JERRY BYRD's 300 page Instructional Manual

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 27 Sep 2003 8:22 pm

Does anyone have one of these fine books?

I just rec'd an expensive PHOTO COPY of this particular item. It was offered to me as a 2nd place runner-up.

Do any of you have the item published by Scotty? Does it have a cover? Has anyone else purchased the manual only to find that it is a PHOTO COPY of the original? Is YOUR copy in a binder of any kind?

I'm beginning to smell a "rat?" or what?

Kinda sounds like the scam that was being run by someone selling Jerry's "LAST FRY PAN" or does it?

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 28 Sep 2003 2:54 am

Ray,

I have the Jerry Byrd course that I purchased from Scotty a few years ago.
It has 333 pages and is in a large looseleaf
notebook.
It also has a serial number, and two cassettes.
The notebook is black with a red and gold cover insert that reads "Jerry Byrd Instruction Course for Steel Guitar" in both English and Japanese.
It is printed on heavy paper stock.
The photos printed in the front of the manual are of poor technical quality.
The rest of the printing is pretty good.

There is also a handwritten note from Jerry stating that this was one of the few left over from a combination printing of an english-japanese edition and that the japanese pages had been removed to save shipping costs.
He also hand corrected the printing errors.

In the mid '50's I had a Jerry Byrd book that I purchased by mail order for $4.95.
It had about 60 pages. It got lost over the years.

Blake

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 28 Sep 2003 8:04 am

I guess I have one of the ORIGINAL JB instruction books, (red cover trimmed with gold). He put this one out about 20 years ago and it sold for around $75.00 US as I seem to recall. There were no cassette tapes supplied with this edition. I was pleased with it in many ways...contained a lot of good solid information, also a lot of stuff I already knew. The only drawback about the first edition were the glaring publisher errors in about 20 pages. I'm sure this must have annoyed Jerry no end. He did the right thing by sending those like myself the revised and corrected pages to insert into the binder. It is now somewhat dog-eared, the cover fell off long ago, but I still have everything, including the cover. I even kept the incorrect pages!

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 28 Sep 2003 4:01 pm

I would recon that mine is a 1st edition, which was $50, w/2 cassettes. The cover, colored as George stated, was a very heavy grade of paper with a smaller sized thin sheet of aluminum on top, of which Jerry's golden picture with his steel is slightly raised from the surface. The photos and print are of good quality. The tapes are recorded on two tracks for left or right speaker. This provides the learners ability to hear Jerry solo on one side, the band seperately on the other, or, placing the left/right selector in the middle, to hear them together as a complete group. Besides being a great way to learn these terrific tunes, it also makes for a unique and very enjoyable listening experience by an all star ensemble. To have at your repeated disposal, Benny Kalama on ukulele, Kalani Fernandes on bass, Hiram Olsen on guitar, and Jerry on steel, is worth the price of admission alone. I once asked Jerry if he would put it out in CD form, he replied "no, and it never will be!". Dang!

Jack Byrd · Post by **Jack Byrd** » 28 Sep 2003 5:17 pm

Ray,

Was this bought from SIRBRI? If so this is Brian Litman. Others whom I am acquainted with have had bad dealings with this guy. He has had one of these courses up for sale the last three weeks. I sent Jerry the data about this stuff going on for him to deal with this guy again. Litman also was selling Jerry's arrangements recently and had the gull to state they were photocopies. Jerry wrote him a letter requesting he stop. I have not seen anymore arrangements for sell recenty by him.

I guess when you guys see something that appears too good to be true it probably is. I have heard also these corse's have been shipped without the tape (for the older ones) and the CD (for the newer ones). Buy it from Scotty and get the good stuff and Jerry's gets his commission. This stuff is no different than file sharing, stealing is stealing no other words for it.

Jack Byrd · Post by **Jack Byrd** » 28 Sep 2003 5:20 pm

Deleted duplicate.[This message was edited by Jack Byrd on 28 September 2003 at 06:21 PM.]

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 28 Sep 2003 9:59 pm

I got mine from Scotty and added those little round page saver tape thingy's to all the pages because they were printed photo copy paper, thin. I also printed pictures of Jerry, off the internet and slipped them in here and there. I made my own table of contents since there wasn't one with the course. The tapes sound O.K. and it's a great course once the strong cigerett smell on the paper goes away, LOL! Thanks Jerry and Scotty!

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 28 Sep 2003 10:44 pm

JUST TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT:

I purchased my red and gold binder book, (no cassette was included), DIRECTLY from Jerry via my daughter Debbie who was a travel agent at the time. She was heading off to Hawai'i on a travel agent "fam" trip, therefore I gave her the money asking her to look up Jerry who was playing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at the time. The book I received from my daughter is the GENUINE FIRST EDITION PUBLICATION, (with about 20 erroneous pages as mentioned above), which Jerry had authored since his arrival in Hawai'i. It was definitely NOT a 'counterfeit' edition as might be interpreted in the above thread. Jerry replaced all the pages which were not printed correctly! To his credit, he did so on his own accord ... I did not ask him for the replacement pages.[This message was edited by George Keoki Lake on 28 September 2003 at 11:45 PM.]

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 28 Sep 2003 10:59 pm

"I have heard also these course's have been shipped without the tape (for the older ones) and the CD (for the newer ones). Buy it from Scotty and get the good stuff and Jerry's gets his commission. This stuff is no different than file sharing, stealing is stealing no other words for it."

Once again I'll state: Jerry received his full "commission"...in actual fact he received the entire amount paid to him at the time by my daughter. I resent the inference about "stealing". I did not purchase my book from Scotty. I paid for it in full, the money was paid directly to Jerry. Also despite what "you heard", the original course were DEFINITELY sold WITHOUT a tape, and cd's were not invented 20 years ago ! The ONLY "stealing" I have ever done in regards to the course was to follow much of what Jerry wrote and to do so by "steeling" on my steel guitar. Matter closed !

Jack Byrd · Post by **Jack Byrd** » 29 Sep 2003 5:48 am

I think a few of you are taking what I said completely out of context. Please re-read what I posted. I was talking about Litman and no one else and I thought that was pretty clear. If you are buying from him on ebay looking for the cheap price and not paying the full price as many of Jerry's loyal long time friends did and not getting what you expected you are taking advantage of the author of the course. My stealing comment was meant for none other than him. And my comments were directed to Ray who asked the question in the first place and also none other. I suupose I should have sent him an email and left the rest of you in the dark about this guy so he could take advantage of you in some future scam he will dream up.

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 29 Sep 2003 6:00 am

OK, thanks Jack for clearing this up. I have no idea who this character Litman is, 'nor do I particularly care.

Often the written word can be misinterpreted vs the spoken word. Suffice to say, I still have my FIRST EDITION, refer to it often even though it is dog-eared after so many years. This in itself is an good indication of how many times I have referred to it.

c c johnson · Post by **c c johnson** » 29 Sep 2003 8:09 am

I too have one of the origs I purchased direct from Jerry. I also have the smaller book described in one of the posts. Good stuff. CC

Michael Valentiner · Post by **Michael Valentiner** » 29 Sep 2003 1:36 pm

Ray,

Same thing is happening to me. I told the guy (Brian Litman) what he is doing is fraud and copyright violation. I sent the photocopy back and asked for a refund. He hasn't said he won't refund my money, so I'm a little hopeful.

Michael Valentiner · Post by **Michael Valentiner** » 3 Oct 2003 10:47 am

I returned the fraudulent photocopy Brian Litman sent me and I received a reply sent registered mail. It's pretty much as I expected: it's my error, not his, that I didn't know I was buying a photocopy, so he's not returning my money.
I encourage anyone being victimized by his scams to complain and complain loud. Others beware.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 4 Oct 2003 9:55 am

It's NOT OVER yet!
He's not heard the last from me!

You and I ARE NOT THE ONLY ONEs that were seduced into his scam! A Forumite has researched this guy and he's got a list of repeat offenses with eBay....including tapes both audio and video too. Interesting thing is he seems to have focuse his get rich quick scam on JERRY BYRD!

This REALLY MAKES me ANGRY!

I'm waiting for his response. Then we'll see.

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 4 Oct 2003 10:45 am

No one should buy anything from this Brian punk, what a cheapo scum bucket this guy is. What is his home address, does anyone know? Ripping off Jerry and Scotty is a big no no and I wouldn't be surprized if Brian runs into some bad luck for his B.S.

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 4 Oct 2003 1:17 pm

Here's an address for "Brian the creep" he sent to John Ely:

E-bay name = Sir bri (sick)

8711 Burton Way # 305
Los Angles CA 90048
phone 310-278-2439

Retired people who teach us things that enrich our own personal lives, deserve every cent for their gifts of learning. To steal money from a retired person on a fixed income is a crime against the elderly and as low as a person can stoop. Please send a post to the "Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association" if you feel upset that Sir bri (sick) is ripping off Jerry and who knows who else. Ray, thanks for raising this important issue again.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 4 Oct 2003 2:44 pm

Jesse..........I can affirm you are correct with the info' on this scum bag Brian Litman.

His eBay ads are usually with the name
SIRBRI

I don't usually ask ANYONE for favors but this is one I will ask. If each of you would take the few minutes it would require to write both to eBAY and this jackass petty thief and let them know how YOU and the entire steel guitar community feels about his less than ethical conduct.

If I had copies of your mailings, I could forward them on to Jack or Jerry to let them know who much we admire JERRY BYRD. Jerry has spent far more time writing letters back to "WE" inquiring students of his.....over the years....and what I"m now asking of each of you is very, very small by comparison.

Some 4,000 letters from the good friends at the Forum could carry some clout as opposed to one person complaining. When one does it, he is a bitcher, complainer, whiner or sniveler. When 4,000 do it, it's an EVENT.

Please do this for me. THANK YOU.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 8 Oct 2003 7:56 am

I guess the Forum guys don't want to join together in a common cause to enhance our position but would rather whine and snivel alone?
Oh well, typical Americana.......