HOW YOUR GUITAR WORKS

Foley provides an instructional manual for building guitars and endeavors to establish guitar production as a scientific discipline in this nonfiction work.

The author doesn’t just want to impart the knowledge necessary to construct a well-playing guitar from scratch; Foley aims at a far grander ambition, the founding of “luthiery” as an independent branch of science. “What if someone who wanted to learn to service and build guitars could go to a university and study the physics, history, and technique of this craft and earn an accredited degree in this field? Wouldn’t that be fun!” The entire book is infused with this coupling of unabashed enthusiasm and technical aspiration. The author begins with an introduction to the “fundamental features of wave motion” as it applies to guitar playing, in particular string vibration and tone production. This attention to the scientific workings of the guitar informs the whole of Foley’s effort, which includes excerpts from various patent ideas for the invention of a new electric guitar pickup. Readers will also learn the history of the guitar, from its ancient beginnings as a stringed bow up to the period in which electric guitars were produced in the 20th century. The author does not neglect the basics—he presents an overview (for the novice) of the guitar’s most elemental components, but also covers some exceedingly esoteric topics like the “gravitational force on the string in the nut slot.” There is certainly some unnecessary meandering on Foley’s part—sections detailing a brief history of electricity and Democritus’ interpretation of the atom are surely digressions. However, these detours can be pardoned given the context of the author’s overriding objective, which is to create a new field of study, one that draws from all the relevant branches of science. This book likely won’t appeal to a general audience, but it will certainly be a treat for those few for whom it is intended: guitar enthusiasts who aspire to craft their own instruments and are deeply obsessed by the science of the guitar.

A quirky book that is expertly written and impressively edifying.