You will find me using a lot of hand tools in this book, and not only because my small workshop doesn't allow for large power tools. I like hand tools and prefer them to power tools because I derive satisfaction and confidence from knowing what I can do by hand. Hand tools are much more quiet than their power-driven counterparts and most of them produce shavings instead of dust. To be honest, I have a fully-equipped, separate workshop with circular saw, jointer, thickness planer and bandsaw, but I didn't use any of them for building the guitars in this book. I prepared the wood planks with my power tools, though. If you don't have access to the tools necessary for preparing the wood, buy it in ready-to-use form.