“We had three criteria for selecting guitars,” says author Walter Carter, “rarity, celebrity ownership and just plain cool.”

I’m standing with Carter and photographer John Peden in the latter’s Manhattan studio.  At one end of the room are a 1840s custom Martin with ivory bridge and fingerboard, a 1958 Gibson Flying V, and a 1956 “Mary Kaye” Stratocaster (with blond finish and gold hardware).  But, Carter, Peden, and I aren’t even looking at the guitars.  Rather, we’re at the other end of the room hunched over the first pressing of The Guitar Collection, a book that its publisher rightly describes in grand terms on its Facebook page:

It’s difficult to convey the size and scope of this book on a computer screen, but at 512 pages in length with 670 images, The Guitar Collection weighs just over 20 pounds. With the custom guitar-style case, it’s around 30 pounds! Talk about EPIC.

Those 670 images depict 150 of the world’s most important guitars, ranging from a circa 1700 Stradivarius to a 1990 D’Aquisto.  This book is grand not only in size, but also in content.  We’re talking Maybelle Carter’s 1928 L-5, Mary Kaye’s “Mary Kaye,” Les Paul’s “Log,” Chet Atkins’s Gretches, Eric Clapton’s Stratocasters and many more significant instruments, nearly all of them rare, celebrity owned and cool.

The book has a publication date of November 2011 and will be presented in three editions, each limited to a total pressing of 1,500 copies and featuring a large photo print of the guitar for which it is named: The Flat-top ’43 Edition  (Buddy Holly’s 1943 J-45); The Double-neck ’05 Edition (PRS double-neck Dragon) and The Solidbody ’54 Edition (Jeff Beck’s Esquire).

Stay tuned to this blogspace for more information on the book and its contents, including interviews with author Walter Carter and photographer John Peden about the two years of work that went into producing this stunning volume.