I recently watched a video from Crimson Guitars where Ben Crowe talked through his favourite books for guitar building. I emailed them to ask if they would suggest that I read any of them before going for my course, and they suggested Build Your Own Electric Guitar, by Melvyn Hiscock.
Melvyn publishes this book himself and I contacted him to buy a copy, but he told me that he has recently finished revising it for a new edition (the third) which should come out soon, perhaps in October. So if anyone wants to renew their copy, or to get a copy of the book that seems to be the best introduction to the subject, go to his Facebook page and he will announce there when the new edition will be available.
The other book that I have ordered from Ben’s list is Understanding Wood, which looks rather interesting and has lots of pretty pictures! Woodworking is not a subject that I’m very familiar with, so I think it will be useful to learn a bit about it before I go and build my guitar. From the Amazon preview, this looks like a good, clear book so I look forward to reading it. It should arrive tomorrow although I’ve been having some problems with deliveries recently, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I may write a short review of it once I’ve read it.