Make Your Own Acoustic Guitar

"Make Your Own Acoustic Guitar" was released into a very expectant audience of people brought up on Melvyn's first release, "Make Your Own Electric Guitar". The volume of content is a magnitude greater than that of his already-comprehensive book on solidbody building without being either overwhelming or redundant.

Drawing on over thirty years of experience, Melvyn informatively details the full range of information one could require on the subject; a brief history of acoustic guitars, design choice and reasoning, the ins and outs of material selection through to building techniques and the tools used.

The core of Melvyn's books are his demonstration builds. These serve to bring together the concepts and ideas which form the majority of the information presented, walking the reader through a real-world set of design characteristics and working situations.

To cap off this already excellent subject coverage, Melvyn describes his visit to the Martin factory demonstrating how the same acoustic building concepts translate through in a manufacturing setting. Acting as a very suitable segue, one demonstration build covers the assembly of a Martin kit guitar.

Melvyn's writing style is friendly, pragmatic and engaging. Subjects are built from the ground upwards avoiding presumption of existing skills or knowledge, whilst Melvyn's light approachable tone to the comprehensive nature of the information presented makes it a great read for the experienced builder wanting to broaden or consolidate their existing skill set.

Hundreds of intelligently composed full-colour photographs complement the textual content, building an excellent visual parallel to each chapter's narrative. Flicking through the book to let the eye choose a random section is just as pleasurable as reading the book chapter-to-chapter.

Like its predecessor, "Make Your Own Acoustic Guitar" works perfectly as a self-contained read, taking anybody with zero knowledge of instrument making to the point where they could confidently complete their own unique guitar with informed choices in design, material selection and building processes.

Both "Make Your Own Acoustic Guitar" and "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" are readily available via Amazon, IPG Publishers in US/Canada or directly from Melvyn via his website for those of us UK/EU-side.