The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance [Hardcover]

Dave Burrluck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

This is a new kind of manual that helps electric guitarists adjust easily from the music shop to the workshop without demanding great technical skills. This accessible guide describes key procedures for applying the right adjustment at the right time, offering simple and straightforward advice and setting realistic targets for understanding and improving every electric guitar. 220 color photos, including nine fold-out spreads. Hardcover. 84 pages, 8-1/2 inch. x 11 inch.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dave Burrluck's book handles double duty: it's useful as a reference guide and it's an excellent coffee table book for the avid guitar freak...lists for $24.95, so I guess that means it pays for itself the first time you use it. Not bad. -- Cosmik Debris webzine, January 1999

Here is a new book geared to those without specialized repair skills...The illustrations are particularly effective in detailing the minute adjustments involved in intonation. These basic skills allow players to respond quickly to changing conditions during performance or recording instead of depending on visits to repair technicians. -- Library Journal, October 15, 1998

If you play electric guitar, you need this book. -- Guitar Player, May 1999

May be just what the Drs. Gibson and Fender ordered...a valuable tool in understanding how guitars work. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 22, 1998

Product Details

• Hardcover: 86 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305495
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305499
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but Erlenwine is Much Better, June 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance (Hardcover)

When I began shopping for a book to learn how to do basic guitar set-ups and basic maintenance, I was stuck deciding between this book and Dan Erlenwine's book. I ended up with this one because of the reviews here and the prospect of good color photos. Also, I had the impression that it was Strat focused, and I have two strats. First off, this book is very small...84 pages. The pictures are excellent... very high quality glossy photos. The problem with them is that many of them are useless. For instance, the entire first 10-15 pages or so are about the history of various guitars and very, very general guitar basic layouts. The photos are great, but if you don't know where the bridge on your guitar is, or what a Les Paul looks like, you should not be attempting to adjust things like truss rods. Another example is the intro to the bridge section, which features multiple pages of great pictures of bridges, all types. I know what my bridge looks like, I want to know hoe to work on it. I feel like this book scraches the surface of maintenance, but leaves out a good deal of the details that make for a thorough understanding of how to maintain your guitar. Take the section on cleaning...it is one page. One! Erlenwine's book has a whole chapter. The section on pickups and electronics has some good diagrams, but I think the sections in the other book ae far superior. Lastly, there is no informaion in this book on acoustics, which I knew before I bought it, but is still a mistake in my opinion. Erlenwine's book has entire sections dedicated to acoustic maintenance/repair. I ended up returning this book and buying Dan's book, which is excellent. If you have the money, I would suggest buying both, but if you only have the money for one book (or if you only want to buy one), but the Erlenwine book! Hope this helps!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance, July 4, 2000

By 

Russ (Oakland, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance (Hardcover)

A definite five star rating. If I had to choose two books to own for guitar repair and general info, it would be this one and the Earlewine book. The first thing you'll notice is the quality of the illustrations and the photos. The pages are coated stock and all the photos are in color and incredibly detailed, unlike many other guitar books that have "cheezy" grey scale photos and crude hand drawn diagrams.

What really amazed me was how current and relevant the information is. Many of the pickups and bridges mentioned for example, are the newest models available. The wiring diagrams and modifications are very easy to understand and are quite useful.

If you're looking for info on setting up your Gibson or Fender, this is the book. It's well laid out and written, informative without being boring, and has incredible photographs, illustrations, and diagrams.

Once again, five stars and a definite keeper.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book on guitars, August 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance (Hardcover)

In this book Burrluck gives the reader the opportunity to learn more about guitar maintenance. I believe it covers most aspects of guitar maintenance, from easy things like changing strings to not so easy things like electronics and so on. My overall opinion is that it is a good book and i don't regret buying it. I can recommend it to people who are beginners (like me). The book covers both Fender and Gibson style guitars, so the book should be helpful to you no matter what guitar you're playing. I haven't read any other books on this topic so I can't compare the book to others.