If you're a collector, you need this book. If you'd like to be a collector, you need it even more. And if like most of us, you just love looking at beautiful pictures of guitars, you need it even more.

In short, this book gives the reader the best and worst faces of modern stringed instrument (banjo and guitar) collecting. On one hand, you have an educated and articulate individual who has an obvious appreciation for finely crafted instruments. To Dr. Van Hoose's credit, he did his homework and clearly wrote the information that he had gathered (unlike some other collector/writers). On the other hand, this book, to some degree, reinforces the popular opinion that acquisition equals expertise. Collectors such as Akiro Tsumura (with his "1001 Banjos" book) or Scott Chinery (who had the brainstorm and funds to commission a fleet of blue guitars from the world's top builders, to add to his already huge collection) are regarded as experts, whether they can play a note, dress a fret, conduct research, or do anything else that would be considered expertise when writing about musical instruments. Coincidentally, this view seems to be held in high regard by top instrument dealers (such as George Gruhn, who wrote the forword for this book). It turns out to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, to be sure.

If you obsess over guitars, this is a good book for you. Believe me, a lot of work went into it. The book is loaded with plenty of information and a good helping of pictures, and it IS the be-all-end-all for this particular subject. If you don't obsess over guitars, this book will get old pretty fast. I really DO appreciate the effort that was put into this work, but I think it just ends up being a little too much for anybody but the most die-hard fans.

There is no other book, to my knowledge, that does what George Gruhn does here.

First, let me say that I respect Mr. Gruhn's knowledge. There are probably few people in the United States with his encyclopedic knowledge of guitars. I have corresponded with him myself, and he was very helpful

But, I am disappointed in one aspect of the book. I own an 1897 model George Washburn guitar which was made in the nineteenth century by Lyon & Healy. It is a small bodied "Parlor Guitar," with Brazilian rosewood sides and back, spruce top, and ebony fingerboard and bridge. It has beautiful tone, and I love the instrument. It is almost as beautiful as when it was built, and because of the aging of the wood, I'm sure that it plays better.

In this book, Gruhn only briefly discusses Washburn's guitars, and the short reference is buried in the Gibson pages (which is very detailed), because in the late '20s, when the Tonk Brothers acquired the Washburn brand from Lyon & Healy, Gibson built a few of them between 1938-40.

George Washburn (someone has said that his last name was actually Lyon, hence Lyon & Healy) was an American guitar maker, and he built superlative guitars. I've heard that his closest competition at one time was Martin. To give him short-shrift in such a book as this, I find incomprehensible. It isn't as if Gruhn did not know about the guitars--he told me much of what I know about them.

But, perhaps I nitpick. This is a fine book. I recommend it to any guitar aficionado who is buying, selling or trading guitars--especially American-made guitars--or even one who simply wants to learn more about these wonderful instruments.

Joseph Pierre