Guitars That Shook the World [Paperback]

Guitar World Magazine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995

Guitar World magazine presents an awe-inspiring photo gallery of more than 70 guitars which, in the hands of some of rock's, blues', and country's greatest players, helped make music history. Accompanying the full-color photos is background on the guitars, including technical information as well as anecdotes. Among the guitars are instruments used by legendary musicians such as Edward Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elvis Presley, and Eric Clapton.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793534887
• ISBN-13: 978-0793534883
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,663,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is virtually PERFECT!, February 1, 2003

By 

Theodor Brancu (Lake Grove, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guitars That Shook the World (Paperback)

This is my first Amazon.com review, and I have been reading them for many months, so it takes quite an outstanding product to get me to actually write something, but I give credit where credit is due.

First my disclaimer:
I do not actually own this book. I browsed through it for a good half-hour, flipped through cover to cover, and read at least a third of it (it's an easy, very engaging read). On that note, I think that for a catalog-style book like this, that's more than sufficient to give an accurate review.

This book is pretty much perfect in every way. The organization is brilliant, the information fascinating and not too bogged down with minute details, at times funny and witty. The layout is such: the left-side page tells you the player, the guitar, and then a paragraph about the guitar's features or some anecdote about its history. The right-side page is a big, beautiful glossy color photo of the guitar.

The info is interesting too. For instance, did you know that Brian May's built his first guitar at 17, and that's the main guitar he used on ALL the Queen albums, tours, and his solo albums? Or that Dimebag Darrell originally won his ML Dean in a guitar contest, but after selling it to buy a car, he actually found it in a guitar shop years later and didn't even recognize it because of the blue lightning paint job the new owner had given it?

The table of contents points you to each artist's page, while the index in back tells you on what page to find each make and model of guitar. This book is a fantastic read, would make a great gift or coffee table book, and absolutely essential for any guitar player or music afficionado. I can't wait for a second volume to come out!

One caveat: the version I found at my local music store was almost falling apart. The binding glue had come undone and a few pages had fallen out (someone had put them back upside-down), and large bunches of pages were not even attached to the cardboard book cover. Whether this was just a fluke or just a really old copy on the shelf I don't know. Be sure to flip through the book and check how well the pages are stuck; this could be an issue with all copies of this book.