Guitar An American Life

How did a small, humble folk instrument become an American icon? Tim Brookes, a commentator and essayist on National Public Radio, set our to answer this question after baggage handlers destroyed his guitar. Pairing up with a master artisan from the Green Mountains of Vermont, Brookes sees how a rare piece of cherrywood is hued, dovetailed, and worked on with saws, rasps, and files, and learns that a dream guitar is built, not bought.

Intro	1	(5)
Meeting My Maker	6	(8)
The First Guitar	14	(9)
Choosing the Wood	23	(6)
Other Colonists: French and English Guitars	29	(7)
The Chain-saw Phase	36	(4)
Evanescence	40	(7)
Gluing and Voicing the Top	47	(5)
The Hawaiians Have Landed	52	(8)
Bending the Sides	60	(2)
The Starvation Box	62	(11)
Vertebrae n' Roses	73	(3)
Guitars and Guns	76	(2)
Desperadoes	78	(3)
Interlude: Dark Rectangles	81	(2)
Radio Castles in the Air	83	(11)
Interlude: The Worst Guitar	94	(1)
Wrestling the Rosette	95	(6)
The Guitar Breaks In	101	(11)
Interlude: Beating Canned Music	112	(1)
Hogging Off Wood	113	(2)
Bargaining With the Devil	115	(13)
Interlude: Nail Angst	128	(2)
Bearclaw	130	(5)
The Modern Age	135	(23)
Vacuum Packed	158	(2)
Postwar Ennui	160	(8)
Giblets	168	(1)
Killing for a Dime	169	(5)
Interlude: Brian Bull's Guitar	174	(2)
Love Me Tender/The Worst Trip	176	(16)
Scalloping the Braces	192	(6)
The Guitar Just Grabbed Me	198	(11)
Mummified	209	(2)
Something Is Happening	211	(10)
Inlay	221	(6)
Satisfaction	227	(15)
Interlude: Reducing Rick to Jelly	242	(2)
Guitar Rock Takes Over	244	(18)
Interlude: At the Isbin Concert	262	(5)
Applying the Finish	267	(5)
"Vintage" Guitars	272	(14)
Pickups	286	(3)
Sound Check	289	(10)
Setup	299	(9)
Once and Future	308	(11)
Gluing the Nut	319	(4)
Chapter Notes	323	(8)
Appendices	331	(4)
Glossary	335	(7)
Acknowledgments	342

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Guitar An American Life

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Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials