Make Your Own Electric Guitar

This was the first Book on building electric guitars that I ever bought.  It is a classic in many ways and has been around for decades.  Mr. Hiscock walks you though the construction of several solid body guitars with a variety of shapes with basic hand tools, a router and bandsaw.  He shows you how to create a bolt on neck guitar, a set neck or glued in neck guitar as well as a neck-through solid body.


One of the best parts of this book is the descriptions of basic electric guitar wiring.  The author does explain some basics of reading and understanding electrical schematics but really the most useful part for a beginner are the the drawings of the various wiring possibilities in a realistic visual style.

Stratocaster(TM), Gibson(TM), Tele(TM) and several other styles of wiring are shown nearly full size, in an easy to understand illustrations with instructions much like the wiring on the inside of the guitar would look like if you were to open up a finished guitar.  Better still, instead of the jumble of wires that you would normally see, Hiscock has taken the time to have each of the wires drawn carefully so that you can tell precisely where the connections should be when it's time for you to do your own wiring.

I built several of my first solidbody guitars with nothing but chisels, a cheap bandsaw, and a spokeshave.  this book helped me do it. It really shows how conceptually simple a solid body guitar is, and provides the insight to accomplish your first build.

© J. A. DeMarco 2014