Best book(s) on electric guitar design and build?

OnTheRopes

I had a good book years ago that went through the full process of design and build, laminating necks, equipment etc.
I did get round to building one but now have a hankering to have another go but longer have the book.

So. I am looking for good suggestions. It needs to cover wood selection, tools, design, fingerboard, fretting hardware, wiring and painting etc etc. I don't want to build from a kit and I don't want to be stuck with following directions for a single design.

WezV

Melvyn Hiscock’s book. 

TTony

WezV said:

Melvyn Hiscock’s book. 

That's @melvynhiscock !

I prefer to watch rather than read - just easier for my brain to make sense of it.  Mark Bailey has some online courses at
https://guitarmaking.co.uk/ which are proper professional standard courses.

axisus

I'm not so keen on the Hiscock book. The info is great but I don't like the poor B&W only photos. Personally I found online resources much more useful. Videos in particular, where you can get talk through and visuals. I'd gladly give away my copy of the book if I actually knew where it was!

I'd just go Google everything personally.

WezV

axisus said:

I'm not so keen on the Hiscock book. The info is great but I don't like the poor B&W only photos. Personally I found online resources much more useful. Videos in particular, where you can get talk through and visuals. I'd gladly give away my copy of the book if I actually knew where it was!

I'd just go Google everything personally.

The latest edition of the book is 20 years old next year.  I have had mine since it was first released.  At that time, there was almost no information on the internet.  The book is responsible for a hell of a lot of it.  


i don’t ever think it’s agood idea to learn from one source, but the book has everything you need to get started and will teach you a lot of the right concepts to enable you to study further.

the book also captures something most other sources miss... design.  It doesn’t teach you how a guitar should be built, it shows you a few approaches to the same problem and challenges you to take your own path.

mart

Another recommendation for Melvyn Hiscock’s book, but I also found this very helpful:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Guitar-Bass-Design-complete/dp/3000296425/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511606729&sr=1-1&keywords=Guitar+design

OnTheRopes

Looking at the Hiscock book on Amazon I think that was the book I had, a pity there is no look inside option. I may buy it again though I appreciate it is old and now you mention it I recall the not so great photo's, but it certainly did go into the design and style of guitar you want to build. Seems a bit expensive to buy now but I may have to bite the bullet.

Electric Guitar and bass design by Leonardo Lospennato looks like a possibility or Martin Koch book Building Electric Guitars though this seems to suffer from poor images as well.

Thanks for the link to the online course, i will take a peek at that too

ICBM

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide is also excellent - although not a 'build' book as such there is so much useful information in there which will help you work out what to do.

WezV

OnTheRopes said:

Looking at the Hiscock book on Amazon I think that was the book I had, a pity there is no look inside option. I may buy it again though I appreciate it is old and now you mention it I recall the not so great photo's, but it certainly did go into the design and style of guitar you want to build. Seems a bit expensive to buy now but I may have to bite the bullet.

Electric Guitar and bass design by Leonardo Lospennato looks like a possibility or Martin Koch book Building Electric Guitars though this seems to suffer from poor images as well.

Thanks for the link to the online course, i will take a peek at that too

Do you still have a local library?  Mine used to have the 1st edition of Melvyn’s book.

i have just had a flick through, and whilst the pics are black and white most are pretty high quality.  I have a lot of other guitar building books, and the pics in Melvyn’s are of the best.  Definitely the best at the time.  Kinkade’s acoustic book was one of the first of its type to actually bother with colour pictures

AustrianJohn

TTony said:

I prefer to watch rather than read - just easier for my brain to make sense of it.  Mark Bailey has some online courses at https://guitarmaking.co.uk/ which are proper professional standard courses.

The Bailey courses take you through the build process. They may not address all of your questions, but it's a great place to start.

TTony

WezV said:

The latest edition of the book is 20 years old next year.  I have had mine since it was first released.  At that time, there was almost no information on the internet. 

At that time, there was almost no information on the internet. 

normula1

Ah... The joys of newsgroups and having to try 4 different search groups to find something.

Funkfingers

The other old pre-Interweb favourite was Customizing Your Electric Guitar by Adrian Legg. This is long since out of print.

Legg worked at Rose-Morris - then importers of DiMarzio pickups. He tried out most of the wacky pickup coil switching ideas that you could possibly imagine and provided schematic diagrams. These days, an author would provide video demonstrations of all of the coil permutations, illustrating exactly how useless many of them are.

Obviously, by concentrating on pickup wiring, Legg will be of relatively little assistance with the constructional aspects of your project.

Corvus

The MH book is great, got no problem with the pics or drawings, I built my first guitar around 1989 purely from that. It's a one-stop place to see what you're into from the ground up, design all the way through building. And now there's a zillion forum posts & vids for when you home in on doing some particular part, to see what jigs & methods people have come up with to tackle it.

Gizmo

I used the MH book as a ref +talkbass forums for my first bass build (headless zerba wood singlecut 6 string) but i also found the Martin Koch - Building Electric Guitars, a good ref  (i picked up for amazon 2nd hand & tatty for 95p + postage about 12 years ago) 

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/

For rattle can refinish tips i found How To Create a Factory Guitar Finish with just a few cans to be a good read

http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/

great if you dig 80's hair guitar finishes like EVH/'s and GL's Tiger ect ect

WezV

TTony said:

WezV said:

The latest edition of the book is 20 years old next year.  I have had mine since it was first released.  At that time, there was almost no information on the internet. 

At that time, there was almost no information on the internet. 

There was MIMF.  They didn’t allow in progress threads and picture size was severely limited.  Project Guitar appeared shortly after.

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Another recommendation for Melvyn Hiscock’s book, but I also found this very helpful:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Guitar-Bass-Design-complete/dp/3000296425/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511606729&sr=1-1&keywords=Guitar+design

This ^.  The Melvyn Hiscock book is great for building and should be on your list, but the  Leonardo Lespennato adds lots with reference to guitar and bass design.  Having seen a pal's copy, it's certainly on my own Christmas Present list!

Why not both?

WezV

I might add it to mine, I have not had a new guitar book in a while...  not since Melvyn released his acoustic book

OnTheRopes

Gizmo said:

I used the MH book as a ref +talkbass forums for my first bass build (headless zerba wood singlecut 6 string) but i also found the Martin Koch - Building Electric Guitars, a good ref  (i picked up for amazon 2nd hand & tatty for 95p + postage about 12 years ago) 

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/

For rattle can refinish tips i found How To Create a Factory Guitar Finish with just a few cans to be a good read

http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/

great if you dig 80's hair guitar finishes like EVH/'s and GL's Tiger ect ect

Great resources, thanks for that.

OnTheRopes

ICBM said:

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide is also excellent - although not a 'build' book as such there is so much useful information in there which will help you work out what to do.

Another good resource. I have booked myself on a Guitar Setup Course, which whilst not related directly to this thread I will no doubt be able to discuss such topics. May well look at this. Cheers

OnTheRopes

mart said:

Another recommendation for Melvyn Hiscock’s book, but I also found this very helpful:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Guitar-Bass-Design-complete/dp/3000296425/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511606729&sr=1-1&keywords=Guitar+design

Thanks, yes that is on my list of potentials