American Guitars details the year-to-year development of scores of individual models and covers the stories of all major U.S. manufacturers. Encyclopedic in form, it is extensively cross-referenced and highly readable and brims with tales of accidental discoveries, partnerships, rivalries, and feuds. Color and black-and-white photographs.
In 1974 Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug bought the American Dream, a small San Diego guitar building company where they were both working at the time. Like many young men in that period, Taylor and Listug had dreams of making their marks as luthiers. But unlike all of those other aspiring builders, Taylor and Listug were able to take a tiny workshop and turn it into one of the most successful guitar companies in American musical history. Taylor Guitars: 30 Years of a New American Classic tells the story of how Taylor and Listug took the American Dream and transformed it into a company that produces more than 70,000 high-quality guitars a year. This book features dozens of full-color photographs of many rare guitars including instruments Bob Taylor built before the company's founding, standard production models (including the acoustic bass and the new nylon string series), custom-built instruments, and special celebrity models.
A collectively authored work, although Carter, one of the contributors, is inexplicably given full credit for authorship on the title page and in the jacket copy and CIP (perhaps he's the editor). The history of Gibson guitars and the famous people who have played them is documented with abundant photos accompanied by explanatory text and captions. A splashy, flashy-looking book for the guitar and rock music enthusiast; over-exuberant page design makes for poor readability in some sections (e.g. text on top of not-quite-faded- enough maps). Published by General Publishing Group, 3100 Airport Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
(Book). Boutique Acoustics: 180 Years of Hand-Built Guitars tells the history behind the important acoustic guitar makers some recognizable, some obscure who all have played a key part in the evolution of the instrument and the myriad acoustic guitar models we have on the market today. The book covers the birth of the steel-string, the rise of small factories, the advent of "one-man shops," the origins of various trends in guitar construction the design of cutaways; the use of a variety of woods, polishes, and other aesthetic detailing; and the incorporation of high-tech materials, such as carbon fiber and Nomex and more. Makers covered include Ashborn, Bohmann, Bruno, Gibson, Guild, Tilton, Washburn, Martin, Bozo, Gallagher, Ernie Ball, Klein, Taylor, Bourgeois, Tony Yamamoto, Zimnicki, and others. Also included in this lavishly illustrated volume is a comprehensive guide to every significant US maker, descriptions of the most popular styles, and a detailed reference section about boutique guitar models.
Reunion is the awkward, tender meeting between a father and daughter after nearly twenty years separation. Dark Pony is the telling of a mythical story by a father to his young daughter as they drive home in the evening.
It whispers, it sings, it rocks, and it howls. It expresses the voice of the folk—the open road, freedom, protest and rebellion, youth and love. It is the acoustic guitar. And over the last five decades it has become a quintessential American icon. Because this musical instrument is significant to so many—in ways that are emotional, cultural, and economic—guitar making has experienced a renaissance in North America, both as a popular hobby and, for some, a way of life. In Guitar Makers, Kathryn Marie Dudley introduces us to builders of artisanal guitars, their place in the art world, and the specialized knowledge they’ve developed. Drawing on in-depth interviews with members of the lutherie community, she finds that guitar making is a social movement with political implications. Guitars are not simply made—they are born. Artisans listen to their wood, respond to its liveliness, and strive to endow each instrument with an unforgettable tone. Although professional luthiers work within a market society, Dudley observes that their overriding sentiment is passion and love of the craft. Guitar makers are not aiming for quick turnover or the low-cost reproduction of commodities but the creation of singular instruments with unique qualities, and face-to-face transactions between makers, buyers, and dealers are commonplace. In an era when technological change has pushed skilled artisanship to the margins of the global economy, and in the midst of a capitalist system that places a premium on ever faster and more efficient modes of commerce, Dudley shows us how artisanal guitar makers have carved out a unique world that operates on alternative, more humane, and ecologically sustainable terms.
The American guitar, that lightweight wooden box with a long neck, hourglass figure, and six metal strings, has evolved over five hundred years of social turmoil to become a nearly magical object—the most popular musical instrument in the world. In The Guitar and the New World, Joe Gioia offers a many-limbed social history that is as entertaining as it is informative. After uncovering the immigrant experience of his guitar-making Sicilian great uncle, Gioia's investigation stretches from the ancient world to the fateful events of the 1901 Buffalo Pan American Exposition, across Sioux Ghost Dancers and circus Indians, to the lives and works of such celebrated American musicians as Jimmy Rodgers, Charlie Patton, Eddie Lang, and the Carter Family. At the heart of the book's portrait of wanderings and legacies is the proposition that America's idiomatic harmonic forms—mountain music and the blues—share a single root, and that the source of the sad and lonesome sounds central to both is neither Celtic nor African, but truly indigenous—Native American. The case is presented through a wide examination of cultural histories, academic works, and government documents, as well as a close appreciation of recordings made by key rural musicians, black and white, in the 1920s and '30s. The guitar in its many forms has cheered humanity through centuries of upheaval, and The Guitar and the New World offers a new account of this old friend, as well as a transformative look at a hidden chapter of American history.
A guitarist fires off riffs. A drummer pounds out primal rhythms. Fans scream along to a booming chorus. These are the sounds of rock. When rock 'n' roll first shook up young audiences, parents and politicians screamed in protest. But artists soon used the music to make protests of their own. Since rock's birth in the 1950s, its sounds have been blasted from garages to stadiums. The music can be the soundtrack to rebellion, a tool for self-expression, or just a way to bang your head. Find out what inspired rock pioneers to pick up their guitars. Discover the stories of outrageous punks and grungy alternative rockers. And learn more about legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Metallica, and Green Day.