A Good Read: Complete Guitar Repair
By Nick Carter
Complete Guitar Repair by Hideo Kamimoto is a good primer on all that is involved in the “set-up, restoration and construction of the acoustic and electric guitar.” The book begins with details of the construction of various guitars, then moves on to a chapter on general repair information such as the workshop, tools, clamps, glues, wood, and strings.
Then we get a chapter on guitar adjustments, a chapter on the action and scale including tuning. Later chapters focus on specific areas such as the peghead, machine head, neck and fingerboard (with fret calculations), frets, fretting, the bridge, etc. Then the book moves on to repair, such as cracks and missing pieces, touch up and refinishing. A final chapter discusses electric guitar pickups and controls.
The book is not an exhaustive reference but a great guide to the overall tasks involved in bringing an old guitar back to life. Many little tricks and tips throughout have application in other fields. It’s definitely a somewhat dated book however — we’d love to hear of other favorite guitar repair books used by Toolmongers. The book’s available for about $14.00 used and $18.45 new from Amazon w/ SS shipping.
Thanks to Amazon.com for use of the photo of the book.
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December 26th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Guitar Player Repair Guide By Dan Erlewine is up to date and pretty definitive.
Stewmac.com has lots of cool books and tools. Also, I’d love to see Dan’s workshop.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Great resource. There is so much value in reading this material just to keep your un damaged guitar in good working order. A little knowlege of how the strings should be set up will reveal that even brand new out of the store guitars are often badly set up and suffer poor sound. Good news is you can make it better - get the book or something similar!