Steve Pitkin has worked with the Fender Custom Shop since 1995, photographing the most incredibly crafted guitars built in America. There is something special about the Custom Shop and the people who work there they love their work and they know their work is loved. These craftsmen are true mojo makers, building each guitar with artistic expression, skill, and innovation. They do this while holding true to Fender s time honoured traditions and working in close collaboration with musicians who rely on these instruments to create their art in a musical form. Each page of this book is made to be interactive, from the highly detailed photographs to the text on their edges. You will discover something new on every page as a window of discovery opens, encouraging your imagination to dream of a masterpiece when it is held in your hands.

The Daguerreotype Camera of 1839 is a photographic landmark. It introduced the first practical method for taking a photograph, although what is generally acknowledged as the first photograph was actually taken thirteen years before with a different type of camera by Nicephore Niepce. The Leica was the first camera to make the 35mm format popular, but it was by no means the first camera to use 35mm film. Likewise, Polaroid wasn't the first to produce an instant picture camera, but was, surprisingly, the first company to introduce an autofocus single lens reflex. The history of the camera is flush with similar anomalies. This lavishly illustrated book with over 460 pictures looks at the cameras that became landmarks and analyzes how and why they influenced future design - sometimes in a big, important manner, other times in a lesser but still significant way.

Since the earliest days of cameras and photography, the idea that an event or a person could somehow be frozen in time and preserved forever has fascinated people. This absorbing book features many of the most famous and historically significant cameras ever produced from the 1930s through the 1990s. Famous American brands such as Imperial, Kodak, Spartus, Polaroid, and Argus are shown, as well as early cameras from Beacon, Packard, and Falcon. Camera types include rangefinder, viewfinder, and single lens reflex, plus foldouts, instants, premiums, plastic art cameras, and even disposables. Here too are many American made movie cameras from Bell & Howell, Kodak, Revere, DeJur, Technicolor, and Keystone, along with Japanese models from Yashica and Chinon and the popular Swiss made Bolex. Though no longer being produced, many of these wonderful older cameras are still available to collectors and are surprisingly inexpensive. Valuable information on where to find them, what to pay, and how to start or add to your own collection is provided.

The guitar has adapted to every musical evolution. Few musical instruments have experienced such a wide variety of models, shapes, colours and materials. This book features more than 160 instruments, spanning more than four centuries of guitar history. They are the works of the great Italian and French craftsmen from the 17th century to modern times. From the signature models such as Les Paul and Stratocaster to the most surprising creations (harp-guitars and Lap steel guitars), this book describes the musical trends and features the favourite instruments of the great masters.

Trace the evolution of automatic Morse code devices from the early 1800s to today through this informative text and over 1,100 photos. Beginning with an overview of telegraphy and early key history, fifteen sections explore the equipment used to send messages over long distances. Featured are code readers, oscillators, Morse trainers, electronic keyers, single- and dual-lever paddles, portable paddles, automatic mechanical keys, accessories, and more. Each device is presented in text and images, some with classic advertisements; this combination allows the reader to appreciate device development and better understand the thinking that went into the design. Paddle and key maintenance and adjustment are also examined, as well as computer interfacing and use of the Internet. The book also includes the results of patent studies and historical research, with many new findings presented, making it a must-have for collectors, ham operators, or anyone interested in the history of these communication devices.

Hamer Guitars is often regarded as the first boutique guitar builder. From its humble beginnings in founder Paul Hamer's Northern Prairie Music Shop to its acquisition by the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation in 2008, the Hamer story is traced through nearly 400 images and dozens of interviews with those involved with the company. See how Hamer rose to compete with the giants of American guitar-making. Learn the inspiration for the making of its ultimate guitar, the Standard. Containing pieces by two of the company's principal architects - Hamer and Jol Dantzig - and told in lavishly illustrated text with many never before published photos and drawings, this history of Hamer Guitars is a treasured keepsake and resource for every lover of the electric guitar. With a foreword by Hamer's most prominent Standard bearer, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen.

Antique talking machines are among today's hottest collectibles. Names like Edison and Victrola call to mind an era of polished wood, brightly-painted morning glory horns, and fascinating machinery. This revised and expanded second edition of The Talking Machine contains over 525 color photographs showing an incredible variety models, and including over 30 never before published photos. The authoritative text and up-to-date values complement the wealth of visuals, making this book a veritable library of information in one volume! Topping off this award-winning combination is a music CD featuring some of the rarest and most historically important recordings of all time. Hear the voice of explorer Ernest Shackleton describe his perilous expedition to the South Pole. Listen to a dramatic recreation of the San Francisco earthquake recorded mere months after the actual event. Enjoy two different recordings of the voice of the great inventor Thomas A. Edison.

Nowhere else will you find Elvis, John Wayne, and Richard Nixon standing proudly atop tiny transistor radios! Over 600 color photos display wildly varied novelty transistor radios, including those shaped as airplanes, beer bottles, bugs, cars, vending machines, weapons, famous people, and advertising characters. Some radios advertise food, drinks, household products, and sports teams and all are as varied in function as they are in form. AM and FM models, with and without antennas, appear along with models with internal speakers and those requiring earphones. The captions provide detailed information about each radio, along with current market values. There are radios in this book sure to tickle your fancy!

Remember that colorful gumball machine sitting on the counter of the neighborhood candy store? Today, it and other coin-operated vending machines of all kinds are highly collectible for their nostalgic and historical value. Featuring photos, descriptions, and prices for over 300 machines, this handy guide will help you discover great finds just waiting at flea markets and antique shows! Ranging from common to rare, the machines are organized by category and shown in alphabetical order according to their common names. They date from the late 1890s to the 1960s and include specific designs that dispensed candy, gum, peanuts, tobacco, aspirin, breath pellets, matches, stamps, and cigars. Beginning as well as seasoned collectors will appreciate the useful hints for finding these machines, restoring and servicing them, common terminology, and information on specialized shows and collector associations.

Fads and fashions influenced the evolution of phonograph design in twentieth-century America, creating a vivid visual cavalcade. This beautiful volume is full of gleaming metal, glistening wood, pastel plastic, glowing dials, and fashionable fabrics. This is a story of developing style that stretches from the Victrola in the early 1900s to Quadraphonic sound of the 1970s. Yet the history of phonograph design is not just about eye-catching cabinetry, it is also the saga of our parents and grandparents, and the way they saw the world in which they lived. Through 340 color illustrations and detailed captions the development of phonograph design and sound reproduction is engagingly explored. All who are interested in phonograph collecting, design, art, music and twentieth-century social history will be fascinated by this book.

The antique phonograph is the center of a beautiful, brilliant, and sometimes bizarre universe of accessories. The commercial development of the phonograph, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, inspired a host of adjunct technology, from fancifully-painted flower horns to record storage disguised as furniture. Here are gadgets any snake oil salesman would be proud of - objects that claimed to make the phonograph louder, softer, improve the "tone," or remove the scratching of the needle. There are dazzling horns that call attention to the phonograph, or imposing cabinets that hide it completely. Each element of the talking machine, from its whirring spring motor to its polished woodwork, inspired bursts of inventive genius as brilliant and colorful as the nighttime sky on the Fourth of July. To aid the collector there is a guide to current values. Award winning authors Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul, in their sixth Schiffer book, take the reader on a lively tour of these utterly entertaining objects. The 555 color illustrations and engrossing captions introduce a multitude of artifacts not documented in the authors' previous works.

Collecting antique brass musical instruments involves a fascinating and wide range of subjects, including music history, art history, political history, industrial history, and changing aesthetics. Designed for musical instrument collectors and those who regularly encounter antique brass musical instruments made before 1920, this book features more than 100 original line drawings from musical instrument catalogs as well as interesting new information regarding these instruments. Readers with a background or interest in music and musical instruments will find this book a valuable resource for years to come and one that will enhance their knowledge and collection. Antique Brass Wind Instruments also includes a helpful value guide, a glossary of terms, a bibliography of scholarly reference books, and several appendices of particular interest to beginning collectors.

What do thousands of kids, makers, poets, artists, steampunks, hipsters, activists and musicians have in common? They love typewriters-the magical, mechanical contraptions that are enjoying a surprising second life in the 21st century, striking a blow for self-reliance, privacy and coherence against dependency, surveillance and disintegration. The Typewriter Revolution documents the movement and provides practical advice on how to choose a typewriter, how to care for it and what to do with it-from National Novel Writing Month to letter-writing socials, from type-ins to typewritten blogs, from custom-painted typewriters to typewriter tattoos. It celebrates the unique quality of everything typewriter, fully-illustrated with vintage photographs, postcards, manuals and more.

The early history of recorded sound, Mr. Edison's most marvelous achievement, brimmed with graphic imagery - elegant, dazzling and delightful! Follow these award-winning authors on a bewitching tour of visual artifacts from the phonograph's first fifty years. There are colorful advertising placards, charming publicity posters, clever promotional giveaways, stunning catalog covers, and an astounding selection of gorgeous, hand-painted signs from rare coin-operated record machines. 500 full color illustrations and insightful captions will keep you turning the pages. An entire chapter is devoted to real life images of ordinary people interacting with the new technology - the amazing talking machine. Whether your interest is antique collecting, history, advertising, photography or social science, you will treasure this book.

Covering the tabletop battery radios built by Zenith, the Chicago-based manufacturer, each radio is described in detail. Included are comprehensive functional descriptions on each set's operation, which uses color-coded diagrams to aid in describing the circuits. Over 400 color photos and over 200 diagrams illustrate the thorough text. Each radio section includes a Quick Reference Guide. Previously unpublished information related to these radios is included for the first time. The restoration section covers the reproduction of vital replacement parts (pointers, pulleys, etc.) that typically need replacing, the repair of other parts (variable capacitor, transformers, etc.), appropriate modifications (battery adapter, etc.), and testing in order to get that early radio working. The techniques presented can be applied to the restoration of any 1920s radio. Also included are instructions on reproducing any battery ( A, B, or C ) in radios built in the 1920s. This is an indispensable reference guide to early Zenith radios."

Enter the fascinating and beautiful world of antique phonographs. Brimming with visual delights, this volume boldly goes into the priceless collections of dedicated enthusiasts from around the globe, documenting the amazing rarities and charming curiosities of the phonograph. In this, their eighth collaboration for Schiffer Publishing, the award-winning authors have assembled over 400 full-color images of historic music machines, many never before photographed. The substantive text and captions add much previously unpublished information. Vibrant wood, shining brass, and fanciful decals are only the beginning. Wicker, glass, leather, gold leaf, and even seashells are to be found on some of the amazing antique phonographs within these pages. For those new to this field, a price guide, glossary, and bibliography are included. Advanced collectors will appreciate the wealth of newly-revealed details.

An extravaganza for electric guitar lovers! This book features hundreds of American-made guitars and basses from the '40s to the '80s, including many rare brands and models. Read about the ups and downs of major companies like Fender and Gibson, and trace their variations in guitar design over the years. Learn more about Harmony and Kay, the "big two" of budget guitars. In fact, this book features many guitars that are often much harder to find on the vintage market--the "everyman" guitars, the student and budget models that got us started. Here you'll find fascinating discussions of Valco, Peavey, Guild, Danelectro, and many others, along with chapters devoted to "One-Shots" and "Sordid Seventies Samples and Early Eighties Oddities." Guitar enthusiasts will find not only the guitars they have dreamed of owning, but the ones they first owned. An authoritative and entertaining text, a helpful lexicon, gorgeous photographs, and foreword by .38 Special guitarist Jeff Carlisi make this book a necessity for any musician's library.

Bells have played a prominent role in our society since the earliest of civilizations, yet few realize the scope of objects encompassed by this broad heading. While all bells share certain qualities--like the ability to produce sound--they vary amazingly in terms of size, shape, style, and material. A flat round Chinese gong is as much a bell as the graceful figurine hiding a swinging clapper beneath her skirt or a strap of round metal "sleigh bells" from the nineteenth century. Featuring over 620 beautiful color photos, this absorbing and entertaining book showcases the wonderful diversity of collectible bells, from animal bells, call bells, and rattles to commemoratives, figurals, miniatures, and holiday bells. Here you will find bells made of different materials, bells with more than one purpose, bells with common motifs, and much more. Both antique and modern, well-known to unique, one of these bells is sure to grab your fancy! Values, an index, and a bibliography are all included.

Before television and MTV, the radio was central in the home, a way for the family to gather to hear the news or listen to music. At one time, the radio was a piece of hand-crafted wood furniture and limited stations fell silent during part of the day. Over 175 images provide an impressive visual journey through the radio s aesthetic history reflecting all the major design changes across the years. The images also reveal the diversity of materials, textures, colors, shapes, and sizes of radios of earlier ages. It ranges from the 1920s tabletop wooden console models in the classic bread box, cathedral, and tombstone styles, the wooden and early Bakelite and Catalin plastic art deco models of the 1930s to the 1950s, on to the 1950s thermoplastic models in modern styling, and the transistors that ascended to prominence in the 1950s and beyond. Reintroducing machines that few people see anymore and perhaps hardly know existed, this fascinating book restores the once state-of-the-art machines' aesthetic glory."

Family physician and artist Dr. C. Keith Wilber presents a hand-illustrated tour of medical history via the doctors' instruments. This study chronicles the evolution of a wide range of medical instruments from the mid-1700s through current usage. It includes discussions on microscopes, reflex hammers, stethoscopes, blood pressure instruments, electro-cardiographs, ophthalmoscopes, otoscopes, endoscopes, vaginal specula, thermometers, forceps, bullet probes, bloodletting instruments, vaccination lancets, trepanning tools, and others. This is an important resource for all medical personnel, historians, and collectors.

Out of attics and barns, out from under the dust of a century, out of collections far and wide come these spectacular survivors of the phonograph's early years. In 1996, the authors began writing a history of recorded sound. After two successful books, they have continued traveling, researching and documenting these wonderful machines. Few could have imagined how much remained to be discovered! Out of these further explorations, this gorgeous new book has come to life-illustrating entirely different talking machines. Through over 400 beautiful color illustrations, follow the progress of the acoustic talking machine from its crude beginnings in the 1870s to its most splendid and sophisticated heights in the early 20th century. An unparalleled archive of rare, fascinating, and previously undocumented objects has been assembled. The story behind the beautiful, bright machinery is told through clear and insightful descriptions, revealing many previously unpublished facts. A value guide will further enlighten the collector on the modern marketplace. Be ready to embark on an astounding journey. Prepare to discover the incredible variety and endearing charm of the antique phonograph.unding journey. Prepare to discover the incredible variety and endearing charm of the antique phonograph.

There are names in horological history that echo much more than just watches... Such is the case of Jaquet-Droz, 18th Swiss watchmakers with an international horizon, whose ceremonial clocks, prodigious androids, fashionable birdcages, pocket watches with moving scenes or collector's snuffboxes remain the stuff of dreams for passionate enthusiasts. Today, the Maison Jaquet Droz continues to draw its inspiration from this rich heritage in order to reinterpret techniques and aesthetics, pushing back the boundaries of watchmaking and representing a perpetual source of fascination for collectors. Based on the latest research on the subject and published on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721-2021), this book offers a deep dive into the history of characters with a captivating journey. Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in what was then the principality of Neuchatel, Pierre Jaquet-Droz founded a watchmaking workshop and developed it through a combination of technical, artistic and commercial skills enabling it to reach international markets. His son Henry-Louis developed the family business and further diversified production, a significant portion of which found its way to China and its dignitaries, devotees of luxurious and ingenious mechanical marvels. This richly illustrated book aims to enable a rediscovery of their mechanical masterpieces as well as those of the Maison Jaquet Droz, whose rebirth and recent history are recounted here. These splendid historical and contemporary pieces embody a love of technical challenges and a taste for artistic refinement, adhering as much as possible to the sources of inspiration offered by nature. The Worlds of Jaquet Droz thus reveals part of the expansive universe of pre-industrial watchmaking while drawing parallels between past and present productions.