance), would consider typewritten "operating instructions" for a device as intellectual property. The fact that someone pays high prices for such material is sad, but as they say, "no one can take advantage of you without your consent".

BTW: Who holds the patent on the fulcrum? I think I'll apply.

I must admit, I did steal the idea from the guy living in the cave next door. As I remember, I was going through the ritual of putting that damn lion out of the cave one night, when I saw my neighbor roll this huge stone in front of the entrance to his cave. This gave me the idea of inventing the SUV (because I like to sit up high ) For the SUV I needed four of the doors to my neighbor's cave.

I did't try to patent the SUV either __ the darn thing kept rolling over.

[This message was edited by Rick Collins on 14 June 2006 at 09:26 AM.]

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

The raise cams on the National Triplex Chord Changer only work one way. The changer mechanism is not "universal". Experienced lap steel players may be able to figure out what tuning to put on the guitar, and what string gauges to use, but the average picker who buys this old guitar will have no idea how to set up the tuning.

I agree that this lap steel and this lever did not work well. I've owned three of these Nationals in past years, and lever was not accurate on any of them. This guitar was an early attempt by National to meet the growing demands of steel guitarists for pitch changing capabilities. This model was discontinued shortly after the Pedal Steel guitar was born.

A similar device was the StingTone pitch changer made by Rowe Industries in the 1950's. That was an add-on piece behind the bridge, and Valco offered this as an option on some OAHUs, and probably other Valco products. The StringTone worked a little better than the National Triplex, but not much better. I think it allowed the user to set which string he wanted to raise. However, the device never "returned" in tune. It was much easier to just change tunings the normal way... using the tuners, as you said Al. Heck, "manual tuning" was good enough for Jerry Byrd.

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My Site | My SteelTab

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 02 July 2006 at 10:21 PM.]