Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide [Hardcover]

Tony Bacon (Editor), Dave Hunter (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2004

Totally Guitar is the biggest and most complete book on the world's most popular instrument, full of expert tips and fascinating stories for both beginning and advanced players. An unrivalled guide to the guitar, here are the stories behind 100 key electric guitar makers, from Alembic to Zemaitis, with fabulous color photos of all the greatest models from the 1930s to the 2000s. Here too is advice on how to string, tune, set up, clean, maintain, and store a prized instrument. Add 1,250 bars of music, 250 chords, the biggest glossary of guitar terms ever assembled in one book, and hundreds of essential tips on 10 hot playing styles from acoustic to rock 'n' roll and the result is a modern bible for the guitar-obsessed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tony Bacon is a leading writer on the guitar and is the author of The Ultimate Guitar Book, and The Fender Book, which have combined sales of more than 300,000 copies. He has edited and/or contributed to many other books, including Classic Guitars of the Fifties, Classic Guitars of the Sixties, and The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. He makes his home just outside London, England.

Dave Hunter was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and now makes his home in England, where he is a professional journalist and musician. He is the former editor of The Guitar Magazine. For the past 3 years he has been a recent research contributor and commentator for several television and radio programs on the guitar.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Press; First edition. edition (October 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592231993
• ISBN-13: 978-1592231997
• Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 10.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Hunter is a leading guitar writer and a musician. His books include Totally Guitar, Guitar effects Pedals and Guitar Rigs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just electrics, July 21, 2008

By 

Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide (Hardcover)

Like countless others, when I was younger, I fancied myself as a guitarist. So, when I saw this gem a few years ago, I couldn't resist.

There's sections with music o how--or what--to play according to various styles, pieces on instrument maintenance. But frankly what mesmerized me was the whole "catalog," as someone else called it, of electric guitars.

I wondered why I hadn't seen a Mosrite for so long. The book explains why (I won't give anything away.) There's pictures of my old Guild, and my old Epiphone. My God, the book stimulates memories.

Perhaps the highlight of the book is it's illustrations. Like I said, there's pics of countless models...even of some of my favorite Vox guitars (which went out of business in the late 1960s). There's ads from various music magazines promoting such and such a brand with the pic of a celebrity--maybe Jimmy Page, or someone else--playing that instrument. There's a little history of the company.

Since I just finished a book on Eric Clapton, I wanted to look up the Kay which was the guitar that Clapton played just before he hit the big time. Sure enough, there is was.

There's even some descriptions as to how a model got it's model number (e.g., I think CES is cutaway, electric, Spanish, from one brand I'll let you look up yourself.)

Be forewarned, though, the book's subject is ELECTRIC guitars. So if you're after accoustics, you'll have to look elsewhere.

In the meantime, enjoy this one, and wallow in the memories.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you don't already have Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, October 11, 2007

By 

E. Chang (NYC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide (Hardcover)

When I got this book I was amazed at how huge it was. It's heavy too. In fact I'm not sure it would be safe to put this on a music stand, it could injure someone. The content is like having a couple years worth of Guitar Player magazine columns in one big book. Covers over a dozen styles in their individual chapters with some representative licks. Also lots of guitar maintenance stuff, tho I just don't see how a book of this bulk could work in a workshop environment.

So the book is pretty great, the only BIG problem I have is that 300 pages of this book is a reprint of Tony's previous book, "Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia". And I had just bought that book 2 weeks before. So if you have THAT book already, then you are getting just 297 pages of new material in a book that's 3x as heavy as that one (this one is hardcover).

If that factoid was mentioned in the review than I guess it's my own fault, but either way it bears repeating. Of course if you don't have the previous book than this is great. The colors are a bit richer than the previous book, too. But I probably would have skipped this if I had known the above.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice catalog ;-), November 3, 2005

By 

D. Marois (Quebec) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide (Hardcover)

I'm glad I checked the contents of this book. Otherwise I would have been mighty surprised to find that half of it is a guitar catalog. If that's what you're loking for then buy it. You'll get half a good book about the IMPORTANT stuff you should know along with your catalog. This is not a 600 page book about how to play, how to maintain, repair... your guitar. Otherwise it's fine. I like Tony Bacon's books - I have many of them.