Customer Reviews

Make Your Own Electric Guitar

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book represents a well-thought out, very complete guide for anyone wishing to build their own guitar. Several introductory chapters guide you through the steps of designing your own instrument and address specific possible problem areas such as frets, truss rods, neck angle & bridge height, saftey, proper tools, laying out hardware positions, etc.

The next three chapters give step-by-step construction notes for three specific guitars. (A carved-top set neck model, a flame-maple topped tele, and an 8-string bass featuring some exotic woods) These three guitars were well choosen for this book: between the three of them you get just about any characteristic you'd want on an instrument.

Final chapters deal with finish, set-up, and asembling a guitar from components. Although the author is British, Americans shouldn't have any trouble - measurments are given in inches and metric, and the author has taken care to explain most British slang terms in USA-friendly terms. The writing itself is very well done, easily understood, and has enough humor to lighten the mood without spoiling it.

Out of several similar books I've seen/read, I would vote this one as best written and most complete.

This book is an informative discussion about guitar building, and shows Melvyn Hiscock's techniques and designs pretty well,but it is not a book to enable a person with no woodworking or shop experience to make a guitar without substantial additional resources and a fair amount of scrap wood being generated. One thing that my attempts at guitarmaking have taught me is that if you set even reasonably high standards for yourself, and practice every technique on scrap wood repeatedly first, you will still go through a fair amount of wood before you have a guitar you can wave under the nose of the salesman at the local PRS dealer with pride.

Also, Hiscock is British and there are some differences between UK and American practice, both in terminology and in the way certain tools, and woods, are selected and used. (Sycamore is popular in England because of availabiility and because famous Brit builders such as Tony Zemaitis used it extensively, but no one in the U.S. does.) It doesn't interfere with the content of the book, but if you go into an Ace Hardware and ask for Perspex, you'll be given only a strange look rather than a sheet of Plexiglas.

This book is definitely better than some others, but would still be best used in conjunction with others, both guitar-specific and for general woodworking.

I enjoyed this book. I found it pleasant to read while giving thorough coverage to the three main styles of solid body guitar construction (bolt on neck, glued in neck, and neck-through-body). After the introductory chapters, a guitar of each of these styles is built from start to finish in separate chapters. These serve as an excellent example of the unique features of each of the three designs. The author spends considerable effort to point out strengths and weaknesses in well known designs from the major manufacturers. This is presented to help the reader in the design phase. He also covers the critical relationship between neck angle and bridge height more thoroughly than I have seen in any other book. Despite the title, this book covers only SOLID body guitar and bass construction. No coverage is given to archtop or hollow body electric guitar styles.

Melvyn Hiscock has a unique gift not only in building electric guitars but also in his writing. From the very first pages the old mysticisms surrounding electric guitars are dispelled. Leo Fender kept thing simple and how many of his fuitars are sold today? Melvyn's approach is the same by keeping each step simple. The book is packed with excellent photographs and diagrams and his section on electrics is brilliant, no schematics just again simple step by step instructions. Anyone who buys this book will without doubt, in a versy short space of time build and play their own guitar, and if they are anything like me get bitten by the building bug. Thank you Melvyn Hiscock.

This is one of the best guitar building books out there. It helps you with many doubts that arise during the process of building a guitar, plus details the construction of 3 major projects: A bolt on guitar, a set neck guitar, and a bass. Following every project step by step, you get coverage of mostly all processes involved in any kind of electric guitar building.
In my own project I had a strong doubt about neck angle, since I was using a TOM bridge, but this book helped me clear all that.

Filled with black and white illustrations all along, the book deals with designing a body, cutting it, binding it, building a neck from scratch, gluing or bolting it and dealing with electronics, to finally achieving high gloss finish. There is also a very useful set of templates for pickup routing of guitars and basses. In all, with this book and supported by the guitar maker's forums on the net, I was able to build my first guitar. Check my website for pics of my project.
Peace

From constructing the neck to designing and gluing the body together, Hiscock leads you through the whole process. If you've been playing with the though of making your own guitar but need a push, this book will give you the courage and the inspiration you need. Mind you that constructing your own guitar will not be a simple task. Even with the book in hand you still need to put your own brains to work because this book will not give you a blueprint. Instead you are encouraged to make you own design though if you really want to, you can make the guitar look similar as the one the author makes.

What I really like about this book is that it does not describe the making of just one electric guitar. The author will lead you through 3 guitar designs, a Gibson style guitar and a Fender style guitar. The big difference between the two is how the neck is attached to the body, glued versus bold on. Also Hiscock explains the making of a through-neck 8 string bass guitar. This will give you the knowledge of starting to experiment on your own and you will be able to truly make a guitar to your own likings.

This is in my opinion the best book if you would like to make your own electric guitar. However the "relaxed" style of writing can be a little annoying sometimes. For those of you who never seen the TV series Catweasel (broadcasted in Great Britain in the 70ties), and few have in the US, a title like Electrickery will not be understood. If you know that you can not buy elephant tusk in the USA unless it was imported before (I believe) 1970, then a picture of a elephant to show that tusk looks better on a elephant than on a guitar is just plain weird. But let's blame it on the famous British humor. And if I may nitpick, the font used for the paragraphs is ill chosen.

I give this book 5 stars because of it's detail and Hiscock explains things very clear. Still if you don't know your chisel from your bandsaw, constructing a guitar may not be the best choice for your first project. But combine some basic woodworking skills and a little common sense and this book will enable you to make a guitar that is structurally sound and a joy to play.

This book has been my essential reference while building my first solid body electric guitar. Melvyn has written a very comprehensive and practical guide to all stages of construction from the basics of designing your own instrument through to applying the finishing touches.
I like the way Melvyn discusses a variety of approaches for each task in design and building. You are encouraged to understand and think creatively rather than follow a strict plan. If that sounds a bit fuzzy, and the lack of detailed plans puts you off (there are none in this book) I can try to reassure that all you need is here. Despite having next to no woodworking experience myself I'm now most of the way through my first instrument and already planning the next couple. It also gave me the confidence to front up to a local luthiery (Gilet Guitars in Sydney, Australia), choose my materials and ask some reasonably intelligent questions.
One really nice aspect of the book is that Melvyn shares anecdotes about his own mistakes over the years so that you can anticipate problems - or at least not feel too bad when you make a few mistakes of your own along the way.
So, in summary - buy this book and be inspired.

If we waited for a book to be perfect, they would never be finished. This particular book, however, is as close in its genre as could be found. It covers everything you need to know, from how to determine the spacing of frets, to how to wire your electronics, to how to install truss rods. Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. Prior to reading it, I was frankly just scared of working on my own guitar. Although I don't have immediate plans to build my own, this book has given me the confidence to make modifications to my current one and to realize that many of the people who have worked on my guitar knew far less about what they were doing than I now know.

The book does assume that you have some basic skills in woodworking and electronics; it would be unreasonable to expect the author to teach you this also. Yet, the author does provide valuable and appreciated tips and pointers in these areas regardless. He pretty much covers it all. Over and over again I found myself thinking "thank you!" to the author for the information - buy this book, you won't regret it.

While I was expecting a little more on the end of actual "blueprints" on guitar making (which this book has none of). It does have very helpful schematics for pickup wiring and very very useful tables on fret lengths of all guitar scales.

With the negative out of the way... This book is great. It will take you through the construction of three guitars. A solid-body attached neck PRS style guitar, a bolt-on neck Tele style and a neck-through style bass. Mr. Hiscock then goes on to show the limitless possibilities for combining the styles.

His reasoning for not putting in an "blueprints" for a guitar were simple. #1, a custom made guitar is like a fingerprint. It is unique and personal to you. You make what is comfortable and good for you. If he gave you blueprints, you'd just be recreating a Melvyn Hiscock guitar. #2 (not mentioned, but implied) Copyright reasons. He can't go around telling you how to make a Fender Strat... That would just be bad news for him if Fender ever found out.

Anyway, 4-1/2 stars... but I can't do that here, so 5.

This is one of the best "how to" books of any sort which I have ever read. Mr. Hiscock writes at a level which is appropriate for beginning woodworkers, but not boring or condescending to more experienced craftsmen. If you have any desire to build your own guitar buy this book before any other.