Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200374 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Plastic Comb
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

Adequate but not excellent
This manual does an acceptable job of describing how to build a classical or steel-string guitar and contains useful plans for various jigs that can be made to facilitate the building process. The descriptions are fairly clear, although I found that it took a couple of careful readings before I was comfortable with the procedure. The photographs could do with being clearer, especially when one photo is used to illustrate a step consisting of several tasks. The layout and structure of the manual could be better and I found quite a lot of typographic faults with my copy (a third edition) which implies poor attention to detail by the author/publisher. I also found that some of the methods described seemed to be more complicated than necessary or at least in an odd order, ie. applying the finish to the soundboard and then subsequently having to carefully scrape chunks off to glue the bridge and fingerboard neck-extension down. This may be because the author prefers a spray finish to a hand-applied one, and it's easier to spray before these components are glued.

According to reviews I've read elsewhere, Bill Cumpiano's book "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology" would appear to be a far more comprehensive and detailed book. It's also in the same price bracket as this manual, so that might be the better buy. I've ordered a copy anyway :)

A superb guide to making your first guitar.
Having just completed my guitar using Jim Williams' plans and instructions I can recommend this book to anyone. He takes you through each step methodically, encouraging you to take the time and care that this instrument requires. Often more than one method is suggested depending upon the tooling you have available. The end result is an instrument that has excellent tone and incredible sustain.

This is an outstanding book
This is a very thorough book and takes the reader through all the steps necessary to construct a classical or acoustic steel string guitar. The book comes complete with life size plans for the parts, as well as plans and instructions for building the various jigs required, including the side bending jig.

This is the first book I have bought on the subject of guitar building, and I have not yet built my first guitar. I have built most of the jigs and have found that with very few exceptions the plans for these are very complete (there were just a few small steps in the side bending jigs where I had to guess what to do, but I have tested the finished product and was very pleased).

Although I have not built a guitar yet, I have been through the book several times and understand the process. The book also painstakingly lays out the materials and tools needed, leaving no guesswork. Being brand new to building guitars, and this being my first book, I was perhaps conservative in rating the book 4 stars. Time may prove this to be a 5 star book, I just had a couple of questions left unanswered. I do highly recommend this book, it is worth ten times the price.