The Electric Guitar
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
The Electric Guitar Details
About the Author Paul Trynka is the editor-in-chief of MOJO magazine, the respected international bible of rock'n'roll culture. He is founding editor of The Guitar Magazine, which recently celebrated its 10th birthday, has written for The Face, Elle, The Independent and others, is author of Portrait of The Blues (Da Capo) and is currently writing a book on the history of denim. Read more
Reviews
Considering how inexpensive this book is used or new, its a nice deal for the money. Its by no means the most in depth as its a combination of large pictures and text but its a good basic summary of the major trends in guitar technology that goes in depth at important junctures in guitar history. If you want something that is much more comprehensive, then I would get Play It Loud by Brad Tolinsky. That's 400 pages of mostly text while this book is 200 pages of photos and text. Also this book is dated, as it was written in 1992 and updated in 2002. It manages to cover some topics with a little more depth than some other books, surprisingly. For example, the short section on Steinberger basses, which was smart to cover as it had an effect on the make of all electric guitars, was more in-depth than a lot of other books. But its such a huge field that no one book can cover everything perfectly. The book is actually written by 8 or 9 people with expertise in various areas while the book is edited by Trynka. This is a good move as the various authors know their subjects. Not much on amps or effects pedals other than one short chapter. It is a unique survey of people and guitars that is not like every other book and some thought definitely went into the book. It has a point of view and I think absolutely worth buying certainly when you consider the low the price you can get it new or used, despite being out of print and not the most up to date. It actually has a more than few amateur mistakes with the layout (like shrinking down very detailed photos when a close up photo would be the obvious choice) and other design mistakes, but for the most part the layout is very appealing, and the large pictures go well with the text. It gets the important photos right, like close ups of the various parts of guitars that broke new ground. Although some major trends are not covered very in-depth, its a nice book that will make you that much more knowledgeable and I think will reward repeated readings as one become more knowledgeable about various periods and guitars covered by the book.