Electric Guitar and Bass Design: The guitar or bass of your dreams, from the first draft to the complete plan Paperback – October 11, 2010

I read this backwards and forwards and it's a great read. I feel like if you're a designer who hasn't worked with guitars before, or if you're a luthier who hasn't really studied design, this is a great read.

Not so much a "how-to do" guide as it is a "why to do" book.You won't find any step-by-step instructions or how-to chapters. This book is about design. And as a result, it discusses topics such as ergonomics and playability as well as electronic configurations, wood choices, and scale lengths. The section on pickup wiring and impedences is easily worth the price of the book. As are the somewhat controversial opinions expressed in a few places. (ex: the argument that the body wood has the least possible effect on the overall tone. Which brings into question the whole assertion about the need to use expensive or exotic 'tonewoods' when constructing a high quality bass.)If you simply want to build a high quality bass for your own use, this is probably not the book for you. Martin Koch's 'Building Electric Guitars: How to Make Solid-Body, Hollow-Body and Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars' - which is also available from Amazon - is a much better choice.However, if your goal is to craft something totally unique, or design your own line of professional instruments, this book is probably one of the best places to start. If for no other reason than it encourages you to start thinking about design and materials for yourself instead of simply accepting marketing opinions masquerading as established facts.It's also extremely useful if you have no intention of ever building your own instruments. Knowledge is power. As is a reputation for genuinely knowing what you're talking about. Armed with the information found in this book, you can become a much more knowledgeable buyer - whether you're buying an instrument "off the rack" - or commissioning a custom built 'one-off' from a boutique builder.Excellent book. Buy it, read it, and give some serious thought to the topics discussed in its pages. You don't need to accept everything in the book as gospel truth (which I certainly don't) to benefit enormously from it. As long as this book gets you to start thinking about things, and questioning received wisdom (something the authors themselves encourage you to do - including the opinions expressed in their own book) it will have accomplished its goal.Highly recommended.

Picked up this and a few other books to prepare for my first build this summer. At first, it's fairly easy going and mostly observational. I'm not entirely sure that the chapters on needing inspiration etc are needed, but I suppose the book wouldn't be complete without them. Then it picks up rapidly. Some info in the book is available freely online (in fact, the author points you to a number of sites if you haven't done your own homework yet), but it's good to have it well organized along with other info in the book. The biggest thing this book has helped me with is starting to get a better grasp of the electronics.If you're a first time builder, I recommend it highly. If you've built before, maybe, hard to say as you should know most of this stuff. I bought these books ( see below for the others) to replace a guitar design theory course that got cancelled (purpose of which is to make a blueprint that you then build in the next course (also cancelled, so I'll be on my own)). From what the teacher described the course as, this book does his work for him and saved me several hundred dollars and 10 hours of travel time, so I'm happy. Ever topic his list says was part of the course is addressed in this book.This goes into good depth of the design theory stages, but doesn't cover much on the actual building (author states it's not his mission in this book). If you want more on building, the book make your own electric guitar by Melvin Hiscock is has a lot more info (it's a little dated - 2nd edition, maybe there is or will be a newer one). I've also picked up Martin Kochs's Building electric guitars (have not read it yet, but flipping through, it has a lot of build technique and pics - though they are small)There are two things I wish the author would add to the book, though technically it would work better with an e-book version. He repeatedly makes reference to useful websites and I which he had pointed us towards one that focused on the electronics. This is easily the toughest part for me. I'm not always sure I understand the diagrams and would like either real life pics to match the diagrams or some sort of quizzes (could refer us online or put it in the book) to test my grasp on it. The second thing, which would have to be an online reference, or maybe a CD that comes with the book, would be audio samples of what these things sound like. It's great to show me how to set up a coil tap, but have no idea if that's the sound I want so do I include it n my design or not?.