Guitars

Here are some cool links about guitars:

Tim Brookes is an essayist who's done several pieces for NPR. This is a oral summary of his new book, Guitar: An American Life. He does a fun work of combining his search for a new guitar and the history of the guitar in America. This is a wonderful, rambling piece about the wonders and histories of the guitar; especially delightful are his comments about guitar-shopping.

I'm no expert in archtop guitars...but I do know that Bob Benedetto makes some of the best out there. Take a while and peek around the different models he offers - beautiful! He's also written a book about building an archtop guitar. I have the book and I love to read it and look at the pictures, but I lack the great ambition it would take to build such fine instruments.

The homepage for National Guitars is well-done and shows off their beautiful instruments. These are the "steel" guitars, the "hubcap" guitars, the "resophonic"...or whatever you call them. They have an extremely unique sound, and I would love to have one someday. Check out this bad boy: a baritone tricone! Too cool for words.

A few other great guitar makers:
Taylor
Collings
Gibson
Santa Cruz