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

We are definitely talking about a volume of essential knowledge, presented by an author who really knows his stuff. I've read it cover to cover and now I'm on my second pass through. Whatever the subject, be it pickups, guitar construction, amps, effects, vacuum tubes, Gallagher has all the vital information detailed here. My only complaint (and the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of five) is that throughout the entire book, there are no photos or illustrations whatsoever. Thus, just as an example, if one isn't familiar with the details of what the differences between classic telecaster bridge pickups vs. modern versions are, you will be left to looking through other books that feature images of those guitars to figure it out on your own. This is a book that direly needs some illustrations. But aside from that fault, this is still essential reading for any electric guitarist.

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.

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.

This was a difficult book to rate because it went deep into the weeds about things that seem mundane to an intermediate guitarist focused on playing better and not thinking too deeply about the brand of speaker in my amp or the number of wire turns on my pickups. While there were parts that I enjoyed and learned from, it is better suited to accomplished guitarists who have reached the point where they can think about and apply the topics covered in the book. I purchased the kindle version, which may have been a mistake as the actual book may have contained some useful illustrations. I'm sure the author put in a lot of hard work and thought into this book but I'm just not at the point where I can use much of the information to improve my guitar playing ability. Maybe someday but not now.

Guitar Tone is an extensive written guide to the impact of all the different things you can do to improve guitar tone, or to sculpt something unique and compelling. In covering everything, though, it doesn't really cover anything definitively: it's an interesting read, but perhaps not quite incisive enough to actually tell you what to do to get the sound you want, although it's significantly more useful than books which simply tell you how a particular musician achieved the sound they got.I think reading this book is probably the third best way of getting to the right tone. The second best way is reading lots of interviews with musicians, such as the ones in Guitar Player magazine, where they talk about their philosophy in trying to get the right sound. Reading Andy Summers on the importance of 10 gauge rather than 9 gauge strings, for example, did a lot for my playing. The first best way is switching off all the effects and spending hours, days and weeks experimentally building up sounds from the ground up.Perhaps I'm just being old fashioned. When I was cutting my teeth, my only effects were overdriving an amplifier or playing in a larger room. These days, anyone can plug in a multi-effector and get some kind of approximation to a famous signature sound, without understanding how these sounds were built up. In that case, this book will help a lot, explaining the impact of different guitar constructions, different woods, single-coil and humbucking pickups, varying degrees of vintageness, amplifier stages, speakers, micing cabinets, and varying effects pedals, as well as the results of heavier or lighter gauge strings and what differing plectrums do.I suppose it was the plectrum section that disappointed me most. The only plectrum I've ever discovered which has a significant impact on the guitar sound is the Sharkfin. The book does cover it, but I somehow got the impression from the description that the authors had either never tried one, or, if they had, it was a long time ago.A useful guide.

At first, you buy this book because you think it might be fun to nerd around about guitars.You think "Hey, I've been playing guitar for 20 years. Maybe I should learn a little more about it..."You expect some basic stuff like the difference between mahogany and maple, or between a tube amp and a solid-state amp.Then, you receive the book. You open it and you realize it's a college school book. It's a real 100% authentic college book.It's so detailed... Not crazy OCD detailed, but well detailed enough. All that is needed to know is there. The explanations are simple but yet super accurate... and there's not a stone left unturned.Want a chart about neck wood impact on tone? Got it.Want a list of tube types and their differences? Got it.Celestion Blue or Green? Yup.This book is exactly what I wanted, and more.1-star penalty for being a school book when I swore 15 years ago that I would never open a school book ever again.and... nope. There's no pictures (or I don't remember seeing one).

Globalement je suis nettement déçu.Evidemment cet ouvrage est très documenté et peut mériter les avis très favorables que j'ai lu.MAIS n'oublions pas qu'il est en anglais (ce qui n'a été caché à personne et surtout pas à moi!!!!).Je pensais que cela ne serait pas un obstacle mais ce livre par ailleurs très riche n'est qu'une suite d'informations générales et théoriques.Rien de vraiment concret pour s'approcher du son de vos guitariste préférés à part son matériel que vous n'allez évidemment pas acheter en général !!Ce que j'attendais ,c'était des réglages d'équaliseur ,des choix de vitesse ou profondeur de chorus , de longueur de délay etc ......,avec également des graphiques pour les explications (en fait il y a une page de dessins sur plus de 300 pages).Rien de tous cela.Par contre très bien au niveau du vendeur,du délai de livraison .......

For someone who used to search for 'My unique tone' and groping around the wilderness of youtube and the internet...this book was a blessing in disguise.Mitch breaks down the subtleties of tone, including the various aspects of the signal chain.The music I play tends to lean towards more of the high gain sounds..His tips on the use of reverb/delay and the effect it has was enlightening.highly recommended.

ma per chi è appassionato si trovano sempre spunti e suggerimenti utili. Mi è piaciuto e lo riprenderei, sebbene so che è un libro molto personale come apprezzamento