Dear members and friends of GITEC,

we continue receive confirmation that the book "Physik der Elektrogitarre" (Physics of the Electric Guitar) is – globally – one of a kind, both with regard to the truly scientific approach and the extent with which it covers the subject. However, it is also clear that most of "the globe" does not have any access to the contents of the book, simply because the language it is written in – German – does not have any widespread prevalence compared to English.

Given this situation, we (in the board of GITEC) decided last November to address the issue of the translation of the book. Checking in with a number of translators did not only show that the cost would be exorbitant. Even more problematic was the fact, that the knowledge even of technically experienced translators quickly hit boundaries in the face of the multidisciplinary character of the contents of the book: instrumentation, material science, mechanics, systems theory, tube (valve) and solid state technology, musical and psycho-acoustics, plus much more. This results in a necessary checking and reworking effort which we are not able to provide. Last not least, the sheer scope of the work to be done is a bad match to the business models of scientific translators. They prefer to provide smaller share of their capacity to a multitude of clients and do not like to dedicate a big proportion of their capacity to a single client. In any case, we have so far not been able to find a translator who could (or even would) do the translation as a whole.

Since we do not want to waste too much time, we have adopted a different strategy, namely a kind of "crowd translation". Everybody who has the capacity, the knowledge and the "drive" may contribute. Depending on the individual, the circumstances and the result, monetary recognition is not out of the question. So if you are a student seeking to de-escalate your financial situation - think about it.

We suggest that those who are interested pick a (sub-) chapter from the book as it is accessible online and translate two pages – first without consideration of the figures i.e. focusing on the text only. That way you can see how much work the translation is going to be and whether this kind of work is something for you to begin with. You could send the two pages to us so we could check whether the style is reasonably in line with what we have line up. And then you would be free to "translate at will"! By the way: with regard to possibly necessary corrections to the text we are hoping for some kind of "crowd-checking".

Some of us are already working on the translation. Considering the amount of work there is relatively small progress - but something is happening!

In the following, a content listing of PdE/PotEG is included. The chapters which already have been translated are shown - together with the name of the translator in green. The chapters which are "under (translation-) construction" are listed in red (again with the name of the translator). The black chapters are the ones which do not have a "master" and are waiting for you!

In September 2017, the Board of GITEC

Contents of "Physics of the Electric Guitar" with indications regarding the state of translation

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