The Guitar Pickup Handbook Paperback – 1 Nov. 2008

Another gift that my brother still uses as his go to. What better compliment can you pay a book.

For those of you who are quite familiar with electric guitars and their pickups, this would add to your knowledge. In particular, there are exhaustive analyses of magnet placement within each design which I certainly had not appreciated fully. The interviews with several landmark makers are also interesting, if a little anecdotal.Think of this as a bit of a primer, a bit of entertainment, and maybe a "sort-of" reference. But it is no more than that - and maybe it doesn't pretend to be, despite the title. I say this because it is not consistent in terms of displaying schematics for each design, does not show photos of all pickup types discussed and certainly is not comprehensive - even within each section for chosen manufacturers, not all of their offerings are listed.Finally, it is becoming increasingly annoying for these types of books to be full of typos and grammatical errors. Is no-one proof-reading any more?

This may well be one of the best books on magnetic guitar pickups but unfortunately that is not saying very much. Since there are few books available on this subject it is disappointing that this one fails as a reliable and informative reference work.The author Dave Hunter admits that he is not an engineer, scientist or pickup designer and frankly it shows. Although he tries to explain how magnetic electric guitar pickups function as part of the guitar sound reproduction reproduction chain, relying in part on information gleaned from many of the leading pickup makers (themselves not the most reliable source of objective information on the subject) he often seems to fall back on the muddled misinformation you see endlessly repeated on pickup makers web sites and in guitar magazine articles. That's not to say that there is not useful information in this book because there is, however you would have to have quite a lot of background knowledge already in order to be able to recognise it.There is no attempt in this book to quantify or measure pickup performance and despite pointing out at least once that pickup resistance tells you very little about a pickups behaviour, the book continues to mention the resistance of each pickup discussed as though it were of some significance.Some reviewers have complained that the books scope is not broad enough and that it does not cover some of the more obscure pickups. I think that is a little unfair as covering every pickup that has ever appeared since the 1950s would be an extremely difficult job. Generally all the significant developments are covered. The book is reasonably well structured as far as it goes and shows evidence that some thought was put into it at least at the start of the project. It does seem that it may have been rushed towards completion and perhaps the wrong version of the manuscript was sent to the printers. In any case the person responsible for editing should be ashamed because there are far too many typos and missing sections of text.The section of makers interviews at the end of the book is interesting because, although each pickup maker provides some useful information, there is also a sense that they are either protecting their businesses through misleading statements, or operate on the basis of copying and practical trial and error, rather than a proper understanding of the physical principles involved in the operation of magnetic pickups. Probably it is a mixture of both.

For those who wish to understand more about the diferences in guitar pickups, this book covers a lot more than just the basics. Learn the basic process of how they work and how to select the right ones for your sound.

I ordered this late last year, but its publication date was delayed a few months. It's an excellent book for those interested in the history, workings and manufacturers of pickups as well as having specs for many of the pickups on the market. A good read and also good value for money. However, the book is let down by very poor proof reading which has allowed countless typographic and grammatical errors through. Also, there is at least one area where a whole section of writing has been missed out. A real shame, because, otherwise, it's a great book.

Nice book, interesting ideas and examples but I was expecting more details and better explanations.So a "nice to have" but not indispensable.

Quite good coverage,but apart from the typos and grammatical errors mentioned above, (the author is English but living in USA, so...........)not nearly enough photos, none of gibson staple pickups,nothing about Paul Bigsbys pickups(some of the earliest post war,), Wandre or other esoteric ones, and fairly uninteresting makers comments.I found the other, Italian authored book, much more informative and entertaining, although Hunter does give specs for what they are worth.J Lollar's book, 'Winding pickups' mentioned is not really worth seeking out, (I have a copy.)Sorry Dave, not half as good as your amp book.