Rating: 
Summary: Useful information but not a comprehensive guide
Review: This book is an informative discussion about guitar building, and shows Melvyn Hiscock's techniques and designs pretty well,but it is not a book to enable a person with no woodworking or shop experience to make a guitar without substantial additional resources and a fair amount of scrap wood being generated. One thing that my attempts at guitarmaking have taught me is that if you set even reasonably high standards for yourself, and practice every technique on scrap wood repeatedly first, you will still go through a fair amount of wood before you have a guitar you can wave under the nose of the salesman at the local PRS dealer with pride.
Also, Hiscock is British and there are some differences between UK and American practice, both in terminology and in the way certain tools, and woods, are selected and used. (Sycamore is popular in England because of availabiility and because famous Brit builders such as Tony Zemaitis used it extensively, but no one in the U.S. does.) It doesn't interfere with the content of the book, but if you go into an Ace Hardware and ask for Perspex, you'll be given only a strange look rather than a sheet of Plexiglas.
This book is definitely better than some others, but would still be best used in conjunction with others, both guitar-specific and for general woodworking.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the better books on beginners guitar construction
Review: A nice book that outlines evey step you need when constructing an electric solid body guitar. Anyone intrested in building a guitar, bass or other solid body stringed instrument should read this book, or just get it for reference. It shows you the best way to do things, yet leave it open for your own ideas. The only 'gripe' I have with the book is that it uses many terms from England. It took me a while to figure out what 'hire a router' meant. (it means rent a router) And most of the suppliers are of little or no use in the US.
Rating: 
Summary: a must
Review: for any budding lutier. But what you really want to do after you get this book is buy Dan Elewine's video from Stewart-McDonald on how to build a solid body electric guitar. It's more comprehensive. This is good toilet reading, though.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: From constructing the neck to designing and gluing the body together, Hiscock leads you through the whole process. If you've been playing with the though of making your own guitar but need a push, this book will give you the courage and the inspiration you need. Mind you that constructing your own guitar will not be a simple task. Even with the book in hand you still need to put your own brains to work because this book will not give you a blueprint. Instead you are encouraged to make you own design though if you really want to, you can make the guitar look similar as the one the author makes.What I really like about this book is that it does not describe the making of just one electric guitar. The author will lead you through 3 guitar designs, a Gibson style guitar and a Fender style guitar. The big difference between the two is how the neck is attached to the body, glued versus bold on. Also Hiscock explains the making of a through-neck 8 string bass guitar. This will give you the knowledge of starting to experiment on your own and you will be able to truly make a guitar to your own likings. This is in my opinion the best book if you would like to make your own electric guitar. However the "relaxed" style of writing can be a little annoying sometimes. For those of you who never seen the TV series Catweasel (broadcasted in Great Britain in the 70ties), and few have in the US, a title like Electrickery will not be understood. If you know that you can not buy elephant tusk in the USA unless it was imported before (I believe) 1970, then a picture of a elephant to show that tusk looks better on a elephant than on a guitar is just plain weird. But let's blame it on the famous British humor. And if I may nitpick, the font used for the paragraphs is ill chosen. I give this book 5 stars because of it's detail and Hiscock explains things very clear. Still if you don't know your chisel from your bandsaw, constructing a guitar may not be the best choice for your first project. But combine some basic woodworking skills and a little common sense and this book will enable you to make a guitar that is structurally sound and a joy to play.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book covering solid body guitar construction
Review: I enjoyed this book. I found it pleasant to read while giving thorough coverage to the three main styles of solid body guitar construction (bolt on neck, glued in neck, and neck-through-body). After the introductory chapters, a guitar of each of these styles is built from start to finish in separate chapters. These serve as an excellent example of the unique features of each of the three designs. The author spends considerable effort to point out strengths and weaknesses in well known designs from the major manufacturers. This is presented to help the reader in the design phase. He also covers the critical relationship between neck angle and bridge height more thoroughly than I have seen in any other book. Despite the title, this book covers only SOLID body guitar and bass construction. No coverage is given to archtop or hollow body electric guitar styles.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: If we waited for a book to be perfect, they would never be finished. This particular book, however, is as close in its genre as could be found. It covers everything you need to know, from how to determine the spacing of frets, to how to wire your electronics, to how to install truss rods. Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. Prior to reading it, I was frankly just scared of working on my own guitar. Although I don't have immediate plans to build my own, this book has given me the confidence to make modifications to my current one and to realize that many of the people who have worked on my guitar knew far less about what they were doing than I now know. The book does assume that you have some basic skills in woodworking and electronics; it would be unreasonable to expect the author to teach you this also. Yet, the author does provide valuable and appreciated tips and pointers in these areas regardless. He pretty much covers it all. Over and over again I found myself thinking "thank you!" to the author for the information - buy this book, you won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: this book is useless
Review: if you have never built a guitar before, do not get this book. this book does not tell you how to build a guitar, it is just a book of tips on building a guitar. there are no steps and everything is out of order. first it tells you how to install a truss rod, then it tells you how to install frets, then it tells you how to build a neck, then it tells you how to put the neck on the body, then it tells you how to the body is made in 3 different ways. the whole thing is out of order and confusing, i am very disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Without doubt the best book of its kind
Review: Melvyn Hiscock has a unique gift not only in building electric guitars but also in his writing. From the very first pages the old mysticisms surrounding electric guitars are dispelled. Leo Fender kept thing simple and how many of his fuitars are sold today? Melvyn's approach is the same by keeping each step simple. The book is packed with excellent photographs and diagrams and his section on electrics is brilliant, no schematics just again simple step by step instructions. Anyone who buys this book will without doubt, in a versy short space of time build and play their own guitar, and if they are anything like me get bitten by the building bug. Thank you Melvyn Hiscock.
Rating:
Summary: Good but in many ways inadequate
Review: The book in terms of organization and information is good. One of the biggest shortcoming of the book is that there are no dimensioned drawings or sketches. All the dimesions are sort of buried in the text. But the saying goes:" a good picture is worth a thousend words." Mind you, there are a lot of pictures in the book, however, they seem to demonstrate rather trivial operation. For instance pages 86-87 there are 4 pictures; one showing the body being cut on band saw, another a hand holding a sand paper (only information one gets is "a hand holding a sand paper") again another one of the guitar body in a semi finished state with the
heading "the body" !!. I am still trying to find out locations of the pickups relative to the bridge. Or what effect it has on
guitar if I chose on some arbitrary position (within reason ofcourse). Well it wouldn't be fair if I don't mention that I am
a mechanical engineer. But I am a wood worker too. I don't think I would want to build a set of chairs and a breakfast table from
pages and pages of "descriptive" instructions. A sketch would really go a long way, even if it is on a napkin.
I was trying to answer a question in my own mind: "Is the electrial guitar and purely electrial "appliance" or does the associated wood and other stuff adds value or quality to its performance ?" Well according to Mr. Hiscock, the truth lies somewhere in between. Of the 218 pages of the book only about 27 are dedicated to what Mr. Hiscock calls "electrikery".I don't know if Mr.Hiscock is convinced of what he is saying !!
Again, assuming that it is a combination of the word "electricity" and "trickery", one would find it very hard to locate any description of "tricks" that a professional guitar maker like Mr.Hiscock would know and would like to share with his readers. And finally, the last question that lingers in my mind " What the heck is a "woolly" sound ?", that, Mr.Hiscock claims, comes from a strong pickup.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book for inspiration and practical advice
Review: This book has been my essential reference while building my first solid body electric guitar. Melvyn has written a very comprehensive and practical guide to all stages of construction from the basics of designing your own instrument through to applying the finishing touches.
I like the way Melvyn discusses a variety of approaches for each task in design and building. You are encouraged to understand and think creatively rather than follow a strict plan. If that sounds a bit fuzzy, and the lack of detailed plans puts you off (there are none in this book) I can try to reassure that all you need is here. Despite having next to no woodworking experience myself I'm now most of the way through my first instrument and already planning the next couple. It also gave me the confidence to front up to a local luthiery (Gilet Guitars in Sydney, Australia), choose my materials and ask some reasonably intelligent questions.
One really nice aspect of the book is that Melvyn shares anecdotes about his own mistakes over the years so that you can anticipate problems - or at least not feel too bad when you make a few mistakes of your own along the way.
So, in summary - buy this book and be inspired.
|
