The Guitar Player Repair Guide, Third Edition: How to Set Up, Maintain and Repair Electrics and Acoustics

I saw this book ridiculed on 'Dave's World of Fun Stuff' on Youtube - but the guy on there constantly referred to it for tables on how to set up guitarsI have so many different guitars I thought buying it would give me the tables to set them up. It does, but there's about 3 pages total of the book for the tables, and I could no doubt have got them off the internet, now I think about itHOWEVER - this book is fantastic. Every angle of every detail of everything I could ever think of is in it, and I don't regret buying it for an instant. I saw Erlewine speak on Youtube and I thought the text would be tedious, but it reads wellI'd read this book even if I DIDN'T have a load of guitars and a desire to set them up right. The book even tells you how to pack an amp for transportation - more tips than you can imagine

Dan Erlewine is the man when it comes to guitar maintenance and repair. He is a pioneer of many techniques and tools used by many luthiers round the world. I think this book is a great addition to any guitarist's library, whether you want to do simple set up jobs on your own guitars, or go all out and rewire a new set of pick ups or level your frets. Of course, it won't give you all answers, but will help you ask the right questions.

A comprehensive guide about a vast subject. Obviously it doesn't cover every part of every guitar ever made, but I've learned a lot from it. It's the best of it's kind that I've found. I still haven't plucked up the courage to try anything complicated on my own guitars but I understand more of what my guitar tech is talking about now.

This book is very detailed but the chapter on intonation is limited, and is the reason i bought the book so i could troubleshoot intonation problems but it doesn't give any details on how to resolve or why - it just tells you how to set it up. Hopefully a re-write will fix this as its probably one of the most important aspects of a guitar setup.

And rock, but a little lacking for classical.I got this to help me care for the electrics and semi acoustics in my care, though, so it suits me down to the ground. Speaking of which, this is a very down to earth guide, though a tad verbose and under-edited. Covers as many aspects of maintenance and repair as most reasonable people will feel competent to address in a way that encourages responsible maintenance and repair.The constant exhortation to practice on scrap may see the price of the raddled planks on ebay peak, though, as guitar guru wannabes like me seek out victims. I mean suitable guitars to practice on. If you are thinking about doing anything more technical than tuning your guitar, consider buying this. There are other good guitar books out there, but this has a range of information that should fit most. Unless you want to be a luthier. Even so, this would be worth having, but you would need a number of other books as well.

An excellent reference book. It will guide you through best practice with regard to set ups and repairs and for those repairs that are beyond your personal DIY skill level, you will have a good idea of what is required of a professional repairman and so can better judge whether you feel trusting your repair to somebody. The text is very well set out with plenty of photographs to illustrate points. For instruments that are in generally good condition, the fine tuning, set up process to get them playing at their best to suit your personal taste and maintain them is quite straight forward and provided that you have some basic tools and patience you can achieve very good results.

This must be the ultimate DIY guitar repair guide. I believe anyone would find what they're looking for in this book. It covers general setup and repair applying to any model, acoustic or electric. Illustrations may be small, and only in black and white, but the important ones are sharp and detailed. I'd be hard pressed to find a problem with my Les Paul (I now have my Gibson Les Paul tuned to perfection by the aid of this book) or Strat copy that isn't covered here. If you're not afraid to give soldering a go, you'll find most schematics needed for electronics repair here. Be warned, though: Some of the procedures described here are not for people with multiple thumbs on each hand. Intelligently enough, the author issues warnings about this. All procedures are marked with the appropriate level of skill needed to succeed. There's also a DVD for the vintage buyer and would-be-repairer. It's not a complete guide in itself, but shows a few of the procedures described in the book, mostly concerning vintage assessment and repair. If you're only buying one guitar repair manual, this one should probably be it.

Dan Erlewine is undoubtably a world leader in guitar setup, maintenance and repair. In addition to being a treasure trove of guitar knowledge, he has a writing/teaching style that is simple, straight forward yet absolutely comprehensive. I have read similar books by other authors and none of them come remotely close to this one. If you are interested in guitar setup, maintenance and repair then don't bother with any books or videos unless Dan Erlewine is the author.