Official Luthiers Forum!

Deat Luthier Community!

I'm quite new here. Sadly or fortunately I have so much work to do, that I don't have time to read forums, just when I need an answer for a question... Now, the situation is the same. Sorry for that, and thanks for anyone, who can help me in the following matter:

The hungarian school of music-instrument makers is changing it's owner school at these days, and because of the conversion, they've got the choice to somewhat expand their library. They asked me to think about, which books about lutherie would worth buying. Now the library is almost empty in the topics of making picking instruments (guitars, mandolins, lutes, etc. not even thinking about the more exotic instruments), and they have about one book on guitar repairing. So the situation is terrible.

Some months ago I gifted them some of my books, the following:

Irving Sloane: Classic guitar construction
Jim Williams: A guitar maker's manual
Donald Brosnac: Guitar electronics for musicians
They also have a book about guitar repair from Irving Sloane

So the question: Could you help me suggest quality books about making and repairing picking instruments? One more thing is also important. The books should be able to buy from amazon or other company.

Thanks!

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hangszerelem.blogspot.hu

There are not that many books on building and repairing. I think it would be useful to have them all. I practially have them all in my own personal library.

For repair, you probably want to try both volumes of The Acoustic Guitar: Adjustment, Care, Maintenance and Repair, by Don Teeter.

I have some of the books mentioned around here a lot. For the most part they were clear as mud (to me). My building skills shot up real quick when I started purchasing Robbie O'Brien's online guitar videos, wish I had done it sooner.
I don't know if that would be practical in your situation but I think it's worth looking into.


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Robert Lundberg's "Historical Lute Construction" and Roy Courtnall's "Making Master Guitars"(both on Amazon) are two books on building that would get my vote.
Hideo Kamamoto's "Complete Guitar Repair" is a good basic repair book (also on Amazon).

The Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine is full of useful info on maintenance/repair and at 20$ on amazon, you can't go wrong.
Making Master Guitars by Roy Courtnall shows how to build classical guitars.
Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology by William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan D. Natelson

Those three books were what I started with and in my opinion they are very good references.

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Not much but at least it exists : http://jbluthier.com/

Would books written in English be of much value in a Hungarian school? I've know lots of Hungarian ex-pats by the way nice folks. Good luck on your search.


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Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar by Jonathan Kinkead is a very clear photographic guide to making an acoustic guitar.

John Bogdanovich's book is also very good. Lots of pretty pictures


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Zolli there are so many great books on lutherie, it/s kind of hard to start. My current favorites are the 2 gore/gilet books from australia. and the latest book on classical guitar making by jose romanillos .In my opinion they are very different books that espouse very different aspects coming from very different backgrounds. There is a mainly hand tool approach with the outcome of creating a guitar that sounds hopefully Spanish.Then there is what I call the new OZ sound, falcate bracing, live backs. lattice bracing, lots of epoxy and other great new ideas, etc etc . Then there is another 2 books written by ex- hungarian ervin somogyi, which again is a totally different approach to guitarmaking.Speaking hungarian myself I would hesitate to recommend the books to another hungarian , unless the hungarian reader had a good command and understanding of english. Don/t ask me why ?.For whatever linguistic reasons english and understanding it is very difficult for hungarian speakers legyel jo Tomi.

Thanks for all the answers, tomorrow I'll check the recommended books!

Of course, you mentioned the two biggest problem with this initiative, the one is: where to begin, and the other is: it's hard to read a book in foreign language... There are probably one or two book written in hungarian about luthier stuff. The first is the schoolbook now, the other is not really serious. But even the first is mostly about general questions, and not going in details. So, having this situation, the students should be most motivated to learn foreign languages to get some real knowledge. They also have some language courses, so if they really want, they can read the books. If I (and I'm sure, more other luthiers too) would have time, I'd love to translate some of these great books, or even write a new one, but that just doesn't fit in my life now... For the first question: We have nice workshops and good luthiers in Hungary who make electric guitars. But we have really few, who craft acoustic, historical, or classical guitars... The school takes 3 years and mostly making practice all the time in one chosen workshop. We had three days in one month to have the theoretical knowledge. The remaining time was working in workshops, which could be more or less fortunate. The more fortunate mates worked at a place, where they could grow in their abilities, and could be creative (gladly I was studying at a place like this). The less fortunate are employed in a well known shop, and they make the same repetitive task for 3 years, and then mostly say goodbye, because the workshop will have the new generation of students for free... So, for these guys it'd be most important to have good books, where they can find a lot of stuff, what they can't get otherwise.

So thanks everyone for the nice recommendations!

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hangszerelem.blogspot.hu

I think I own every book concerning guitar construction and repair, with the exception of Trevor Gore's book with his accomplice Mr. Gillet, please excuse me if I spelled that wrong. I will acquire it soon. Of them all I gave away Ervin Simongyi's books as well as Compiano and Natelson's. Sorry if I'm spelling everyone's name wrong. I'm sure they make sense to some but the abundance of contradiction made my head hurt. I love James Joyce, but of course that's purely fiction based on life experience. Oops! Good luck with your endeavor, and sometimes you read things so you know how wrong it is.

Tim