Brian Forbes: Acoustic Guitar Making

[peter havriluk]

Full title: Acoustic Guitar Making How to make Tools, Templates, and Jigs

Santa brought me a copy of this book yesterday. About the size of a great big telephone book. I thought it was a rational presentation of what a scratchbuilder ought to be familiar with, and have thought about, before starting a project. To my eyes, he sent away a lot of the bones-and-feathers part of lutherie and assigned reasonable importance to a whole lot of topics.

I have become spoiled by digital color pictures and the gray-ghost halftone illustrations were hard for me to use to shake detail out of.

Anyone have a professional reaction/comment/observation?

[Oli K_]

I have this - I bought it after reading Cumpiano and John Williams' books. I found most of the book really helpful. As someone unfamiliar with a lot of general tools / power tools / wood working terms this book there was a lot in here I needed to know. The pictures aren't great, they just about do the job. His sections on what to focus on to improve the tone of guitars (bridge design, bracing ideas) is straight forward - as you say 'sends away the bones and feathers'.

For someone starting out who doesn't have a lot of 'shop' knowledge this is a great companion to the standard build-a-guitar books. The guy also has a great diy attitude which was a great antidote to my initial plans of buying everything stew mac had!