Valuable guitar guide

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 16

Valuable guitar guide

The Guitar Handbook. By Ralph Denyer. Dorling Kindersley, London, 1982, 256 pp. $38.70. (Reviewed by Alistair Armstrong) Andy Summers, the guitarist for the rock group, The Police, reckons that if this book had existed when he was beginning to find his way round a guitar he would have saved himself a great deal of time and trouble.

Summers's trial-and-error learning experience would be familiar to anyone who has had to grope their way about the scarce amount of quality literature available on such topics as guitar amplifiers, rock improvisation, how to work out melodic minor scales, and a host of other topics associated with the playing technqiue and equipment needed for any style of guitar.

Now, there are no excuses for not knowing your stuff, guitarists! This book, prepared by Ralph Denyer, a former features editor for “Guitar” magazine, is an authoritative guide to what makes the modern instrument “tick.” It will be useful to any player, whether he or she is learning'the chords for “Ten Guitars” on a cheap acoustic or working through a jazz passage in the recording studio.

It covers playing technique, from beginners' level to* advanced, the make-up

and history of the guitar itself, guitar maintenance and customising, amplification and recording, and the guitarists who, in the author's opinion, have been most influential on present styles.

Two things which add to its appeal are the down-to-earth language in which it is written and the clear, well-presented diagrams and illustrations. The book caters particularly for the rock guitarist, with sections ' comparing valve and transistor amplifiers, effects, and describing, for instance, how electric guitars are wired.

There are tid-bits of advice and information offered by the likes of Peter Townshend (The Who), Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. Not surprisingly, we learn that Townshend needs heavy-gauge strings for his power-chord style. “If I’m lazy and decide to keep the strings on, then always in the first or second number they break. I’ve actually had strings break on the first chord,” he says. The last word goes to the rock guitarist, Ted Nugent, who advises in a section about playing: "Practise, practise, practise. Practise until you get a-guitar welt on your chest... if it makes you feel good, don't stop until you see the blood from your fingers. Then you'll know you're on to something!”