4.52am Issue: 011 4th December 2016

Haynes – Paul Balmer
Build Your Own Electric Guitar
Over the last few years, Haynes have
done a fantastic job in expanding their
reach from their traditional Car
Maintenance Guides, and have created
some of the most entertaining and
interesting books around. It takes a
certain, self-awareness to be able to do
that sort of thing, and you have to wish
them well.
Of course being a Guitar Geek, it is their
Guitar books that particularly interest me
(although if anybody local is reading and
thinking Millennium Falcon Workshop
Manual, you wouldn’t be a million miles
away) and having their Gibson SG and
Fender Telecaster books on the shelf, I
was really interested to see how the Build
Your Own Electric Guitar one stood up
against them.
And I have to say from the off it is
beautifully written. Photos of course are
high quality and meaningful, focussing on
the things you will struggle with as well as
the simpler tasks that you probably think
you know how to do already, but will
happily ‘double check’.
I suppose the key question is whether
you could sit down with the book and
nothing else and having bought parts
recommended end up with a working
guitar, and on balance I say that you
could. Would it be the best playing
guitar ever? Probably not, but then
neither are Fenders or Gibsons when
they leave the factory, you always need
them tailored to your own style, after
all, but saying that the book could quite
easily act as a set-up guide, so with
time – why not?
All of which sounds negative, but isn’t
at all, as I honestly think anybody can
make a guitar from parts, and if I had
had this book to hand a few years ago,
I would probably have a lot more hair
and have made a lot better guitars right
from the start.
Go check it out Here – this could well
be the perfect Xmas present for the
guitarist in your life.