If you buy one book on the topic make it this one.
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Well written book. It tackles all the wood working side of building an electric guitar.
Basic wiring diagrams and explanations are included as well as a section on pickup selection, however for the true DIY build a book or information on pickup winding will have to be sourced. All you need is this book, time (about 250hours) and knowledge of wood working to build a guitar. I am currently re-reading this book as I plan my second guitar. A brilliant book for advice and reference.
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Excellent introduction
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Knowing things is only the first step of writing a book. Deciding what to include and what to leave out and how to organize it is equally important. This book has all the essentials of solid body guitar building and is very well written. The first couple of chapters describes the basic guitar parameters and planning steps as well as the general approach for the woodwork. The next part describes three different guitars which covers most of the methods/styles found on electric guitar/basses. Finally, the last parts describes the finish/assembly/set-up of the guitar. The book does not give you all the details on wood-working, finish etc. nor does it list all kinds of guitars, woods, pick-ups and other stuff. But it has all the essential information to get you started. I also have "Building Electric Guitars" by Martin Koch. This is slightly less well organized; but has somewhat more details (more step-by-step instructions with pictures, a few additional tricks, and also covers a few more subjects like winding your own pick-up's). I suggest you buy both of them ;-)
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Excellent introduction
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This book has been an invaluable resource for my first attempts at building an electric guitar. Melvyn Hiscock writes with a relaxed and somtimes humourous approach while still managing to explain in a comprehensive way many of the more complicated issues. Even as a complete novice to electrical wiring I managed to follow the wiring diagrams and explanations with not too much difficulty, and although the section on finishing isn't as comprehensive as it could be it does go a long way to describing the various techniques you could use. Should you wish to get more adventurous in this area there are other publications available. The best way to sum this book up is that its everything you need to get going altough if you intend to move into guitar building as a career or perhaps a serious pastime you would probably need other, more focused books in addition to this. Oh, note of caution to Brian May fans, don't buy this book on the basis that there is a forward by the permed ax man, its very short and doesn't give you any particular insight into how he and his dad built the famous 'Red Special'.
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very very good
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A belter of a book. Assuming you are reasonably OK at woodwork, and know one end of a guitar from another - otherwise you wouldn't be considering a project like this in the first place, Melvyn does not waste time explaining which end of a chisel is the dangerous end, or spend 50 plus pages showing examples of his work. He demonstrates a few styles of guitar - eg a bolt on neck, a through neck, a carved top etc, you could copy one exactly, or (more fun) design your own around his principles. He explains a bit, but not too much, of where the electric guitar came from, and the early pioneers of the instrument, and also the effect on playing, of using different types of wood, fingerboard radius etc....all helping you come up with your design. Technical stuff like fret spacings is explained, and again copy one of his scale lengths, or go for your own. Electronic stuff is covered - basic, but ideal for the non-electronics person - as an example - if you could figure out the working of a bicycle lamp, you should be OK with his schematics. In short, everything you need to know is covered in sufficient detail to allow you to build a guitar, without going too deep into any one area. If you wish to build something so radical it takes the guitar industry by storm, you may need to find a more specialist book as well, to cover that area. The only down side is there are no drawings of plans for guitars for those who simply wish to copy an existing design. Don't know how important that is though! There is also a handy contacts page to get the gear from.
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