Guitar books?

Troy

Hi,

Could people recommend some guitar books please? I don't mean the ones that teach you how to play, more like the history of them, e.g. history of Gibson/Fender, etc.. 

Cheers,

Troy

Winny_Pooh

Fender: the golden age

RandallFlagg

The Blackguard Book (Nacho Bano): http://www.theblackguardbook.com

The Beauty of the Burst: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-Burst-Gibson-Sunburst-Pauls/dp/0793573742

The Stratocaster Chronicles: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stratocaster-Chronicles-Celebrating-Years-Fender/dp/0634056786/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474367746&sr=1-1&keywords=stratocaster+chronicles

The Guitar Collection: An Elite Gathering of 150 Exceptional Guitars (huge book in it's own guitar style case!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Collection-Gathering-Exceptional-Guitars/dp/1603801715


I have all these and more and these are the best.

scrumhalf

Have a look at the secondhand books on Amazon.

I have a periodic trawl and have picked up some real bargains.

Search for things in the price range of £0.00 to £0.01. They aren't usuallly covered by Prime but postage seems to be an almost universal £2.80.

On my last trawl I picked up Tony Bacon's books on classic guitars of the 50s andd 60s, £2,81 each including postage.

WezV

The Tony Bacon books are usually very good

I wouldn't touch   Beauty of the burst unless you are really into that specific topic.  I do have it, I rarely look at it past the initial flick through.  Its a good reference book, not a good read.

Although 2 specialist books I would recommend are the P.A Bigsby and Red Special ones.  These are a good read in their own right, even if the specific guitars they cover are not your thing.  

WezV

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Paul-Bigsby-Father-Electric/dp/0615243045

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brian-Mays-Special-Simon-Bradley/dp/1780972768

Gassage

@wezv

The Ultimate Guitar Book- Bacon and Day 1991

I was just perusing it and found this in there- I have played this very same bass, many times. Worth a small fortune, certainly six figures.

WezV

yes, I have that one.  It was my first guitar book,  and many of the old guitars I still lust after are because of it

Gassage

WezV said:

yes, I have that one.  It was my first guitar book,  and many of the old guitars I still lust after are because of it

Mine too!

OK- when I first got that book I lusted after this for years...the main strat

Still love it.

markv

+1 for the Brian May Red Special book, it's fascinating.

It's a bit of a beast and quite old now (not sure if there's an updated version) but I really like "Electric Guitars: the Illustrated Encyclopedia"

Neil

Being interested in electric guitar history I have a lot of books but Fender, the Golden age is the really evocative one.

ESBlonde

This is a must:
Gil Hembree: Gibson Guitars - Ted McCarty's Golden Era
There's only one published book on 335s and it's a bit Meh...but
Adrian Ingram - the Gibson 335 (correction Tony Bacon has done one to be released 1st November 2016, I must order it).

on that note, pretty much anything written by Tony Bacon.
Specifically
The Ultimate guitar book
Million Dollar les paul
Six decades of the Fender Telecaster

On amplifiers,
Tom Wheeler - the Soul of Tone, 60 years of Fender Amplifiers (take a deep breath when you press buy it).
Tom also wrote the Stratocaster chronicles

Michael Doyle - The History of Marshall
David Peterson - The Vox Story. (I have yet to read this, its £100 and has quite a good reputation).

Those off the top of my head.

mikeyrob73

+1 for 
The Ultimate guitar book
Million Dollar les paul

Richardj

George Fullerton's history of G&L is really interesting, it actually gives a lot of the background story to Leo Fender that I hadn't seen before. A much more personal perspective.

Rocker

The book of ORANGE by Cliff Cooper.  Text and Research Martin Celmins.

Interesting book outlining the history of ORANGE.  No circuit details of their amps but lots of pictures of the various ORANGE amps sold down the years.  And a good explanation of the ORANGE Graphics.

octatonic

The Chinery Collection is excellent.
Hard to find for non-silly money now though.

octatonic

The Chinery Collection is excellent.
Hard to find for non-silly money now though.

pintspiller

I had a great book on SGs that I leant to somebody I worked with years ago. The fucker didn't give it back. I hope their dick falls off.