Guitar Stories Vol. 2: The Histories of Cool Guitars (Guitar Stories)

Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag.
Review: Its pretty obvious that this book is mostly stuff "from the cutting room floor" that didn't make it into the excellent Volume 1. I'm sure a hell of a lot of work went into the very, very, very detailed chaper on Kay--but does anyone really care? At best, this will drive up the price of some (mostly) lousy guitars.

I'm interested in the stories behind the companies and products but pages of serial number variations are like the tax code to me.

OTOH, some of this stuff--like Guild guitars--is not terribly obscure and probably already known to you, if you're over 30.

If the information on Guild could have been incorporated into the first volume I think the second would have been unneccessary. There are a few nice color photos but if you're interested in cheesy guitars the author has contributed to a much more interesting & thorough book, the Japanese published Bizzarre Guitars. Though considerably more expensive, Bizarre Guitars is nothing but pictures and even in Japanese, mostly self-explanatory.

BTW, the introduction to Volume 2 is pretty funny; almost Shakespearean in its language. I can just imagine a guy in a pawn shop, shaking his head....