THE GUITAR MAN: SAM LI

I bought the book because I remember Sam Li, although I’m not sure I actually met him. I was a teenage semi-pro guitarist in the very early 70s, and was always in and out of the many great guitar shops all grouped together in the Charing Cross Road and Denmark Street area. Sam Li was very well known as a top guitar repairer, in company with Seymour Duncan, Pete Cornish, Roger Giffin and others that I had some dealings with. The book, although a bit vague about quite large parts of Sam’s life (because the information simply is not available) rightly centres around his work on guitars from around the mid 60s to the mid 70s. It brought back many great memories of those times, and the interesting people working in the guitar shops. Nearly 50 years on I’m still a semi-pro guitarist, but not far off my 70s!

This 'biography' fails to portray the man. The guitar examples are also not examined in sufficient detail. The book is very superficial. It's sad because there was a story here but too faintly sketched.

A fascinating book for all those interested in music, and in particular the guitar, but an easy and interesting read for anyone.It contains many anecdotes by famous musicians about Sam Li, master lutenist, who spent his life building and working on their guitars and giving them their own individual personalities, as well as biographical details of this unusually gifted man by his stepdaughter and others.

Brilliant for the muso or guitar aficionado. Excellently written and very interesting.

If your interested in the music scene 60/70 you might find it fun to bring back some forgoten memories.