Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound

While entitled “Guitar Tone” this book goes far beyond merely tweaking knobs and such. Every aspect and subject that an electric guitar player needs to know is comprehensively covered within. Well- written in a friendly, conversational manner, even the more technical matters are laid out in logical fashion for the reader to easily understand. For those with some knowledge of these subjects already under their belts, “Guitar Tone” is a good review course; however, even the most experienced in this subject may find a gem or two within its pages which they had not hitherto known. For those who do not yet possess such knowledge it’s the whole enchilada in one place. Every electric guitarist should read this book. Among its many virtues, a good number of commonly believed shibboleths of guitar lore are discussed in “Guitar Tone” and in many cases exposed to be wanting in veracity. Highly recommended, it well-deserves its five stars.Mitchell Glicksman

This book is the best i found regarding guitar tone, its components, the signal chain, etc. It has loads of information, and very clearly explained. This is definitely going to be in my bookshelf forever, as a reference book and as a knowledge book. I would recomend it to everyone interested in knowing your instrument, aswell as those looking for better Tone!Only thing missing is pictures, which i personally dont care.

A well written, informative book guaranteed to educate even if you've been playing for years. I love the fact that Mr. Gallagher provides insight and opinion without drawing conclusions, such as the overall effect on tone on various options (such as choice of wood, nuts, picks, etc.) and the way in which he makes this book easy to read despite the highly specialized subject matter.The only reason this book is not five stars is due to the lack of any pictures or diagrams, which makes it hard to follow when talking about pickup windings, bracing, and the less visible aspects of the making of a guitar. Although I have been playing and ogling both electric and acoustic guitars for longer than I'd like to admit, it was still hard to follow the text-only explanation of certain topics.

This book is awesome. Mitch Gallagher explains each detail of the guitar (wood, neck, strings, pickups, etc) and how much it could impact guitar tones. It's amazing how much details he explains, so once you read it, you will probably learn much more than you were expecting to learn.It's a "dense reading", in a good way. That means, you have too much details so you can get tired of reading... The way I found to survive that was to read one chapter per day. And that worked very well.I really recommend this book, it will certainly change the way you look to your guitars and how you setup them.

This book has some interesting insights. However, If you want to find a book to help YOU improve your tone, look elsewhere. There is basically no practical advice for doing that. The "how it works" and "why it works" sections are not technical enough and are far too superficial.But the main thing that irritates me about this book is that there are already a limitless number of books about how Eric Clapton (or others) got 'legendary tone.' But who cares? I couldn't care less, frankly, what anyone else did to get their sound. Nor should I. Especially when that would involve buying some dusty 'vintage' gear for way too much money. For a person who primarily composes music, this idol worship is garbage and does nothing at all to help me find the sounds I want.I was hoping for a modern treatment of what factors I should consider when improving MY tone. Not here. If you want to sound just like Eric Clapton… Well, that's pretty lame. Good luck with that.

Really does a nice job of dissecting tone to see what role each component plays. The guitar/bass itself as well as amps, effects, etc. Well-researched and clearly written. The author is from the retailer Sweetwater and really knows his stuff. And he NEVER tries to sell Sweetwater, etc. which is refreshing. NOTE: BTW, Sweetwater is actually a really great retailer. Good prices and very solid customer service.

You will find everything (seriously everything!!!) regarding guitar tone. The first impression is about its size. You will think that lot of the info is garbage but not. From beginning to end you will find a lot of useful tips to get the tone you are looking for. I would recommend this book for every one who loves the guitar.

This book is clearly written, and goes into good detail about what does, and does not, have an effect on the tone that you want to hear. If you are pursuing "your sound," and are tired of trial and error, then this book will help you find your way.