KEPT WITHIN ARM'S REACH OF THE BENCH

Books on the craft of the guitar

Not a bibliography — a working list. These are the volumes that stay open on the bench while a guitar is being voiced: a few about the instrument, one or two about the eye, and one about the hand. We return to them more than we admit.

The Responsive Body

G. Gurzadyan · 1998

The closest thing we have to a manual on tap-tuning — how a soundboard answers when you knock on it, and what that answer is trying to tell you. Read it slowly, with a top in your other hand.

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A History of the Classical Guitar

Harvey Turnbull · 1974

The only general history worth keeping on the shelf. Turnbull traces the instrument from the vihuela forward without ever losing the thread, and his account of Torres still frames how we think about bracing.

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Letters on Cézanne

Rainer Maria Rilke · 1907

Not about guitars at all — letters a poet wrote about looking at paintings. We keep it for the way it teaches attention. Half of building well is simply learning to see what is actually in front of you.

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Romanillos: The Book

José Romanillos · 2002

Romanillos on Torres, and Romanillos on his own bench. Part scholarship, part confession. If you only read one book about why a classical guitar is shaped the way it is, make it this one.

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The Craftsman

Richard Sennett · 2008

A sociologist's defence of doing one thing properly. It is the book we hand to anyone who asks why fifteen guitars a year is enough, and why the corner where they are born matters more than the showroom.

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ALSO ON THE DESK

Makerswhose work we study (and steal from)