Looking for a guitar building ebook? Then look no further than Martin Koch’s Building Electric Guitars Ebook.

I highly recommend this ebook. Like its hard copy version, it takes you step by step through the design, building and set up of solid-body, hollowbody and semi-acoustic electric guitars. I reached for it over and over again while working on my first project guitar. And unlike other guitar building books on the market, this one includes information on headless guitars.

Click to view a sample chapter and purchase the book – Building Electric Guitars Ebook.

For my review, go here. If you prefer, you can get a hard copy here – Building Electric Guitars.

And for more guitar building books and resources, check out Building Guitars – 10 Resources to Get Started.

Although less well known than Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar, Martin Koch’s Building Electric Guitars – How to Make Solid-Body, Hollow-Body and Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars is a fine work with excellent content and its own approach. It was my primary reference while building my first guitar project so I had the opportunity to use it in depth.

Like any good book on the subject, it covers all the expected areas: the nature of wood, basic tools needed during construction, building the guitar body, making the guitar neck, routing pickup and control cavities, etc. Koch accomplishes this in straightforward language in combination with a generous number of photos. It’s ideal as a workshop reference.

However, don’t expect a master course in guitar finishing. Koch focuses on construction and appropriately sticks to basic finishing involving the use of Danish Oil and wax.

Koch’s book does add an interesting twist not found in Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar. It actually covers, albeit briefly, headless guitars! My first build was a headless guitar and this was one of the first references I found that even addressed their existence. It was encouraging to go into my project with this book at my side.

So, do I recommend the book? Absolutely. Martin Koch’s Building Electric Guitars covers the essentials well, includes coverage of headless guitars (an important topic at BTEG) and successfully guided me through my very first guitar project. Anyone getting started in electric guitar making will benefit from it.

And for those who prefer an electronic format, Koch’s guitar making book is also available as a PDF ebook.

Guitarmaking: Tradition And Technology by William Cumpiano and Jonathan Natelson covers the art and science of acoustic guitar building like no other book on the market. A comprehensive text, the book is a step by step guide to both steel string and classical guitar construction.

According to its authors, they were encouraged to write this book by their observations of what was available among guitarmaking publications:

We observed …that when the quality of the information was good, it could only be found either in summary form or in obscure or widely diffused sources.

Our idea was to create something that could be used either as a workshop manual for the student guitar builder or simply as a general reference on good guitarmaking technique – for woodworkers who might simply be interested in seeing how it’s done, or for guitar players and enthusiasts who would benefit from learning how good instruments are made.

And the result is truly extraordinary – close to 400 pages take you through all the critical elements in producing an acoustic guitar. Illustrations and photographs throughout the book compliment the clear and thorough text. Although I typically prefer color, nothing suffers from the use of black and white images.

The only criticism I have has nothing to do with the book’s content but the choice of a glue binding. A book this size, which will see regular use in the workshop, will not hold up well although this is tempered by the reasonable price of such an impressive work.

Cumpiano, btw, builds wedge acoustic guitars like we’ve seen from Charles Fox and Linda Manzer. Too bad there isn’t a section on wedge guitars. Maybe we’ll see this in a future edition?

If you are interested in exploring acoustic guitar design and construction, I highly recommend Cumpiano’s Guitarmaking: Tradition And Technology as your primary reference.

Wood Identification and Use is an essential reference handbook on the nature of wood – including working properties, seasoning, figuring and wood toxicity.

Does it surprise you that wood might be toxic? Alder, one of the most commonly used guitar body woods, can cause dermatitis, rhinitis, and bronchial problems in dust form. Mahogany, the other most commonly used guitar wood, has been linked to all of these and even nasal cancer! Things get even more interesting when you start dealing with exotic woods. Wenge, for example, exhibits the following toxic effects in wood and dust form:

Splinters go septic, irritation of eyes, skin and respiratory system; dermatitis, giddiness, drowsiness, visual problems, stomach cramps

Clearly, lung protection is essential. I chose to protect myself with this quicklatch dual cartridge respirator. Not only does it provide far greater protection than the common paper mask, it also protects against vapors released by many guitar finishing products.

Protecting your hands is also important and nitrile gloves protect against harmful chemicals and exposure.

Ultimately, what makes Wood Identification and Use such a great resource is its organization. The Wood Directory contains a one page synopsis for every species – including a beautiful color photo, typical dry weight at 12% humidity, density, working properties, seasoning characteristics, durability, possible health risks, where it grows and typical uses. It’s everything you need to know about a species of wood at a glance. I suggest adding it to your guitar building bookshelf alongside Woodworking with the Router and Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar.

Woodworking with the Router by Bill Hylton is the one router book the aspiring guitar maker should have on the reference shelf. You’re going to spend a great deal of time around wood routers – incredible tools for shaping the guitar body, routing out pickup and control cavities, cutting out truss rod channels etc. And with a bit of ingenuity, you’ll build jigs for purposes such as radiusing a fingerboard, planing a board flat, etc. But routers are also potentially dangerous tools that can spin a cutting edge at 22,000 rpm. They demand you learn to operate one safely and effectively.

Fortunately, this book contains everything you must know about wood routers. It covers safety, technique, possible problem areas, router tables and jigs. It’s well written with detailed yet concise information throughout. The pages are laid out in good sized text with plenty of whitespace and sharp photographs making it ideal for the shop environment. And, practically every page contains color photographs and illustrations to bring ideas home. Before starting my first guitar build, I didn’t just read this book, I consumed it. I lacked any woodworking experience going into my first guitar and I couldn’t have made it without this book.

Combine Hylton’s Woodworking with the Router with a great book on guitar making like Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar, some practice and lots of patience and you’ll successfully build your own guitar as well.

If guitar building is in your future, Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock is one of the very best books on the subject. Hiscock tackles all the important aspects of guitar construction – design, building the guitar neck and body, wiring pickups and controls, basic finishing, wood choices and tools – through black and white photographs and a relaxed writing style that any budding luthier can understand.

The first several chapters are an excellent overview of the basic choices in making your own electric guitar. Do you want a bolt on neck like a Fender or a set neck like a Gibson? What neck scale do you want? Should you go with a fixed bridge or a tremolo bridge? What woods should use for the body and neck?

The next four chapters take you through a Strat style guitar, a Tele style guitar, an eight string bass and thoughts on designing your custom guitar by combining elements from these different types.

With the basic guitar complete, the remaining chapters cover finishing your guitar, electronics and guitar setup.

Now in its second edition, there isn’t much to fault in this bible for electric guitar makers. Nevertheless, I would like to suggest a few things. While the black and white photos are good, there’s no substitute for color photos. Also, the sample guitar builds should go beyond variations of Fender inspired designs. Finally, I’d welcome coverage of newer guitar parts, construction materials and designs. In particular, I’d like to see headless guitar coverage and the use of composite materials (think Parker Guitars).

My suggestions aside, Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar is a thorough, informative and even entertaining resource for the up and coming electric guitar builder. You’ll learn what questions to ask, what problems to anticipate and be well on your way to designing and building your own guitar.

While you’re there, you’ll also want to see their inverted pin router – just the thing for building guitars quickly and efficiently.

Guitar Parts Central runs weekly specials which post every Monday. In past weeks, their weekly specials have included the following:

• Pickguards 20% off
• All roller tremolo kits $36 each
• All locking nuts $14 each
• Radius blocks $8
• 20% off all Tele bridges
• All Bass Tune-O-Matics $39.95
• Wilkinson Bass Tuners $7.50 each

In addition, they offer free shipping on orders over $99 (see their site for details). If there’s something you don’t see, then ask them. They’re anxious to hear from their customers. In the process, you’ll be supporting a great vendor as well as a sponsor for this guitar blog.

Bill Foley’s Build Your Own Electric Guitar: Custom Guitar Assembly Made Easy is written primarily for the aspiring guitar maker interested in assembling a custom guitar from parts or from a guitar kit (such as those available from Saga).

With a straightforward approach, Build Your Own Electric Guitar does an excellent job of explaining topics such as how an electric guitar works, the choices you’ll have to make, the steps in assembly, how to set up your guitar and even basic guitar finishing. And, while I generally prefer color photographs, the numerous drawings and diagrams do a fine job of illustrating points throughout the book.

The book is also a useful introduction for guitarists who simply want to know more about how a guitar works. Although not absolutely necessary, there’s always value in knowing how your tools work and this is no less true for the guitar player. There’s also the additional benefit of becoming a more informed consumer. Like any other field, a great deal of misinformation exists and Foley’s book cuts through the noise while being easy to understand.

While not often mentioned in guitar building circles, Bill Foley’s Build Your Own Electric Guitar: Custom Guitar Assembly Made Eas is a fine contribution to the field of guitar making. As a solid introductory text, it has its place alongside more advanced guitar making books like Melvyn Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar.

1. Martin Koch’s Building Electric Guitars – If I could make just one recommendation, it would be to start with a book. You could assemble all the information you need to build a guitar just from internet resources. However, if you don’t have the patience of a saint, you will find this very frustrating. In addition, starting with a book will give you the broad overview and perspective you’ll need in order to ask intelligent questions of fellow guitar builders. And, believe me – you’ll have lots of questions. Martin Koch’s book takes you through the process of how to make a guitar with mostly basic hand and power tools – a key for getting started. Read my review. It’s also available as an ebook.

2. Melvyn Hiscock’s Make Your Own Electric Guitar – This is another highly recommended guitar building book which also takes you through the various steps. Many builders swear by it and consider it the bible on making electric guitars. With a forward by Brian May of Queen, it’s hard to go wrong. See my book review.

3. Project Guitar – This was one of my earliest discoveries and is still an important one for me. Among its resources are over 200 tutorials related to making guitars, finishing guitars, etc. You can’t go wrong with these for instructions and ideas. It is also the home to my next top resource.

4. Project Guitar Forum – Without a doubt, this is my favorite resource for ongoing questions and discussions about guitar building. Although technically a part of Project Guitar, it has so much value on its own I felt it deserved its own mention. Project Guitar Forum is an active forum of talented amateur guitar builders as well as professional luthiers who are genuinely interested in sharing ideas and thoughts with both the experienced and the inexperienced. The quality of discussion here is generally high and I go here almost daily.

5. Reranch – At some point in your build, guitar finishing techniques will come up. Reranch, a finishing supplies vendor, has several overviews of finishing techniques which can prove helpful. It also hosts an active guitar finishing forum where you can ask questions from a friendly bunch.

6. Stewart MacDonald – Aka Stew Mac, this vendor is one I think every guitar builder should familiarize him or herself with. Their catalog alone is a wealth of information giving you insight into the variety of options that exist when making guitars. They are also one of the premier vendors of tools specifically designed for guitar building and luthiery.

7. Kingbass.com’s Soldering Tutorial for the Mechanically Challenged – At some point you’ll have to solder and while there are several resources on the net for soldering, this particular one is clear, concise and focused on guitar and bass.

8. Warmoth – Another vendor I recommend guitar builders familiarize themselves with. They sell high quality bodies and necks with a variety of customizable options. They also have a very useful overview of different body woods and their effect on tone – Body Woods. This question comes up often and this is a quick reference on the subject.

For details such as working properties, seasoning, figuring and wood toxicity I suggest the highly regarded Wood Identification and Use. For more, see my review.

9. Guitar Nuts – If you can get past the minor annoyance of a pop-under window that shows several vendors that help support the site, Guitar Nuts is a wonderful resource for wiring. However, read carefully. You are dealing with electricity and safety is paramount.

10. Basic Guitar Setup Tips – Once you’ve built your guitar, you’ll have to set it up to make sure your action is good, pickups are at the right height, intonation is set, etc. This is one of the better sites I’ve come across on the subject.

Being a newcomer to woodworking, I thought I’d list a few of the resources I have found helpful in developing enough of an understanding to undertake this project.

There are two books I find incredibly helpful. They are as follows:

• Woodworking With the Router by Bill Hylton – if you only purchase one book about routers and router techniques, this is the one. Everything you absolutely must know is in here. The book is well written – detailed yet concise. Plenty of color photographs help bring the material home. Note: The original edition contains only black and white photos which aren’t as good at communicating information. Get the new one. Besides the color photographs, content has been expanded and improved.
• Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish by Bob Flexner – Like Woodworking With the Router, this is another “bible” regarding its subject matter. If you’ve looked around the web, talked to people about finishing techniques or explored the sites of finish product manufacturers, you’ve probably come across a great deal of voodoo about the subject. Bob Flexner gets you past all the nonsense and old wives’ tales. Here is detailed information on the various categories of finishing products, information on how to apply them as well as information on troubleshooting and correcting problems. Buy it. Buy it now.

Apart from these two books, tool catalogs are a great resource. I particularly like the Lee Valley catalog. However, it is rather specialized so you shouldn’t forget more common sources such as Sears. Flipping through these you begin to develop a better understanding of what’s out there to help you accomplish a given task. Flip through these with a critical eye though.

It’s tempting to buy every tool and device that suggests that it is the best tool for the job or will shave time off your project. Think about what you have and how it might be repurposed. For example, a bandsaw may be an ideal tool for cutting out a guitar body but a jigsaw, a much more common tool in the small workshop, will do the job as well. Do a rough cut with the jigsaw, follow it up with a rasp to take away some additional material and you’re ready to proceed with the router.

Another wonderful yet underutilized resource is the public library system. What your local library doesn’t have on its shelves may very well be available through a lending network. Oftentimes, you can obtain books from other libraries simply by requesting them through your local library or through an online system. I took advantage of this and tracked down all sorts of books on woodworking – from the very general to the very specific. I went online, performed my searches, made my requests and picked up books from my local library often within a day or two of my request. Go look into this resource.