Electric guitars are made with solid, semi-hollow, and hollow bodies. Using an instrument cable (or wireless system) the guitar is plugged into an amplifier. Without an amp, electric guitars make little musical sound. Most modern electric guitars have 6 or 7 strings though different variations can be seen on custom electric guitars.
A Brief History of the Electric Guitar
The electric guitar is the result of guitarists’ desire to play the guitar and hear it at a louder volume. This became more important during the big band era, as the hollow body acoustic guitars of that time struggled to be heard along with the other instruments.
Before the modern solid-body electric guitars, luthiers, or guitar makers, experimented with amplifying acoustic guitars by using microphones or tungsten pickups. Tungsten pickups were used to modify acoustic instruments to be amplified. These were usually placed in the sound hole below the strings. In 1950 Leo Fender introduced a solid body, prototype guitar called the Esquire. The Esquire had a single pickup and was reintroduced in 1951 with two pickups, and renamed to Broadcaster. The Broadcaster was again renamed to its present name, Telecaster. Though there were other electric guitar prototypes around this time, the Telecaster became the first mass produced solid-body, electric Spanish style guitars available on a commercial market. The Precision Bass was introduced by Fender within the same year. Since the Precision Bass had frets and could be played like a guitar, not to mention the ability to plug into an amp, bass players now had a revolutionary alternative to the acoustic bass. Fender produced the Stratocaster later on in 1954.
Electric guitars are now made with solid, semi-hollow, and hollow bodies. Using an instrument cable (or wireless system) the guitar is plugged into an amplifier. Without an amp, electric guitars make little musical sound. Most modern electric guitars have 6 or 7 strings though different variations can be seen on custom electric guitars.
Electric guitars have pickups which turn the string vibrations into an electric signal sent through the guitar cable and into an amplifier. There are usually 1 to 3 pickups on an electric guitar which can be switched and wired to different configurations to alter the sound. Single coil pickups are popular in Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster type guitars. Single coil pickups tend to produce 60 cycle hum. Humbuckers are about the width of about 2 single coil pickups side-by-side and produce a thicker sound and cancel out the 60 cycle hum of single coils. Humbucker pickups can be coil-tapped which allows the guitarist to switch from the normal humbucker sound to a single coil sound made possible by an additional switch on the guitar and alternate pickup wiring.
Electric guitars are famous for their sound to be altered by effects pedals, processors, rack units, etc. and of course, their amplified sound.
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Electric Guitar at GuitaristSource.com
Electric guitars are made with solid, semi-hollow, and hollow bodies. Using an instrument cable (or wireless system) the guitar is plugged into an amplifier. Without an amp, electric guitars make little musical sound. Most modern electric guitars have 6 or 7 strings though different variations can be seen on custom electric guitars.
A Brief History of the Electric Guitar
The electric guitar is the result of guitarists’ desire to play the guitar and hear it at a louder volume. This became more important during the big band era, as the hollow body acoustic guitars of that time struggled to be heard along with the other instruments.
Before the modern solid-body electric guitars, luthiers, or guitar makers, experimented with amplifying acoustic guitars by using microphones or tungsten pickups. Tungsten pickups were used to modify acoustic instruments to be amplified. These were usually placed in the sound hole below the strings. In 1950 Leo Fender introduced a solid body, prototype guitar called the Esquire. The Esquire had a single pickup and was reintroduced in 1951 with two pickups, and renamed to Broadcaster. The Broadcaster was again renamed to its present name, Telecaster. Though there were other electric guitar prototypes around this time, the Telecaster became the first mass produced solid-body, electric Spanish style guitars available on a commercial market. The Precision Bass was introduced by Fender within the same year. Since the Precision Bass had frets and could be played like a guitar, not to mention the ability to plug into an amp, bass players now had a revolutionary alternative to the acoustic bass. Fender produced the Stratocaster later on in 1954.
Electric guitars are now made with solid, semi-hollow, and hollow bodies. Using an instrument cable (or wireless system) the guitar is plugged into an amplifier. Without an amp, electric guitars make little musical sound. Most modern electric guitars have 6 or 7 strings though different variations can be seen on custom electric guitars.
Electric guitars have pickups which turn the string vibrations into an electric signal sent through the guitar cable and into an amplifier. There are usually 1 to 3 pickups on an electric guitar which can be switched and wired to different configurations to alter the sound. Single coil pickups are popular in Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster type guitars. Single coil pickups tend to produce 60 cycle hum. Humbuckers are about the width of about 2 single coil pickups side-by-side and produce a thicker sound and cancel out the 60 cycle hum of single coils. Humbucker pickups can be coil-tapped which allows the guitarist to switch from the normal humbucker sound to a single coil sound made possible by an additional switch on the guitar and alternate pickup wiring.
Electric guitars are famous for their sound to be altered by effects pedals, processors, rack units, etc. and of course, their amplified sound.
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