Customer Reviews

Guitar Identification - Fender * Gibson * Gretsch * Martin

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Many years ago, I bought the first edition of this book. Since then, it has saved me from many a bad deal and has also helped me better indentify a few instruments that I already owned. There ARE books that are more detailed (such as Gruhn's identification guide), but this very succinct and reader-friendly guide enables the reader to help find and use serial numbers (and the way they're applied - inked, stamped, decal) and other indicators (such as paper labels inside hollow body guitars) to quickly figure out the manufacture year of the major brands of guitars. I confess that I haven't seen the latest edition, but my edition has an abundance of sample photos, lists and charts to help the reader. These days, with the price of vintage guitars at an almost absurd level, this book could save the reader from a very costly mistake. Of course, a book this short cannot give you EVERYTHING you would need to know in EVERY case (and I'd certainly be careful with very expensive instruments - conterfeits exist), but I consider this book to be an absolute must-have for any guitar collector's library and an outstanding value to boot. It's easily worth double the price.

Some good reference material on verifying the "big four" of collectables, Fender Gibson Gretsch Martin. Most of this info is available online, but this provides it in one convenient place. No valuations in this book.