Woodworking with the Router: A Review
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.