Intro to electric guitars book? (Guitars, not playing)

I have a great one at my house that delves into the history of guitars in general. It covers pretty much every guitar ever made, aside from signature and more modern models. I'll post the name when I get home from work.

Matt

Thanks. Does it cover more of the technical aspects too? That is, I've seen various "History of famous guitars with cool pictures"-type books, but I'd like something that explains what those tone knobs do to the sound, or the sonic characteristics of P-90s and humbuckers, or (as above) what volume, master volume, and gain do on an amp, or what a Bigsby vibrato is like compared with other styles, or.... Well, I think everyone probably has the general idea by now :-)

i picked up "Totally Guitar (the definitive guide)" at Sams' club a few years back . it is a very comprehensive guide to just about anything you want to know about all types of guitars. it's as complete a book as i've ever seen, but not great on a lot of finite detail

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592231993?v=glance

from an editorial reviews description of the book;

Book Description
"Totally Guitar is the biggest and most complete book on the world's most popular instrument, full of expert tips and fascinating stories for both beginning and advanced players. An unrivalled guide to the guitar, here are the stories behind 100 key electric guitar makers, from Alembic to Zemaitis, with fabulous color photos of all the greatest models from the 1930s to the 2000s. Here too is advice on how to string, tune, set up, clean, maintain, and store a prized instrument. Add 1,250 bars of music, 250 chords, the biggest glossary of guitar terms ever assembled in one book, and hundreds of essential tips on 10 hot playing styles from acoustic to rock 'n' roll and the result is a modern bible for the guitar-obsessed. "

I was going to recommend that one too, just needed a CDDVD IMO to make it perfect

Followup:

I did pick up Totally Guitar; it's an interesting book--about half of it is a semi-useless summing-up of a lot of name-brand guitars, most of which you neither have nor want. But the book is a huge glossy hardcover, so for $30 one can't complain too much that it could have been 300 pages instead of 600. The front sections aren't bad--a lot of intro-level stuff on many aspects of guitars, covering construction, maintenance, etc. Then another section of dubious value with short but reasonably good introductions to a bunch of different playing styles. The ones I looked at did seem good, with extensive tab, but my overall point is just that I can't imagine someone wanting to learn blues or classical or alternate tunings using this book as an instruction manual.

In any case, I discovered a book I really like, Dave Hunter'sElectric Guitar Sourcebook: How to Find the Sounds You Like. It has an extensive introductory chapter that goes into good detail about various aspects of the guitar, and specifically how they sound. Then we get five chapters about different styles of electric guitars (Bolt-Neck Solidbodies; Set-Neck Solidbodies; Semi-Acoustics; etc.), with extensive discussions about _specific_ instruments, giving details about the construction, electronics, and, happily, the sound. And, there's a CD included with over 60 tracks showing the sound of a bunch of instruments (often split into bridge/neck pickups, adding OD, etc.).

I haven't read through it thoroughly yet, but it seems terrific, so I wanted to mention it if anyone else wanted such a book.

Dan Erlewine's book "How to make your electric guitar play Great!" is pretty good at the nuts and bolts of electric guitar construction.

Tom Wheeler's books are also pretty good.

JMHO!

here is a book on electronics i have --i also own the building your own electric guitar book(i also have a frankenstein of a guitar i tried to build) http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/Electronics/Guitar_Electronics_For_Musicians.html