Guitars: A Celebration of Pure Mojo

And want to read more about their history in an accessible, non-academic format, get this book. If you like learning about famous, infamous, and just darn unusual guitars, get this book. If you like reading about the innovative makers and players, get this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and even though I am more of a fan of electrics than acoustics, I found the acoustic portions indispensable to my knowledge of the instrument.

From the introduction: "Guitars: A Celebration of Pure Mojo features approximately 500 guitars. Its aim is not to quantify, qualify, or analyze, nor does it try to speak to the scholar, social historian, or dyed-in-the-wool collector. This is a celebration of the instrument - famous instruments and forgotten instruments, milestone designs and dead-end experiments, ravishing beauties and instruments as bluntly functional as a hammer." I've read many guitar books and the instruments that this book covers, in a little over 300 pages, is amazing - instruments I've not seen covered in other, bigger publications. There is not a great deal of text, but what there is is valuable - the essential details. Excellent quality pictures for such a small format. Not for those who want to distinguish between, say a '54 and '55 Stratocaster, but there are plenty of other books that try to do that. If you only want one guitar reference book buy this one! If you already have other books, buy this anyway! Its small enough to fit in your pocket on those trips to the flea market.

ISBN 978-0-7611-3800-6 --- 4X6" ---520 pages. This is the most incredible book I have ever seen on guitars...nearly 500 pictured in beautiful color, with editorial comments on the development of many guitars. Excellent!! You won't be sorry!

This book is great. I've been playing guitar on and off for 30 years and I have not seen a book like this. It's informative, the pictures are very clear, for a book this size and it educates at the same time. I know more and remember more about the old and new guitars, artists and luithers than I did before I bought this book. I was disappointed at first by it's size, but I realized later, it fits in your back pocket, so you can take it anywhere!

truly amazing book. awesome pix. beautiful prose. A celebration of pure mojo, indeed. if only it came in a scratch-n-sniff version!