Official Luthiers Forum!

Thought it might be helpful also to have a list of books, plans, DVD's, courses, etc that we can document to help those of us learn more.

My main instructional books are the following:

"Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock...My main source...considered to be "the bible" by many

"Constructing a Solid-Body Guitar" by Roger H. Siminoff

"How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" by Dan Erlewine

I'm sure others will chime in with more.

Finally, having only built 4 electrics, I believe I've exhausted my sources of information and suppliers. I'm far from an expert and hope to learn a lot more from those who have made many and varied instruments. I'm already inspired and impressed with the number of folks who have already come forward showing an interest toward making this section a fun and rewarding flavor of the OLF. Keep up your involvement ...I have felt for some time that there is a lot of interest and creativity out there from acoustic builders who wish to try their hand in the other side of guitar-building. Let's make it happen!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Martin Koch has a website at http://buildyourguitar.com/ it's a great resource. I like his book "Building Electric Guitars" as much as Melvyn Miscock's book for the amount of good info. They each have info that the other doesn't, so it was worth it to me to buy both.

Frets.com is great for all types of guitars.

Any videos by Dan Erlewine is top notch - check Stewmac for his Repair Series - especially the Fretting and Maintenance/Setup videos. I have about 10-12 of these and they all have good stuff in them.

Check Stewmac for these books-
Trade Secrets Book volumes 1 and 2
Guitar Electronics For Musicians by Donald Brosnac
Guitar Player Repair Guide 3rd edition By Dan Erlewine
Fret Work Step By Step by Dan Erlewine
How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great By Dan Erlewine

Check out the website http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.php for tons of info on wiring up electrics.


These sites/books/videos are the ones that I have used and have really helped me the most.

Hope this helps-

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

A very well kept secret is that I have an electric guitar building DVD available through LMI. Red Rocks Community College instructor and electric guitar building extraordinaire Mike Snider and I show how to build a "stratish" style guitar from start to finish. We also are currently working on an advanced electric guitar building dvd. It will show how to build a "Les Paulish" type guitar from start to finish and even show how to do your own inlay. Mike is an expert inlay artist too. The good news is that LMI has discounted my DVD's 25% for the Christmas season.
http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Videos%2C+DVD%27s%2C+CD%27s&NameProdHeader=Build+a+Guitar+with+Robert+O%92Brien

Also, don't forget mimf for electric info.

http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/index.html

this guys has a made a few guitars and he doesn't use many tools. theres astep by step on how to make a les paul and a step by step on how to make a strat.

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

www.reranch.com

They are mostly about rebuilding (or refinishing) a guitar but there are guys there who also make electric guitars from scratch. One member has a CNC machine who can crank them out...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I have the first two books you state and they are great. I also recommend a book by Martin Oakham called "build your own electric guitar". Well worth taking a look at. I just recently picked one up on ebay and it is a well written and very well ilustrated with color photographs. I wish melvyn hiscock would upgrad his black and white photos to color with a little more detail. But its still a great book as is.

Cool, thanks guys, now i know exactly what to look for.
I love how people here really take the time to help others out along the way.
From amatuer to pro.
+karma

I really like Hiscock's sense of humor! Oakham's book, to me, did not have the detail that Hiscock's does. And, did I mention Hiscock's sense of humor?

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK