Complete Guitar Wiring: Everything you need to understand, modify, and troubleshoot your guitar’s wiring
£38.70
Complete Guitar Wiring. With a foreword by Dan Erlewine.
Whether you’re swapping your first pickup or you work on guitars for a living, you’ll find Complete Guitar Wiring crammed full of expert technical and practical advice to help you out.
From the basics of how things work, to electric and acoustic pickup systems, through a succession of soldering and wiring projects, this book will walk you through step by step. There’s a huge library of reference diagrams, modifications, and lots of troubleshooting tips in case things go wrong.
Written in a friendly, easy to understand style and richly illustrated in full colour throughout, Complete Guitar Wiring is the best (and most complete) way to learn guitar wiring.
Complete Guitar Wiring has over 400 pages of information for beginners and professionals alike. Here’s what you’ll learn:
Chapter 1: Theory Learn about the parts and components in most guitars, how they work, and how they combine to build a circuit.
Chapter 2: Electric Guitar All about electric guitar and bass. A deep dive on pickups and considerations on choosing and installing them—body modifications, component choice, and pickup setup.
Chapter 3: Acoustic guitar Acoustic instruments can have pickups too. A look at the choices and practicalities on acoustic pickups and preamp installation.
Chapter 4: Wiring An introduction to soldering and the tools you’ll need is followed by step-by-step guides to a number of wiring projects. We start easy and work up to swapping pickups and rewiring guitars.
Chapter 5: Troubleshooting Learn what to do when things don’t work as planned. From basic troubleshooting and how to use a multimeter, to dealing with out of phase pickups, to hum problems. There’s even a section on acoustic pickup troubleshooting.
Chapter 6: Wiring Diagrams A huge library of common (and some hard to find) wiring diagrams. Over seventy guitar and bass reference circuits with accompanying notes.
Chapter 7: Modifications Dozens of wiring mods to change the tone, switching, or operation of an instrument to better fit the ideas in your head. From the everyday to the esoteric, there’s plenty of inspiration here.
Appendix: Reference A collection of specifications and reference materials for common components. Pickups, pots, switches, jacks, resistors, capacitors, and more… Even the screws used to hold things together.
“Man, I wish I’d had this book when I first became obsessed with electric guitar wiring and mods! Gerry Hayes’s Complete Guitar Wiring is both a how-to book for beginners and a reference manual for the experienced. The explanations are clear yet substantial. The diagrams are gorgeous. It’s equally useful for troubleshooting and finding new inspiration. Complete Guitar Wiring already has a permanent home on my workbench tablet.”
Joe Gore, Joe Gore Guitar Pedals, editor, Premier Guitar
“Out of all the guitar books on the market—tech, coffee-table, and otherwise—I haven’t seen any that provides such thorough yet accessible instruction in the art of electronics and wiring. Not only has Gerry Hayes identified a real gap in the available resources, but he has done a phenomenal job of filling it with a book that’s comprehensive and detailed while also very approachable, offering plenty to beginner, novice, and experienced DIY’ers alike. Well done!”
Dave Hunter, author Fender 75 Years, The Electric Guitar Sourcebook, The Guitar Pickup Handbook
“When you’re in the guitar business for any length of time, you have the opportunity to meet the best—people like Gerry Hayes. His book about guitar wiring is a must-have for any luthier, guitar technician, roadie, guitar shop, and of course any player who is into guitar electronics.”
Dirk Wacker, CEO, SINGLECOIL-Guitars Germany, writer, Premier Guitar Magazine
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Additional information
| Publisher | Crooked Nails (15 Feb. 2022) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 408 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1919649425 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1919649429 |
| Dimensions | 21.59 x 2.44 x 27.94 cm |
by Paul T
bought this book for guitar electrics omg !!!! it is just perfect thanks Gerry
by A. Edwards
If you like guitar you have to have this. Simples !!
by Steven Down
Mind blowing… The book is more in-depth than I thought it would be. Very useful
by 2bhonest
If you don’t fancy reading all this review then just let me say – this book is worth its weight in gold!
Having worked with wood for some 50 years I promised myself that when retired I’d make a guitar. With some justification I considered perhaps an electric guitar easier to make than before perhaps “advancing” to an acoustic guitar. The woodworking side of the task has been challenging and I think largely successful. However, the real gap in my knowledge was understanding the electrics and putting into practice the skills needed to solder the components together. I am sure this book will succeed admirably in enabling me to do this – I feel empowered!
The author has put a lot of thought and effort into explanation and presentation. The large format diagrams are clear and uncluttered yet elegantly annotated with few words wasted or left wanting. I never thought a book like this could actually be read page by page sequentially at a steady pace with the realisation that one was being effortlessly enlightened. This skill comes with understanding and experience – and with every page this shines through. When I do fire up the soldering iron in the coming days I’ll know exactly what page I need to reference and how to get on with the job.
I love the colour markers on the pages delineating chapters but I do wish I could lay the book out on a flat surface without the risk of breaking its spine. Maybe spring bound version next time? Another benefit of this self-published uncluttered work is that the author has allowed space for the reader to add their own notes. So, to conclude, this is one of the best books on guitar construction I have in my collection – a definite keeper!
by MTK
Brilliant book obviously taken from a Mariana Trench of life experience in mantling axes.
by Amazon Customer
I’m a complete novice when it comes to wiring and soldering electric guitar and have been trying (unsuccessfully) to upgrade and completely rewire a Squire Jaguar. These are easy clear wiring diagrams which provide a good deal of insight. Ideal. I paid almost as much for an official Fender schematic but couldn’t follow it as its not colour coded.
by RD
I’d been trying to learn about this stuff from YouTube videos and whatnot, but getting nowhere really in terms of actually understanding why that wire goes there and that one there. What I needed was a clear explanation of what is going on with a guitar’s electronics before moving on to the more complex (and it does get a bit complex) stuff. Fortunately, that’s what Gerry Hayes does. It’s all really clear, well illustrated and, amazingly (given that he’s talking about wires, solder and capacitors), it’s actually quite an amusing read (he’s got a nice, chatty style with none of the didactic condescension that seems to plague the topic of guitar tinkering).
by Mr. Nicholas Hopkins
The number of times I’ve had to sit there spinnign a printed off schematic, or squinting into a pick-ups innards to decipher what’s what and why that wire needs to connect to that bit AND that bit…only to plug in the axe and just get the buzzing hum of a bad circuit…no more. I mean, try looking up a 50’s wiring of a push pull coil tap…or finding 2 Jazzmaster wiring schematics that match. The internet is full of mistakes and opinions and little reasoning behind the decisions.
This genius book, presented in a LOGICAL and concise way and with just the right amount of info needed to understand why something can do what it does, removes that veil of almost smoke-and-mirrors that your “tech” trades on. We fear solder as guitarists. The spaghetti of wires and hidden routings make it all seem so impenetrable but really it’s incredibly simple…if done well and with a basic pragmatic understanding of why it’s there and what it’s doing.
And it’s written in a conversational tone, rather than the technical know-it-all or pedantic teacher speak of other publications.
Cannot recommend this tome enough. Just brilliant!!