Posted on January 12, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Acoustic Guitar Guide by Larry Sandberg Review: The Acoustic Guitar Guide by Larry Sandberg Reviewed by Benjamin Hoff Originally published in American Lutherie #65, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 The Acoustic Guitar Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Buy and Maintain a New or Used Guitar, Revised and Updated Larry Sandberg A Cappella Books, 2000 ISBN 978-1556524189 The Acoustic Guitar Guide is a folksy book, filled with whimsical titles and subtitles, hee-haw humor, and cracker-barrel opinions, asides, and advice. So perhaps a folksy saying can be used to describe it: Jack of all trades and master of none. The book tries to cover too much territory from a limited perspective. The number one rule of writing — Write about what you know — has been ignored in several places by the author, who takes us into this area and that, only to tell us or show us that his knowledge of the area is limited. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 12, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Custom Guitars: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Handcrafted Guitars edited by Simone Solondz Review: Custom Guitars: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Handcrafted Guitars edited by Simone Solondz Reviewed by Benjamin Hoff Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Custom Guitars: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Handcrafted Guitars Edited by Simone Solondz String Letter Publishing, 2000 ISBN 978-1890490294 The creators of Custom Guitars had the opportunity, the resources, and the talent to bring into existence a ground-breaking book heralding today’s revolutionary age of guitar building. But.... Despite the claim of its hyperbolic subtitle, Custom Guitars is an incomplete and occasional guide that can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. It consists of eight skimpy chapters by various authors that could be (and possibly were) magazine articles, stretched out and separated by more than 200 color photographs of varying quality, followed by a list of 209 custom builders, a good many of whom — such as Guild, C.F. Martin, and Ovation — are manufacturers, not custom builders. The resulting assembly is a flashy but insubstantial piece of work, the literary equivalent of a factory guitar. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
