Not much is left to be said about this remarkable book, but here's my take: its strengths and weaknesses interact in a compelling way. Its strength is in its emphasis on patterns and visual, mnemonic devices at the expense of theory or even of reading music, and at the expense of any reference to songs or styles. FL gives one a remarkable set of tools without telling you what to build or how to build it--that might seem a weakness. But I rate this lack of musical, stylistic direction a plus--one must find one's own musical way after FL gives a player a basic vocabulary. Others have criticized this book for its emphasis on patterns rather than on playing scales in the manner a pianist would, with a clear understanding of every note played. In fact, knowing what key and scale one is in is (nearly) essential in its method. But as in many of its lessons, FL leaves the matter of how one connects its visual patterns to conventionally conceived scales up to the player. Thus this book is a daunting but usually a good teacher: if it has many theoretical holes in it, these are to be filled by the creativity and initiative of the individual player. (This is a plus except in FL's department of "lead patterns," which are allegedly the skeletons of guitar solos, but they have almost nothing melodic about them, nor are they in any essential way the backbones of solos. I find them too skeletal to be useful. Other information in the book informs my imagination of leads.)
The only editorial recommendation I would make to the author is that he cut down on the rather nerdy-sounding, unnecessarily exclusivist rhetoric of the "all other texts are wayward and even goofy, but lo, here is the method" sort. A little of that goes a long way, and concessions to other methods of guitar education would broaden, not limit this book's appeal. Also, this book could acknowledge that it is not the end of the road: there's a lot more to be understood about the guitar than is spelled out here. This is not a new or final method, but a way of synthesizing a lot of basic information and, especially, conceiving it visually in compelling, clever, and memorable ways.

I'd like to get my two cents in regarding both the Fretboard Logic series and some of the negative reviews appearing on the Amazon site. First, these books and videos are without peer, and that's in spite of the fact that it was written 20 years ago, and has been copied endlessly by legions of johnny-come-latelys ever since. Second, disregard the negative reviews and concentrate on the positive ones, like the ones where players say it changed their lives. You may notice that the negative reviewers - for whatever reason - seem to have a lower ability to understand what they are reading. For example, one reviewer says "Don't buy this book because it is like studying German in order to learn English." This student is clearly referring to Edwards' usage of guitar-oriented terminology to describe what your eyes are seeing (on the fretboard) in addition to what your ears are hearing in standard music-oriented terms. If your capacity is such that you are able to grasp that the term "A form in the 3rd position" refers to what your eyes are seeing and your fretting fingers are doing, but that your ears are also hearing a "C Chord," then perhaps Fretboard Logic is not too difficult for you. (There are Five Basic Chord Forms, in fact, and can be used in any position.) If you are able to appreciate that a description of the form and position would be irrelevant to someone who plays an instrument other than guitar, but helpful to someone playing guitar, then maybe it isn't at all like teaching German to learn English. Perhaps the explanation for the occasional negative review on this seminal work have more to do with the source (which is always suspect when it advertises a competing title). In the first place, playing guitar is a difficult endeavor, and requires skills and drive which not everyone possess. I am one of those many people for whom Fretboard Logic has forever changed their lives. And yes, I also bought the Hal Leonard/MI book, and was amused by a number of things. First, the Fretboard Logic ads often include compelling testimonials from players, and over the years has been compared to the Rosetta Stone, the Holy Grail, the Bible, and so on. So the Tagliarino book starts out with what he terms "The Five Root Shapes" which are merely the tonics for the C chords in sequence, connected by interlocking circles, and you are told - wait for it - "This is the Rosetta Stone, the Holy Grail, the Magna Carta of guitar comprehension." [The sound of crickets chirping...] Later on, you find a keyboard diagram - I'm not kidding - being used in a book on how to play guitar! Heh. For the most part, you are spending your time constructing the patterns of the fretboard yourself, interval by boring interval, with a pencil, all to arrive at what Edwards produced and illustrated 20 years ago in Fretboard Logic. I guess they do it that way to get around the copyright issue. If you already know the Logic series, it is not unlike building a bridge with toothpicks and being handed a two-by-four and a pocket knife. Bottom line: Skip all the johnny-come-latelys, ignore the downer dudes and go to the source. You'll thank me later.

I wish I would have came here and read the negative reviews before I ordered this book. Buried underneath all of these glowing reviews are a few that were much more appropriate. This book is almost like studying German in order to learn English. One of the key reasons for wanting to learn about notes, scales, chords, arpeggios, etc., is to be able to communicate with other musicians. Like one of the reviews said, unless the people you're with know this system, it's not going to help. I'd recommend the Hal Leonard/Musician's Institute book "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" by Barrett Tagliarino. It's available here on Amazon, and is the best written book I've come across. I gave it a quick first read-through, and everything made enough sense that I fell that once I read it a few more times, I'll understand it all thoroughly.

This book is brilliant. With a lot of practice and a few headaches, the concepts in this book will increase your playing exponentially. How do I emphasize A LOT OF PRACTICE? Only get this book if you are willing to put in the work to learn the guitar!

Also, if you are truly seriously about learning, you will feel incomplete after this book so you should probably get the third one while you're at it; as you will know the guitar layout very well, but be still unsure about how to use it to your advantage.

I'd recommend this book to any person that wants to take a very well organized and understandable guitar college course in a book(including the hours of homework). Hope this review helps! Good luck.