The Guitar Handbook
Ralph Denyer's illustrated reference is a one-volume course and encyclopedia for guitarists, covering acoustic and electric playing, chords and music theory, tuning and maintenance, amplification, and the electronics inside the instrument. It combines step-by-step lessons with reference sections and player interviews, aimed at beginners and improving players alike. Heavily diagrammed, it has been a standard shelf book for guitarists since the 1980s. For a reader picking up the instrument, it is more workshop manual than method book. Originally published in 1982 and later revised.