American Basses: An Illustrated History and Player's Guide to the Bass Guitar

This book covers a large range of brands/makers exclusively made in America. Very informative in general but there are a couple of balls dropped - no pics or mention of the Fender Performer bass (1985-6), no pics of the original Gibson Thunderbird ('63-'65) or it's non-reverse version ('66-'68) to name a couple. Otherwise many informative essays on makers and insights into many aspects of what goes into a bass. Definitely a useful source of (mostly) electric basses for your collection.

Nice

good

Good book..........quite informative.

On time , just fine ! MS

Full of interesting information for a bass player. Also some interesting techniocal information on care and maintenance of basses.

This is an interesting book about the history of the different American Bass companies. It goes into detail of the companies strengths and model lines. I would recommend it.

This book is a useful historical profile of major bass builders, and an interesting read. There are plenty of color photos to balance the detailed biographical and product line descriptions for a wide range of US bass manufacturers. Cover to cover, the reading gets tedious because the writer follows similar patterns for presenting the narratives. Toward the end, the founders' quotations begin to sound like a broken record, and many of the product line descriptions read like press releases.From reading this book, I get the feeling that the author sent out a bunch of survey forms to all big US bass builders and a handful of favored one-person shops in the early 2000s, compiled their responses; then added a few defunct builders that he thought were important enough to merit inclusion. What struck me most was the omission of a number of early, defunct builders who were very much part of bass history - the Renaissance Plexiglas bass and the Bartell Black Widow bass come to mind right away. I am sure there are others.That said, aside from a database type publication such as Blue Book, this book profiles more bass manufactures more thoroughly than any other bass reference that I have seen, the production quality is good, and it passes as an interesting read for the gearheads who read this type of stuff for enjoyment.

Mostly boutique basses that are far too expensive for the ordinary folk. However some nice photos. But rather boring and a little outdated. Not for me!

Nice book

Truly a bass player's book but also great for anyone interested in modern instrument manufacturing and design. I've been a reader and fan of Jim Roberts since he wrote for and was editor of "Bassplayer" magazine. The photography is excellent and Jim's sense of humour squeezes through here and there in his descriptions of the instruments and the culture that influenced their creation. Although the title suggests a look exclusively at American instruments, Jim does touch a little on important instruments from other parts of the world.

American Basses est en anglais, mais est relativement facile à lire. En commandant ce livre je ne pensais pas tomber sur un travail d'une telle qualité.C'est en lisant  American Guitars: An Illustrated History  que Jim Roberts a eu l'idée d'écrire celui-ci. Il explique pourquoi il s'est limité aux basses américaines: vu l'énorme travail fourni, il estime qu'il n'aurait pu en faire de même avec les autres productions mondiales (il espère le faire prochainement).Le livre a l'air exhaustif. Des plus connus (Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Alembic) aux plus petits luthiers régionaux, tout ce qui est (ou a été) construit comme basse électrique ou acoustique sur le territoire des USA (et aussi Canada) est présenté ici. Généralement, chaque constructeur explique lui-même son historique (ce qui rend le livre très vivant), sa technique, ses erreurs, sa gamme de produits et parle souvent de ses clients connus. De nombreux passages sont consacrés à un sujet particulier: micros, essences de bois, collages, électronique passive ou active, longueur des manches, matériaux synthétiques (carbone,graphite), vernis, couleurs, cordes, formes extravagantes.Le livre est richement illustré avec les photos des modèles emblématiques de chaque constructeur, mais aussi des vues d'atelier ou de travail du bois.Jim Roberts s'est livré à un vrai travail de fourmi et le résultat est exceptionnel. Un must pour tout amateur de lutherie et de guitares basses. American Guitars: An Illustrated History

Die wohl vollständigste Übersicht der amerikanischen Bassbauer. Es gibt wohl kaum einen noch so exotischen US-Hersteller, der hier nicht erwähnt wird - die bekannten etwas ausführlicher, die kleineren nur am Rande. Von vielen der bekannteren Bassbauer (Sadowsky, Tobias, Smith, Fodera, Spector ...) sind Artikel zu einzelnen Themen der Basskonstruktion beigetragen. Das ist sehr informativ und in dieser geballten Form wohl einmalig auf dem Buchmarkt. Eines meiner Lieblingsbücher ! Gelungen !