The Box Maker S Guitar Book

If you've ever wanted to make a guitar, you probably got overwhelmed quickly. The Boxmaker's Guitar Book takes you back to basics with the simple reminder that all woodworkers and maker's know how to make boxes. From that building block, you can create a beautiful guitar that sounds good, too. With simple construction techniques, author Doug Stowe breaks down the guitar into its component parts so you can mix and match to create your own unique instrument. You'll learn how to create sound holes, necks, frets, nuts, tail pieces, bridges, and all the pieces you need to complete your musical masterpiece. The 15 easy projects in The Boxmaker's Guitar include more than just a flat-sided box--try your hand at a scissor-tail or K-body design, or even a ukulele. With a minimal investment of time and tools, you can have a sweet-sounding box guitar to strum on your own or give to a friend.

Cigar box guitars have never been more popular and now crafters can learn to make their own. All they need to do is follow the author's step-by-step instructions for making three different styles of guitar. They're fun (some would say addictive) to build and even more fun to play.

"Renowned luthier John S. Bogdanovich crafted the project shown inside for his own personal use. The design he presents is simple but elegant and is a composite of ideas borrowed from several different guitars admired for their tonal qualities and aesthetic details. In close-up photographs Bogdanovich invites you to stand by his side and follow the entire process from start to finish. He offers guidance through every step, and explains every decision, from the arrangement of his workbench and the selection of the wood, to tuning and setting up the instrument. Bogdanovich also provides a choice of alternative methods and materials -- to help you find your own style of working, and to enable you to add your personal touches to your project. By the time your instrument is finished, you'll have acquired a world of knowledge, from the difference between quartersawn and flat-sawn wood to the pros and cons of lacquer versus French polish. You'll have mastered dozens of skills, including bending and aminating wood and cutting and seating wire frets. Best of all, you'll have a beautiful instrument, designed to your own specifications, that will give pleasure to everyone who hears it." -- Book jacket.

This book presents the authentic stories of American DIY music with step-by-step projects, photo studies of antique instruments, interviews with music legends, and historical accounts. Shane Speal, the “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,” shows how anyone can build amazing musical instruments from found items.

The first DIY book to use cutting-edge (and affordable) technology in appealing projects for fathers and daughters to do together.

"This book is a history of guitar making in the US since the folk revival of the 1960s. Based largely on the author's interviews, it includes chapters on the rise of the modern independent luthier movement, recent developments at Martin, at Gibson, and at Taylor- especially regarding the use of technology and ways it is in tension with these companies' traditions and ways it honors their traditions-the changing, though still robust market, and the effect of foreign competition on American builders"--

Publisher description

A deluxe photographic celebration of the unsung hero of guitar music—the effects pedal—featuring interviews with 100 musicians including Peter Frampton, Joe Perry, Jack White, and Courtney Barnett. Ever since the Sixties, fuzz boxes, wah-wahs, phase shifters, and a vast range of guitar effects pedals have shaped the sound of music as we know it. Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World’s Greatest Guitarists is a photographic showcase of the actual effects pedals owned and used by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Frank Zappa, Alex Lifeson, Andy Summers, Eric Johnson, Adrian Belew, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ed O’Brien, J Mascis, Lita Ford, Joe Perry, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid, Kaki King, Nels Cline and 82 other iconic and celebrated guitarists. These exquisitely textured fine-art photographs are matched with fresh, insightful commentary and colorfulroad stories from the artists themselves, who describe how these fascinating and often devilish devices shaped their sounds and songs.