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"Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock.

Read it,  wait a while, read it again.

seconded,

its the best all around guitar making book, its over 200 pages. and its not just a how to build a strat. first he goes over all the aspects of building guitars, frfom design, to wood selection, to fretting (and a lot more) and most importantly safety. then he shows the procces of building a bolt on strat shaped guitar from scratch to finish with explanations on every part of the procces. followed by a start to finish section which shows the building of a set necked tele shaped guitar, and finally he shows (and explains), the building of a neckthrough 8 string bass. followed by a chapter on finishing (its quite brief but it does explain a lot about the different types of finishes). and then a chapter/ on electronics and wiring and explains how pickups work followed by a chapter on setting up a guitar and a chapter on tremelos. and then an apendix with some correct drawing for making pickup and tremelo routes. and an apendix with common sclae measurments, and an apendix with a list of guitar part suppliers and finally an apendix with some correct drawing for making pickup and tremelo routes

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Cover dimensions...a wee bit bigger than 8.5" x 11".

I held a sheet of letter paper up to mine.

But seriously, there is no better book out there. There's a couple hundered builders on this forum that'll agree with me on that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey, I researched the Hiscock book last night and found that there is another book with a simliar title but a different author. Went and checked it out but ended up not buying that one. I did an online search of all Border's bookstores in my area, but none of the dozen or so I checked had it in stock. I also called Barnes and Noble and they checked all the local stores with the same result. Just go ahead and order this book if you want it, it seems to not be popular enough for the big stores to keep on their shelves.

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Hello everyone,

Another book I've found is by Jim Donahue, who owns NoahJames Guitars (a supporter of this site)

I downloaded and printed his book yesterday - it is great...I found it by accident and not through amazon or stew-mac or anything like that...So I thought I'd better give it a plug. Here is his webpage and books

Martin Koch's CD is great, with heaps of short videos showing the whole process. It has his book on it in non-printable PDF.

search guitar building on Amazon.com and keep searching though the "people who bought this also bought these" and "other related books" section.

Stew-mac also sells all the more well known guitar building books here

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Hoi!

After reading books about building a guitar, it is IMHO very good to read books how to repair them, 'cause the repair-books point out some weak spots and how to fix them.

Its also nice to have a repairbook handy when you build your guitars, it's a good feeling to know you can look things up if anything goes wrong...

The Acoustic Guitar: Adjustment, Care, Maintenance, and Repair (Acoustic Guitar) by Don Teeter

Even if it's about acoustic guitars, loads of info is suitable for solidbody too (neck, finish, crackrepairs...)

Guitar Player Repair Guide: How to Set Up, Maintain, and Repair Electrics and Acoustics by Dan Erlewine

I like both books.

:D

Avor

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  • 3 weeks later...

well the books i found at borders today were really expensive because no body in the Los Angeles Valley is really a guitar builder, hence no need for the books so they over price the ones they have. So there were i think 4 books indirectly to guitars. They were indirectly because they were matinece books. There were 2 books on building a solid body, so i got the cheaper book considering i need to get And Then There Were None for a book report. Well the title is Make Your Own Elctric Guitar & Bass by Dennis Waring and David Raymound. Its ok for a book. The Hiscock book isnt sold at my borders and we are having a little problem with the online credit card using, so it will be a while till i get the hiscock book. Well they have these cool books at borders on companys past and strong points. I saw like Marshalls history and PRS history and Gibson too. Well thats what i found here at my borders. Anybody know anyother book store chains. I dont read to many books that i buy, i go to the school library.

Edited by monkey69962000
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that guitar/bass making book, is short but sweet, in my oppinion its not bery technicall or descriptive, but it has lots of great pictures, that show the procces well, unlike hiscocks book its more of a pictorial of building a solid body guitar and bass, but as i said, verry short on the details, and detailed expleanation of every stage in building, and its a pretty short book

bottom line, if you have the choice get hiscocks book.

on the other hand i just borrowed the book

Electric guitars - The illustrated encyclopedia from the library, pretty good book with pictures and dexcriptions of TONS of different guitars (only electric+ some archtops), in other words, great overall eletric guitar book. and i also have qa hold on a spanish guitar making book (making classical guitars), and will tell the title and my review once i get it.

Edited by truerussian558
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Guitar Player Repair Guide: How to Set Up, Maintain, and Repair Electrics and Acoustics by Dan Erlewine

Only book in this thread I've read, and have. It's a great book, not really for building, however, it goes into great detail on the subjects of fretting, re-fretting, cutting a nut, electronics, setups and finishing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1 Guitar Player Repair Guide: How to Set Up, Maintain, and Repair Electrics and Acoustics by Dan Erlewine(just a repair book but could help you out)

2 "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock.

3 martin koch's e-guitarrenbau ( I have this in german, maybe it is also in english)

4 James E. Patterson inlay book very good very rare

5 Larry robinson the art of inlay

6 constructing a solid body guitar Roger Siminoff

all of these books sre great. take a look at ebay or warmoth to get these books.

Edited by rsera
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