Monday, February 8th, 2010

The Electric Guitar – A Primer


Amplified sound created by electrical currents caused by vibrating strings is the definition of the music created by an electric guitar. The first electric guitars in the 1930s consisted of electromagnetic transducers fastened to hollow-arch-top acoustic guitars. The Fender, created by Les Paul, was the original modern-day electric guitar. The Fender made its debut in the 1940s.

The Body of the GuitarWhile some modern electric guitars have a partially hollow resonance-chamber, the electric guitar is characterized by its body being made out of solid wood with controls and pickups mounted on the surface. Because electric guitars do not use soundboards (a piece of wood through which sound is vibrated) (*it should be noted that what is known as the right handed or left handed acoustic electric guitar is very similar to the pre-cursor of the modern electric guitar, thus these do have soundboards in their design) one would think that the type of wood used in the construction of the guitar would not matter. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The type of wood still determines how the guitar will resonate. Rich sounds are created by dense wood (i. E. Mahogany, ash, and alder).

BarA metal bar attached to the bridge varies the string tension be moving the bridge backwards and forwards. This bar is also known as the Tremolo, Whammy, Vibrato, or Wang Bar.

Fingerboard and NeckMaple-wood is the standard material used in the electric guitar’s neck construction. The fret or fingerboard is usually made of maple or rosewood is attached to the front of the neck. When the musician wishes to change the pitch of the sound, he or she will press the strings into the fingerboard which changes the vibrating-length. Bright pitches come from maple fingerboards. Timbres that are dark are produced by rosewood fingerboards.

The PickupsThe ‘voice’ of the electric guitar comes from the pickups. These are magnets wrapped in wire and their purpose is to capture the vibration of the strings and convert them to an electrical signal that can be amplified. Each string vibration disrupts the pickup’s magnetic field, which creates the electrical current.

There are two types of pickups: