Customer Reviews

Build Your Own Electric Guitar: Complete Instructions and Full-Size Plans

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was looking for a book on guitar building, so when I saw this book at the store I was happy (and sort of shocked to find one without ordering online) but expected it to be maybe a bit cursory or shallow - I was wrong! It's a great book, very complete, the pictures are bright, clear and in color. I read (and lost) Hiscock's popular guitar-making book years ago and it's good, but I don't recall the pictures being anywhere as clear and helpful as in this. This is just a great book that covers every facet of building a solidbody that you could think of. It doesn't cover acoustics or semi-hollw guitars to which I say GOOD, there's no point in covering too many subjects and not doing justice to them.

Very well written book, and there have been no parts so far where I've been like "huh? What does that mean?" or where he's left out any important info or anything.

Oh, and as the title says, it comes with full-sized plans for a Stratocaster-type guitar, I mean, what a bonus! For the price this is selling for on Amazon, you can't even buy plans online (I know, I've looked and tried haha). I have only opened and looked at the plans briefly but they look very thorough and clear. They're not the reason I got the book though, but they're a nice bonus.

I really predict this book to become a very popular (I feel silly using the word CLASSIC, plus I'd have to re-read the one mentioned above to be sure that this was as much better as I think) title for guitar builders as people discover it.

I feel like a cheerleader, but if you're getting any books on guitar construction, grab this. Even if you never get around to making one (like I never did after reading books like this years ago), it's worth it for the insight into how a solidbody electric guitar works, you get a lot of good ideas that come in handy when you need to do setups and whatnot. Man, I severely love this book, probably my best purchase of the year so far (by the way I have no knowledge of the authour or anything, I'm not a shill, just super enthused over this book).

First of all, I'm not Jeannine; I'm her husband-she bought the book for me (what a good wife!)

I've been gathering info on guitar and bass construction for a while now, and this book filled in quite a bit of the little details I hadn't been able to get elsewhere. It also comes with a full size plan of a Strat style guitar which will be good for making templates from. Definately money well spent.

Guitars are cheap and plentiful these days. If you are a beginner or just somebody who wants a good electric guitar, they can easily be found for less than $100. What I wanted was something more exotic and sophisticated, a Vulcan harp (from Star Trek) but those are incredibly expensive-- around $500-- the price of a very good guitar if one wanted to spend that much.

I didn't, so I gave serious thought about making my own, but I didn't know a thing about making a guitar let alone something more sophisticated so I bought Build Your Own Guitar, a very comprehensive book that tells you everything you need to know to make an electric guitar from scratch; from how to make a template and forming the body to how to make a guitar neck and installing the frets, what kind of knobs to buy, the kind of strings to use and much more.

Making an electric guitar is a very complicated process but this book explains every step in a clear and concise way. If a person has the basic woodworking skills and a few needed tools, this book will be invaluable in making a custom guitar. It even comes with an actual size set of plans to make a complete strat-type of electric guitar.

Guitar making is not for the faint of heart. And just buying some of the woods needed for a guitar is as expensive as any ready-built guitar, so somebody won't save any money building their own guitar. But if you are a musician who wants to build their own custom guitar, this book is for you. I don't think there can be a more complete reference work than this one. As for that Vulcan harp, I think I'll save up my money to buy one.

I purchased three recommended books on electric solid body guitar construction. Hiscock's book is more complete and informative but this one came in 2nd. If I wanted to build the guitar described in this book, it gets the job done. It's less complete if you have another design concept in mind.

Color photos are a plus, very much appreciated as well as the full-size plan. As other reviewer said, 1/6 of a page dedicated to finishing is a fact that ruins what could have been a good book. If you are looking for finishing, this book is not for you.

This book gives you almost everything you need to know to thoroughly understand the construction of a good electric guitar. You won't be able to build one as good he shows in the book as your first build as it takes a great deal of practice and effort just to learn how to properly carve a guitar neck. So if you've never made a guitar before (or you are a novice wood worker) don't plan on building the guitar he shows you as your very first instrument. You'll need to build a few guitars before you can get it that pretty. What you should expect is that this book contains enough information that you can read it as a newbie, build a few guitars, and then come back to it when you are competent and read it again, taking even more from it on subsequent reads. I have been building electric guitars for several years now and I can still come back to this book and find useful information.

One thing worth noting: this book does nothing at all to cover guitar finishes or their application. At first I thought this was an oversight, however you must understand that the world of guitar finishing is almost a separate art form in itself and really warrants its own book. If you purchase this book with a view to building your own guitar, make sure you pick up a good book on finishing as well.

I bought several books on this subject. This is the only one that I kept. With the info in the book and a shop full of woodworking tools, you can build your own guitar! I did!

This book has great info on string harmonics and pickup design and placement as they affect tonality. I have been agonizing over pickup placement on my current guitar project and now I have a much better handle on the variables involved, if not a clear-cut final conclusion. Tonal characteristics of different woods is also discussed, although I would have appreciated the inclusion of more wood species.

The wiring section is strong on fundamentals but brief. I would complement it with Dan Erlewine's book The Guitar Player Repair Guide - 3rd, which has a large variety of wiring diagrams. Erlewine's book would do well to use colors and color photos as effectively as this book.

There's a good discussion of the wide variety of tools used in building a guitar, but curiously a router is recommended for edge-jointing the body wood prior to glue-up, with NO mention made of jointers. C'mon.

The included full-size plans are clear and include elevation drawerings (I'm watching Ask This Old House as I write this 8^) as well as a bottom view. The 25-1/2" scale guitar design has a 24-fret neck, with the neck pickup placed closer to the bridge than I would choose, not really close to the neck as one typically sees in a 24-fret design. The design includes a routed tremolo pocket, if you're into that, and it's easy enough to omit if you're not. The design wisely assumes that you want to show off some spectacular wood and therefore the control cavity is cut in from the rear, with no top side pickguard (or scratchplate as the book calls it) as part of the design.

I've listed all the issues I have with the book. Generally speaking, my impression is overwhelmingly positive and I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Go for it.

I really enjoyed this book However, I wish someone wouldn't assume that we're all electrical engineers who can read schematics. I would have liked to have seen a simple, well illustrated section on pickup and control wiring not in schematic form. Well thought out and illustrated in the wood portions and easy to follow but I still don't know how to wire up the electronics.

Top rated helping constuction manual and guide, very good colour photos,nice presentation overall and just about 1/6th of a page about guitar finishing (painting e.t.c.).
Why, why, why?