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April 30, 2003
Hi to all you partakers of the Pioneer Spec Bible Pre-publication offer
(and now a few who didn't get in on that offer),
First... THEY ARE FINALLY DONE... (sort of... read on)
I'm beginning to feel like you all are almost *family*... so let me continue
as a friend to a friend...
I *am ashamed* of having promised shipping on this multiple times. Life
here has been quite tough since early this year with first one thing then
another happening to put us behind. I am still operating under a crushing
workload.... I suppose averaging about 3 hr sleep /day for the past few
months. Trying and trying and trying to get caught up and current with everything
hasn't succeeded... yet!! Hopefully this will change soon. Things are beginning
to slow down some now as the winter/spring rush is nearing its end.
I (with some helpers) have been working at *several* projects that will
ultimately increase efficiency many times over. Some of these have been
underway for awhile now, some have been planned for a long time and some
are sudden, unplanned projects made necessary by the opportunity to acquire
37,500+ (6000 lbs) of audio service manuals. I brought them home the weekend
of the 20th. This takes us from something less than 5000 to more than 40,000
audio literature items. We may now have more than any other single seller
on the internet. I'm not clear about the logistics of making these all available
but I guess I'll figure it out.
That leads to my last promised /anticipated shipping date. As the time for
the 1200 mile trip for manuals pickup neared, I could not find the time
to do the cover design for the Bible. We were furiously trying to make one
of my rental houses ready to put the new manuals in and ultimately move
all operations there. Well, we needed probably 2-3 more days to complete
a *barely adequate preparation* which would have had the major wall finished
for placement of filing cabinets and carpet on the floor. The balance of
reconstruction could have been done later.
So now I have a Penske truckload of manuals in the entrance hall while the
under-construction area remains a mess. I'm not sure how soon I can return
to that project. They may still be in the hallway this time next year. Ah...
life is great!!! I will be posting stuff on the website when time allows
about our growing pains, moves, consolidation efforts, etc. over these past
couple years. It should be entertaining reading when completed.
Since returning with the manuals, I've tried to find time to write, apologize
for missing the last anticipated shipping date and give you an update. I
know it sounds silly, but I COULD NOT find the time to do it. I did finally
get the cover designed and some initial pictures prepared for the website
description. You can see what it looks like along with additional information
at this address.....
manuals/pioneer/pioneer_spec_bible.htm
Be sure to check out the Dedication page honoring my main collaborator on
this project. It is interesting reading and gives a good background about
the creation of this reference book. The link is on the above page and also
here....
manuals/pioneer/pioneer_spec_bible_dedication.htm
Even though many hours went into the cover, but am not totally pleased.
The problem is that I don't personally have a lot of scanning /printing
experience. Scanning for print projects is entirely different than scanning
for web posting and takes some experience to get it right. Sometime down
the road when time allows, I will spend some time redesigning the cover
with higher resolution scans and higher printing resolutions to see if they
can be Excellent instead of just ok. For now, what we have is what we're
going with.
During this last delay, the Bible has continued to be updated which required
that about 20 of the pages had to be replaced. I downloaded the computer
file to a computer at the place where I do my color work. The monitor I
used there is atrocious so it was very difficult to set some page parameters.
I printed out the master copy to one of their $3000 b/w laser printers.
Beautiful printing indeed. I discovered that regardless of printing method,
there are always a few random specks and/or glitches. I basically knew that
but I guess I had thought that was mostly a problem with copiers.
I spent quite a bit of time to detail/remove every error I could find and
began the first production run early this morning (April 30, 2003). About
25% into the run, the commercial grade copier we use made a horrible noise
and halted. Ok... I said life is fun. Apparently a gear stripped because
nothing will feed through. I'm writing this letter while I wait for the
repair folks to come do an emergency repair. About 5 hours ago, they thought
they might have someone here in a couple hours. I guess I found time to
give you an update... ha! Life is fun!!!
As fast as the repair is done, I will do the printing. Then one trip back
to their office to use a comb binding machine, and in the mail they go......
FINALLY!! I do sincerely appreciate you all having the patience of Job with
this project. And I am *very glad* its finally completed. I posted a couple
of ads for this on eBay yesterday. I have no idea if all this work will
result in a reasonable number of sales or not. I would like to add some
*previous customer comments* in the ad text as soon as possible. Please,
when you receive yours, write me back and let me know what you think about
it.
Before I quit, I would like to ask you guys a question. Do you have a preference
for manuals to be bound as most original manuals were.... neatly aligned
pages, neatly trimmed and folded pullout pages... then side stapled and
taped spine.
or with the much easier to do plastic comb binding?
I'm thinking about putting a survey on the site about this issue. It seems
*everybody* is selling manuals and almost all of them use comb binding.
Our method is *much harder* to do because there is little room for error
in trimming, folding, assembly, etc. With comb binding, pages can be slightly
mis-aligned, folded pages don't need to be as accurate, etc. because of
the *slack* presented by the loose binding method.
If people seem to prefer the plastic binding, I may switch as it sure would
save a lot of time and effort. Let me know what you think and also participate
in the online survey if you find one on our home page.
Thanks again,
Best regards,
Rick
www.stereomanuals.com
ebay ID = theman1
Our mistaken self-identity may cause us to not believe it or act like it,
but Jesus is still... The Lord!
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