Jack Tottle's book

[Dave Hicks]

Bought mine from Elderly in 198...4?

D.H.

[James Vwaal]

I was surprised to see this is still in print!

My first mandolin was a Harmony Monterrey, purchased from a friend for $50. He sold it because he was leaving town and liquidating possessions for lighter travel. He said "You can borrow this", handing me Bluegrass Mandolin by Jack Tottle, but noted, "I'm keeping it and leaving town tomorrow morning, so I'll need it back before I go". That night I shedded and shredded on the first few pages (advancing variations on Bile 'Em Cabbage) for about 6 hours and in the morning he collected the book as he hit the road.

Was just curious how many others got their start with Jack's book? I worked out of it in 1974...it still being in print makes me presume there must be 1000s sold through the years.

This Tottle book was probably the second one that I bought, sometime around 1976-1978. I started on a $60 beater in 1976 and then bought a Givens A in 1978 for $675 that is still my main mandolin.

[E.R. Villalobos]

The well used copy I ordered for 5 bucks arrived today and had a nice surprise on the second page. Great book- only wish I bought it in the ‘70’s!

[NickR]

I bought Jack Tottle's Bluegrass Mandolin tutor when it was first published in 1975. This being well before the internet and as I was in the UK, I knew a few of the players featured in the extensive photos as I had a few albums with them on- Andy Statman being one. Most were a mystery to me and sadly, with the passage of nearly 50 years are not with us any more- Andy, Marty Stuart, Jimmy Gaudreau, Doyle Lawson and Sam Bush being five, still very much with us whose photos were in the book. Today, I don't suppose tutors sell as it is all available online but I assume Mel Bay's chord book is still in demand!

[Bren]

Not sure abebooks and the big river aren't connected somehow, but I hear ya.

According to WikiP:

AbeBooks has been a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008

[lowtone2]

I bought mine around 1982 and still have it. In fact, I’ve been meaning to pull it down and look at his crosspicking arrangements again.