Conference napalm::guitar

    Here's a few that are widely available:
    
    The Guitar Book	Author: Tom Wheeler
    
    One of the first of this type.  Not sure how many revised editions
    there are, mine is current as of about 1980.  A decent chart of Fender
    amp models/dates, reasonable descriptions of various Fender and Gibson
    models (though not exhaustive), good pictures but B&W.
    
    American Guitar	Author: Tom Wheeler
    
    This one focuses on guitars made in the US (no Hofner, Hagstrom,
    Framus, Ibanez, etc.), and has chapters organized alphabetically. Not
    exhaustive, but a decent book.
    
    Ultimate Guitar Book	Author: Tony Bacon
    
    Nice color pics, "good graphics" (i.e. it's a picture book). Text is
    mostly expanded captions, as opposed to a focused essay.
    
    The Fender Bass	Author: Klaus Blasquiz
    
    Full of typos and misinformation (the author is German and his English
    is awful) but lots of pictures of models I never knew existed.  This is
    a slim book, paperbound.  Pretty sorry by comparison with the
    exhaustive books on the Strat, for instance, but hey, bass players have
    to get what they can!  The picture of two ladies from the factory
    jamming on early 50s P-basses is worth the $10 this thing sells for.
    
    						Martin Lickert

I have the Ultimate Guitar book.  It is very good as a general overview book
especially the pictures.

Martin Guitars - A History is the bible for Martin guitars.  It has everything
you would ever reasonably want to know about any of the guitars they have made.

I have a book on Fender guitars that is excellent.  Can't remember the exact
title or author.

Jim

Jim, 

would it be possible to post more information about this Martin History book 
(Editor/publisher/ISBN number)? I would like to order a copy.

I actually remember having seen such a book once - must have been about 15 
years ago.... Is there a newer edition out?

Thanks a lot!

feliX.

my Third Edition copy says:

Martin Guitars - A History  by Mike Longworth (c) 1988
4 Maples Press Inc.
Minisink Hills, Pennsylvania

There may be a newer edition.  You can buy the latest version directly 
from Martin (215-759-2837) or from Mandolin Bros (708-981-3226)

I paid $18.00 for my copy.

Jim

    
    anyone know when the 6-string and standard tuning evolved? How long
    have folk been playing this way?
    
    	bob

I think the evolution from four course of two strings (a 12-string has six 
courses of two strings) to six individual strings happened about 250-300 years 
ago.  How the strings were tuned is not as well known.  Some of this information
is in the Ultimate Guitar Book.

Jim

    There are lots of books about the guitar itself, which range from
    really good to really terrible. The problem is, many players who buy
    these books don't know enough to be able to tell the difference, and so
    absorb lots of misinformation. Since I do know the difference, I'll be
    glad to explain it to you. No need to thank me, just send money.
    
    The good (authoritative references:
    
    Anything by Duchossoir. His books on the Stratocaster and Telecaster,
    "Guitar Identification", and especially "Gibson Electrics, Vol. 1" are
    excellent background, very accurate and most have good pictures, too.
    Too bad there won't be a Vol. 2 of Gibson Electrics. There are some
    translation problems and some bad editing, but total quality is high. 
    
    Tom Wheeler's "American Guitars" is an excellent overview of the
    history of many brands, has  lots of pictures and is probably the best
    overall reference. Its only bad point is that the color plates are too
    small. "The Guitar Book" is a good overview of guitar in general. Both
    are quite accurate and well written. 
    
    "Guitars From The Renaissance to Rock" (Evans) is an excellent
    historical guide. Especially good pictures of classical instruments.
    This is the best book if you are interested in the evolution of the
    guitar and guitar playing.
    
    Gruhn's "Guide To Vintage Guitars". Almost everything you need to know.
    Extremely well organized. Not a picture book, but a verbal
    identification guide of almost mind-boggling detail. I've discovered a
    few error of omission, but nothing very serious. Buy this and stop
    sending me mail asking me to identify your guitar.
    
    "The Jazz Guitar: Its Evolution and Players" (Summerfield"). Good bios
    (this is not a computer part :-), seems accurate, covers the major
    players, is well-written and organized. A more comprehensive book on
    the same subject called "The History of The Guitar In Jazz" or some
    thing similar (I'll have to go look it up) by someone or other (ditto)
    (sorry, brain flash time) is also very good, but not as handy as a
    quick reference
    
    Tom Van Hoose" "Super 400" book tells you everything you want to know
    about the king of Gibson archtops. Pretty expensive for what you get,
    but a labor of love and well-researched, too.
    
    Smith's "Complete History Of Rickenbacker Guitars". Great book. I don't
    know enough about Rick to rate its accuracy, but it seems right to me.
    
    Nice Picture books (look but don't read:
    
    "The Tsumura Collection" (both banjo & guitar books): great pictures,
    incredibly bad text. Ditto the Mac Yasuda books.
    
    "The Ultimate Guitar Book":  Fabulous pictures, some good information,
    some bad. Take it with a grain of salt and it's worth owning.
    
    Hard to classify:
    
    Jay Scott's new Gretsch book has a lot of good information, but is
    terribly organized, badly edited, badly printed (except for the color
    plates)--it's just a mess. Too bad--there' a great book hiding in here
    (I think).
    
    "The Guitar Handbook". Very comprehensive, so-so accuracy. Probably
    tries to cover too much ground.
    
    Pitmann's "Tube Amp Book III". Self-serving text (Groove Tube's ad),
    skimpy, low accuracy background on amp companies, but great color
    plates and a bunch of schematics make it worth owning.
    
    Not worth the trees it took to make them:
    
    Any of the books by Archer or Bishop. Badly printed, useless pictures,
    low accuracy rate, poorly researched, full of myths and urban legends. 
    They are small and cheap, however.
    
    Danny W.

    I read somewhere (I think in a box in Wheeler's The History of American
    Guitars) that Richard Smith is writing a book on the History of Fender.
    Wheeler thinks that Smith had the low-down on the early days of the
    Esquire/Broadcaster/Nocaster/Telecaster which differed from all other
    accounts that I've read anywhere. So maybe this guy really does his
    homework.

    --Ron

    RE: .6
    
    >> anyone know when the 6-string and standard tuning evolved? How long
    >>    have folk been playing this way?
    
    
    A little more detail (I could be a bit off on some of the dates, but
    I think most of what follows is accurate)...
    
    The four course guitar developed in Spain in the 1400s.  It was an
    8 string instrument using 4 courses.  The top 3 pairs of strings were
    doubled in unison (most likely) and the lowest pair was tuned in an
    octave.  Tunings varied, but there are some references to tunings in
    fourths.   The four course guitar was an instrument for the common
    people and not highly regarded by "serious" musicians.  There were
    to styles of playing-- strumming of simple chords (ragsuedo (sp?)) 
    for folk songs, and a more advanced fingerstyle (pic-something or
    other) method.  Frets were simple bands of gut tied around the neck.
    
    In the mid-to-late 1500s, a fifth course was added.  There are
    references to tuning the instument instrument A D G B E dating
    back this early (the lower two courses in octaves, and the top
    three in unison).  The scale was lengthed  and the body enlarged
    (although still significantly smaller than a modern classical
    guitar, the scale length did come close to modern standards).
    The 5 course guitar acheived a high level of popularity thoughout
    Europe and briefly replaced the lute as the instrument of choice 
    among some musicians.  
    
    In the late 1700s, a sixth course was added to increase the bass
    range of the instrument.  This version of the instrument was rather
    short-lived.  The doubled strings were dropped, creating a six-string 
    instrument with the tuning we know today.  The body of the instrument 
    was enlarged over the course of the 1800s,  finally approaching the 
    general design of the modern classical guitar.  
    
    C.F. Martin learned European guitar building techniques before 
    moving to the US in the 1830s.  After coming to the US, he developed
    the X bracing system, which he began to use instead of the traditional
    fan bracing system (still the standard for classical guitars), although
    the X bracing system did not really come into its own until the
    introduction of steel strings in the late 1800s.  Martin's O, OO, and
    OOO guitar styles date back to these times.
    
    The Dreadnaught was developed by Martin for the the Ditson company,
    who wanted an instrument with increased power and bass response (I
    think this was in the early 1920s).  The instrument proved to be
    quite popular, and Martin started to market its own version.  In
    the early/mid-'30s, today's standard 14 fret neck and body style
    replaced the 12-fret neck and elongated body of the early dreadnaught.
    
    The archtop acoustic guitar was invented by Orville Gibson, who
    had been trained as a violin maker, and applied violin making
    techniques to making mandolins and guitars.  The Gibson company
    continued to improve on these designs throughout the first four
    decades of this century, creating the archtop we know today and
    influencing others to persue similar designs.
    
    
    Jim

Article 9330 of alt.guitar:
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Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 14:25:31 -0400 
From: Bill Thomas <[email protected]>
Subject: New Guitar Handbook is out
Lines: 41


The 1992 edition of Ralph Denyer's "The Guitar Handbook" is now
available. I ordered it back in August and it came in this week. Along
with the Andy Summers foreword from 1982, there's a new one from Robert
Fripp (great picture!) in which he reveals that his tuning is, from low
to high: C-G-D-A-E-G. Fripp seems to get a lot of coverage, which I
think is wholly justified. There's also a short 1992 foreword from Lee
Dickson, "guitar technician to Eric Clapton," who says he takes the book
on all tours.

There are several new profiles, particularly bassists, that (I think)
weren't included in the first edition, including Eddie Van Halen, Steve
Vai, Jaco Pastorius (I didn't know he died in '87!), Pat Metheny, Fripp,
Brian May and, remarkably, Syd Barrett. (Some of these may have been in
the first edition, which I borrowed for only a short time.) Most of the
other profiles have been updated. I think a lot of the new material
deals with technical innovations over the past 10 years.

All the four color is in the first 32 pages, which makes printing sense
(two 16-page signatures), but I thought there was more color later in
the book the last time.

It's paper, costs $25, and is published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
The ISBN number is: ISBN 0-679-74275-1. Lib of Cong: 92-53164.

I don't know about all the guitar books out there, but I'll jump to a
conclusion and say that this is one of the very best. The presentation
of information is absolutely brilliant -- a model for how-to books.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Thomas
Carnegie Mellon University

What is the best book on archtop guitars?

Jim

    Tom Wheeler's book "American Guitars" is an excellant referance book
    with tons of information and pictures of archtops from many differant 
    manufacturers.
    
    Dr. Tom Van Hoose's book on Super 400's is also an excellant book
    specifically about Gibson super 400's, L5's and other archtops. 
    
    If you want to see pretty pictures of archtops that you will probably
    never own, Akira Tsumura's book on his guitar collection is incredible,
    but not very acurate as far as the text is concerned. He owns most of
    the Gibson Citations, as well as lot's of pristene DiAngelicos,
    DiAquistos, Gretches, Epiphones, etc. 
    
    These are the best 3 that I am aware of. Tom Wheeler's book is probably
    the best referance book on guitars that you could invest in. 
    
    Mark
     

    In note 1016.(whatever) I mentioned Gruhn and Carter's "Electric
    Guitars & Basses, A Photographic History". At the time, I had just
    skimmed it. Having now had a chance to read it through, I am much more
    impressed, and it is now in my top ten guitar books list. I enjoyed it
    so much that I picked up the companion "Acoustic Guitars and Other
    Fretted Instruments" volume, which I found equally enjoyable.
    
    Both books are highly accurate, have excellent pictures of excellent
    instruments and are well written and edited. Either book puts pap like
    the Bacon & Day books to shame for quality of the research and of the
    instruments within. They are focused on the major US manufacturers, so
    they are not appropriate if you like pointy-headed things from The Land
    Of The Rising Sun (no, that's not an old folk tune popularized by Eric
    Burden, and no, I'm not referring to Rodan), but they do a reasonable
    job of giving a complete overview of the important instruments in the
    development of the guitar.
    
    Both get a high recommendation from me, and are reasonably priced for
    their quality and size, especially with Barnes & Noble's 20% discount.
    
    I also picked up B&D's new Rickenbacker book, which doesn't seem to add
    anything to the much more comprehensive book from Smith. I know their
    books are very popular, but I can't figure out why.
    
    Danny W.