Wednesday 4 August 2010
Getting started: Anatomy of a Guitar
This is a general overview of the construction, components and design of the acoustic and electric guitar. Acoustic and electric guitars have many parts in common but electric guitars are slightly more complicated due to the need for pickups and controls.
On Acoustics and Electrics
Body
The body is the most important characteristic of any guitar. It provides the resonance that shapes the tone of a guitar. It provides the volume (or heft) of an acoustic guitar and the sustain of an electric. On guitars the top smaller curved part closest to the strings is called the treble or upper bout and the bigger curved part is the bass or lower bout. The waist is the narrow section that divides them.
There are many factors that affect the body's tone: the type of wood used, the construction method (like layered or one-piece or hollow or solid-body) and the shape and size. There is a debate about whether the type of wood used for the electric guitar body actually makes a great difference to the tone. Some believe that a denser heavier wood gives a deeper sustain or richer tone but since it is mostly high-end manufacturers that use these kinds of wood, it may also be because the instrument is made using better construction methods. Others point out that the solid-body doesn't behave in the same way as the table of an acoustic which vibrates in sympathy with the strings and therefore the tonal differences produced by different woods is minor. The woods listed below are used in the construction of both the acoustic and the electric guitar.
Tone wood
o Swamp Ash (also known as Southern Soft Ash) comes from swamps in the Southern USA. Swamp Ash grows underwater which makes the wood light-weight and porous. Many Fender guitars from the 1950s were built with Swamp Ash. It has hard grain lines between its softer layers and a creamy light tan color with bold darker grain patterns. Its tonal qualities are a very nice balance of brightness, warmth and dynamic range with clear bell-like highs, slightly scooped mids and strong lows. Since it has good resonance across the whole frequency spectrum it can sound quite complex.
o Western Soft Maple (also known as Big Leaf Maple) is much lighter in weight than Hard Maple. It has a bright tone with good bite and attack though not as brittle as hard maple. Its tonal qualities produce singing highs with a tight low end. This kind of maple is often seen with a figure called "flame" or "curl", and less commonly (though very beautifully), a figure called "quilt".
Body top
For high-end guitars, luthiers tend to incorporate an additional top to the body to blend the benefits of different types of wood together. Typically, the type of wood used is maple with figuring. While the figuring does not affect the tone, it does provides a much more pronounced look.
Bridge
The bridge is found between the middle and bottom of the body. Its function is to allow the strings to pass over it and sit at a relative height. Depending on the guitar, the strings may start at the bridge or they may only be supported by it. Most Electric guitars allow the bridge to be raised or lowered, allowing the action of the guitar to be finely adjusted. This is typically done by adjusting screws, either thumbscrews which can be rotated with the fingers or traditional screws requiring a screwdriver. This is discussed further in the Adjusting the Guitar section.
Acoustic guitar bridges usually have a saddle. A saddle is a piece of plastic or polished bone that is used for the string to rest on. The smoothness prevents the guitar from buzzing and it can also be used for very fine tuning. Synthetic bone substitutes are becoming more common.
Fretboard
On the front side of the neck is the fretboard or fingerboard. These are commonly made of rosewood but many other hard woods are also used. Embedded in the fretboard are a number of metal frets; usually 20 to 24. Strings are pressed down behind a fret to change the note that the open string will produce. There are a variety of fret designs; jumbo frets means tall frets and therefore you do not need to press down to the board, while medium means closer to the board and thus need to be pressed onto the board in order to be heard. The first fret is the one nearest the nut (see below), unless there is one immediately after the nut, which is called a "zero fret". Most fretboards have inlays on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets which are decorative and also function as markers for quick recognition of guitar positions. Some also have inlays on the 1st, 15th and 17th.
Headstock
The headstock lies at the end of the guitar's neck. The purpose of the headstock is to support the tuners, which terminates the strings of the instrument. The tuners are attached to tuning pegs and this allows the guitarist to lower or raise the pitch of the string. A secondary purpose of the headstock is identification; many guitar manufacturers use a distinctive headstock shape, often in combination with a logo and model information.
Neck
The neck of a guitar extends from the body. It can be a single piece of wood but often it is several pieces glued and cut to the proper shape. The fretboard is attached to the neck, along with the head stock at the end. Some necks are glued to the body (called a set neck) and others have it bolted on. Set necks are almost universal amongst acoustic guitars. The bolt-on or screw-on neck are most common in electric guitars. Most necks are wood though there are several alternative materials, such as carbon fibre composites. A few guitars are made entirely of one piece of wood, where the body is carved from one piece and sides are attached. These sorts of guitars often do not have truss rods.
See below for more details on electric guitar necks.
Nut
All strings pass through the nut at the end of the fretboard. It roughly divides the fretboard and headstock, and its function is to maintain proper string spacing and provide an endpoint for the string. On Acoustic guitars, the nut and saddle are usually made of similar material. Electric guitars commonly use plastic, synthetics, and sometimes metal nuts. As tremolo bars can cause tuning problems, guitars equipped with them usually have some manner of locking nut, where the strings are clamped down. Fender produces a roller nut, where the nut incorporates a system of ball bearings, making it similar to a locking nut, but without biting into the strings.
Pick Guard
This is a flat piece of plastic on the body of the guitar, beneath the sound hole or surrounding pickups. It prevents the body from being scratched by the pick. Some Electric guitars have raised pick guards, so when you strum through a chord, your pick is directed out and away from the volume and tone knobs (but also the strings). Most pick guards can be replaced by players, but it is best to take the guitar to an experienced luthier. The pick guard is also called a scratch plate.
Sound Hole
This is where the sound waves made by the strings exits the body. Most sound holes are round, but some Electric guitars (archtop guitars) have violin style, f-shaped sound holes.
Truss Rod
Most Acoustic and Electric guitars have a steel truss rod that runs through the neck under the fretboard. It counteracts the pull of the strings on the neck, strengthening it, and allows the curvature of the neck to be adjusted. Classical guitars do not require a truss rod, because there is less tension from their strings, and some less expensive acoustics do not have truss rods. Adjusting the truss rod is a step in setting up the guitar, but you should know what you're doing before you perform this adjustment.
Tuning Pegs
These are attached to the headstock, and these are where the strings end. They are used to raise and lower the pitch of the strings. There are two main styles, those found on steel string Acoustics and Electric guitars, where the tuning pegs are attached straight into the side of the headstock, and on classicals where they are perpendicular to the headstock. The style of tuning pegs on classicals resembles the tuning pegs on violins.
Electric Guitar
Pickups
A pickup is a magnet wrapped in a coil of copper wire. When the string is plucked, the vibration of the strings cause magnetic flux, which is then amplified and played through a speaker. There are three main kinds: passive single coils, passive humbuckers, and active humbuckers.
Passive single coils have one electromagnet and are found on Stratocasters and their copies. They have a bright and twangy clean sound but traditionally have less output which results in a thinner sound. Due to their design they pick up the background hum caused by the induction of the AC current. Single coils are used by guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Some single coils, such as P-90, are larger than regular single coils, and thus warmer than a standard single coil. However they still retain more of a single coil sound and still can pick-up background hum. Another single coil style is the “Lipstick” style (commonly found on Danelectro Guitars), where the entire pickup is placed in a metal enclosure with a small gap left between the two metal halves. It tends to be brighter sounding, and the magnetic field caused by the gap in the metal case causes some hum reduction.
Humbuckers, however, use two magnetic coils, operating in opposite magnetic polarity, to cancel out the hum generated by single coils. They provide a warm, fat sound and it is interesting to note that they are used most in the metal and blues genres. Humbuckers allow you to use a lot of overdriven gain and you can make the guitar sound very heavy. Some humbuckers also allowed either coil tap (using only one of the coils) or parallel connection, which provide a sound similar to single coil. Passive humbuckers are for rich, thick, naturally decaying distortion, and they are used by artists like Dimebag Darrell from Pantera. Active humbuckers use battery or phantom power to provide enhanced sensitivity, and thus have longer sustain and can take heavy distortion. Active humbuckers are used most famously by James Hetfield of Metallica.
Ultimately, however, any pickup can be used for any genre: some people use humbuckers for blues and jazz, while others may use the single coil for the sound they prefer. It is also important to remember that amplifiers and effect pedals can greatly change the tone of any guitar.
There are many different arrangements for pickups. The most basic is a single pickup, typically near the bridge. There also the following:
Of course, these are some of the basic configurations, since a S-S-S configuration can be configure into H-S-H or even H-H-H through single-coil sized humbucker. A humbucker slot can easily utilize a much hotter super distortion type humbucker (essentially 2 single-coil sized humbucker connect together), giving output that is as high as an active pick-up.
On almost every electric guitar there will be a pickup selector that allows you to choose which pickups to use.
A 2 pickup guitar will usually have a 3 way switch, the first for the neck, the third for the bridge and the middle for both.
Three magnetic pickups on an electric guitar. From left to right they are a humbucker and two single coils.
On guitars with 3 pickups there is usually a five way switch.
For 2 humbuckers, there could be either 3 ways (as mentioned above for 2 pick-ups) or 5 ways:
Sometimes, instead of neck at parallel, it could be both humbuckers, each in single coil mode (outer coils); said to produce more of a telecaster-like tone.
While it is rare, some guitars, such as Fender Jaguar, Fender Mustang, and Red Special utilize independent switches for each pickup, which can provide even more flexibility.
Bridge
For electric guitars there are basically two kinds of bridge: those that have a tremolo (whammy) bar, and those that do not, (also known as hardtail). For the sake of discussion, we also include the tail end, where the string terminates.
A tremolo bar is a bar that stretches and slack the strings, causing the sound to change pitch. Pushing down on the bar lowers the pitch of the strings, and pulling up will raises the pitch. Rapidly pushing and releasing (or pushing and pulling for exaggerated effect) will produce a modulation in pitch, called vibrato. Vibrato is often confused with tremolo (modulation in volume), hence the misnomer tremolo bar. While traditionally used for vibrato, It is more commonly used for dive bombs and various other guitar tricks.
There are basically four kinds of tremolo:
The only way to rarely go out of tune is to either use the Floyd Rose tremolo or a hardtail (no tremolo). If you prefer to ease of setup while staying in tune with a tremolo, you can also try Yamaha's "finger clamp" locking tremolo, which requires no tools when setting up, or use locking tuners and roller nuts, as in Fender's locking tremolo.
As mentioned, a hardtail (no tremolo) bridge is great at staying in tune. However, it also has additional benefits, in that it also improved sound and sustain. The fixed bridge also makes it easier to perform string bends, and gives an altogether warmer and rounder sound than one with tremolo.
Despite such simple concept, there are at least three versions of ending the string:
Switches and Knobs
Almost all electric guitars have a switch that changes which pickups are being used and at least two knobs, one for the master volume and one for the master tone. If the guitar has four knobs, then it has two volume and two tone, with each-volume-pair assigned to a pickup. Fender Stratocasters typically have one master volume and a tone control for the neck and mid pickup.
Do note that, unless it is an active pickup, the volume and and tone control are much closer to a set of filter for the signal. Even if you turn the amplifier to eleven, if the guitar's volume is set low, it won't generate enough current to drive the amplifier to overdrive. As for the tone, it acts as a low pass filter, which help "boost" a certain range of frequency.
Neck-joint
This is where the neck is connected to the body, and there are several different kinds of joins:
Bolt-on neck - as the name indicate, the neck is attached to the body by a series of bolts and mounting plate for stability. Typically, there should be no less than 4 bolts, otherwise it will start to be detestable (as demonstrated on CBS Fender guitars). The mounting plate, as well as a square-shaped joint, typically made accessing the upper frets difficult. To rectify it, some manufacturers, such as Ibanez, uses hidden plate bolt on, with the bolts mounted deeper into a smoothed body, while some like MusicMan have a contoured joint that follows the angled contour of joint (though still use metal plate); both results in an easy access for the upper frets. The standard Bolt-on is famously used by Fender, with Ibanez making all its bolt-on joins with hidden plates, even for the budget range.
Set-in neck - For acoustic guitars, this is the common joining but for electrics, this is typically reserved for more expensive guitars as it requires more careful manufacturing to ensure a good result. This method involves joining guitar neck and body with some sort of adhesive. This yields a stronger connection than a bolt-on neck, though not as strong as a neck-thru body joint. Gibson and Epiphone both use the set-in neck. It has the following advantage in comparison to bolt on:
Thru-body necks involves extending the piece (or pieces, in a laminate construction) of wood used for the neck the entire length of the body. The strings, fretboard, pickups and bridge are all mounted on this piece. So-called ears or wings (i.e. side parts of the body) are glued or laminated to the central "stick". The wings may be bookmatched in order to give a symmetrical appearance and they are often cut from one piece of wood. The thru-body construction method was pioneered by Les Paul, who made his "The Log" out of the same method.
As this is significantly harder to mass-produce than bolt-on or set neck constructions, it is primarily found on high-end guitars. It is somewhat more common in basses than in guitars. Neck-thru construction allows easier access to upper frets (those nearer the guitar body), because there is no need for a heel – the thickened area on the neck where it bolts to the body. Many musicians also hold the opinion that neck-through construction provides greater sustain, though guitar greats such as Eric Johnson, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai (Ibanez JEM) and Joe Satriani (Ibanez JS series) have managed quite well with hidden-plate bolt-on necks. Neck-through instruments supposedly stay in tune longer., and due to the fact that the string is on the entire piece of wood, it has much better sustain.
Set through can be seen as a modification of a thru-body neck, which is done by the following
The result is usually told to have combined advantages of all these methods, mostly eliminating their disadvantages. Luthiers frequently cite:
Amplifier and effects
The amplifier is absolutely necessary when playing the electric guitar. Acoustic guitars with no internal pickup may be amplified with a microphone and a specifically built acoustic amp or PA. Different amplifiers will give the same guitar a different sound and some amps are more appropriate for certain genres of music. Many amplifiers have effects built in. The most common being distortion; often called overdrive. If the amplifier has a "lead" channel then this can be turned up to produce distortion. This is possible because the pre-amplifier (pre-amp) will overdrive the amplifier's tubes or transistors therefore causing the amplification not to be linear. The more the tubes and transistors are driven, the greater the distortion.
Turning up the pre-amplifier will increase the volume. To compensate amps also have a "gain" knob which can be turned down to reduce the volume after overdrive. Overdriving an amp can result in sounds loud enough to cause damage especially blown speakers. This can happen to small 25w amps as well as large rigs. If you have just bought an amp or have use of unfamiliar equipment then always turn down the gain when plugging in and slowly and carefully adjust to the appropriate level. Distortion can also be provided by effects pedals. Other on-board effects you may find on an amp are chorus, reverb, wah-wah, compression and delay.
On Acoustics and Electrics
Body
The body is the most important characteristic of any guitar. It provides the resonance that shapes the tone of a guitar. It provides the volume (or heft) of an acoustic guitar and the sustain of an electric. On guitars the top smaller curved part closest to the strings is called the treble or upper bout and the bigger curved part is the bass or lower bout. The waist is the narrow section that divides them.
There are many factors that affect the body's tone: the type of wood used, the construction method (like layered or one-piece or hollow or solid-body) and the shape and size. There is a debate about whether the type of wood used for the electric guitar body actually makes a great difference to the tone. Some believe that a denser heavier wood gives a deeper sustain or richer tone but since it is mostly high-end manufacturers that use these kinds of wood, it may also be because the instrument is made using better construction methods. Others point out that the solid-body doesn't behave in the same way as the table of an acoustic which vibrates in sympathy with the strings and therefore the tonal differences produced by different woods is minor. The woods listed below are used in the construction of both the acoustic and the electric guitar.
Tone wood
- Agathis (also known as Commercial Grade Mahogany or Poor Man's Mahogany) is a type of pine that grows in East Asia. It is a plantation-wood used mainly for building cabinets. It is cheap and usually used in the construction of budget guitars. Its tone is similar to mahogany but more bland sounding with a less complex response.
- Alder is a light-weight wood that provides a clean balanced tonal response and good resonance. Its soft tight porous structure is similar to basswood but with a bolder hard grain pattern that adds to the stiffness and makes it more robust. It is usually in a medium light tan. Alder provides a balanced tone across the frequency range with a slight upper mid-range producing a clean sound and its resonance provides a good dynamic range.
- Ash offers two varieties for guitar construction and they differ in tone. Ash has an open grain pattern which requires a lot of lacquer to seal and this may result in less sustain than other woods. Ash is typically used in mid-range priced guitars.
o Swamp Ash (also known as Southern Soft Ash) comes from swamps in the Southern USA. Swamp Ash grows underwater which makes the wood light-weight and porous. Many Fender guitars from the 1950s were built with Swamp Ash. It has hard grain lines between its softer layers and a creamy light tan color with bold darker grain patterns. Its tonal qualities are a very nice balance of brightness, warmth and dynamic range with clear bell-like highs, slightly scooped mids and strong lows. Since it has good resonance across the whole frequency spectrum it can sound quite complex.
- Basswood is a light-weight (lighter than Alder) close-grained wood with a consistent and tight grain pattern. It is very soft with light colors that range from almost white to medium tan. Because it dents easily, it requires a hard finish (such as polyester) and good engineering so as to allow the screws and screw-holes to hold the parts. The installation of a tremolo system on such a softwood also means the body needs to be thicker to prevent cracking. Tonally, basswood has a warm soft tone which attenuates both the high and extreme low frequencies. It also creates a pronounced midrange fundamental frequency response and a reduced smoother high end response. The tonal response (compared to other softwoods such as ash and alder) is not as complex and has a limited dynamic range . It is not a wood that excels in clean sounds but when played with distortion or overdriven amplifier provides a familiar metal-lead sound. It is used in the construction of budget guitars and expensive guitars. Steve Vai's JEM is an example of a basswood guitar in the higher price range.
- Cedar became popular in the mid twentieth century after master luthier Jose Ramirez III of Madrid pioneered the use of red cedar as a substitute for the increasingly scarce European spruce. It is now considered one of the world's premier tonewoods.
- Mahogany is a highly dense, heavy wood with a fine, open grain and large pores. The color is reddish brown. Tonally, it provides good low frequencies, a compressed mid-range and smooth sounding highs. Overall, its tone is mellow, soft and warm with a full and thick quality. It has a punchy dynamic and its heaviness provide excellent sustain. Its density also makes it very stable and less susceptible to dents and scratches. Due to its heaviness it may not be comfortable to hold unless the body is similar to those of the Ibanez S series, which has a mahogany bodies that is thinner than most other designs.
- Nato is another type of eastern mahogany though most current stock now comes from South America. It is also a commercial grade mahogany originally designed for cabinet building. Typically used as a mahogany substitute for budget guitars. It has a bright tone with pronounced midrange but lacks in sensitivity and punch compared to other varieties of mahogany. B.C. Rich used Nato for their Assassin range.
- Maple is used for the back and sides. It is not common on flat-topped instruments, but it is the wood of choice for arched top guitars, mandolins, and violin-family instruments. It is usually white in color with tight pores and thin grain lines. These are the two most common kinds of American maple:
o Western Soft Maple (also known as Big Leaf Maple) is much lighter in weight than Hard Maple. It has a bright tone with good bite and attack though not as brittle as hard maple. Its tonal qualities produce singing highs with a tight low end. This kind of maple is often seen with a figure called "flame" or "curl", and less commonly (though very beautifully), a figure called "quilt".
- Rosewood, though reserved for the back and sides of acoustic instruments is also sometimes used for fingerboards. It possesses an extremely high density making it very reflective acoustically. Its color is dark brown with reddish, purple or orange streaks running through it. There are many varieties of rosewoods that are used for guitars.
- Poplar was in the past only used for budget guitars; especially by Danelectro as a center block with masonite used on the top and bottom. However due to the resurgence in popularity of the old garage sounds of the 1950s, the guitars that use poplar are relatively expensive for such a budget wood. It is a closed grain wood with a greyish-green color and similar to alder in weight and tone.
- Spruce For centuries European spruce has been the premium tonewood used for stringed instruments. Increasing scarcity has resulted in the increased use of substitutes such as the North American species of spruce and red cedar.
- Walnut is a medium hard wood with a strong grain pattern. Its body has a constant density. It is harder, heavier and more dense than mahogany and therefore closer to maple. Tonally, it is warmer than maple with a solid low end. The midrange is relatively complex and the top end is smooth and bright. Due to its density, it provides good sustain.
Body top
For high-end guitars, luthiers tend to incorporate an additional top to the body to blend the benefits of different types of wood together. Typically, the type of wood used is maple with figuring. While the figuring does not affect the tone, it does provides a much more pronounced look.
Bridge
The bridge is found between the middle and bottom of the body. Its function is to allow the strings to pass over it and sit at a relative height. Depending on the guitar, the strings may start at the bridge or they may only be supported by it. Most Electric guitars allow the bridge to be raised or lowered, allowing the action of the guitar to be finely adjusted. This is typically done by adjusting screws, either thumbscrews which can be rotated with the fingers or traditional screws requiring a screwdriver. This is discussed further in the Adjusting the Guitar section.
Acoustic guitar bridges usually have a saddle. A saddle is a piece of plastic or polished bone that is used for the string to rest on. The smoothness prevents the guitar from buzzing and it can also be used for very fine tuning. Synthetic bone substitutes are becoming more common.
Fretboard
On the front side of the neck is the fretboard or fingerboard. These are commonly made of rosewood but many other hard woods are also used. Embedded in the fretboard are a number of metal frets; usually 20 to 24. Strings are pressed down behind a fret to change the note that the open string will produce. There are a variety of fret designs; jumbo frets means tall frets and therefore you do not need to press down to the board, while medium means closer to the board and thus need to be pressed onto the board in order to be heard. The first fret is the one nearest the nut (see below), unless there is one immediately after the nut, which is called a "zero fret". Most fretboards have inlays on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets which are decorative and also function as markers for quick recognition of guitar positions. Some also have inlays on the 1st, 15th and 17th.
Headstock
The headstock lies at the end of the guitar's neck. The purpose of the headstock is to support the tuners, which terminates the strings of the instrument. The tuners are attached to tuning pegs and this allows the guitarist to lower or raise the pitch of the string. A secondary purpose of the headstock is identification; many guitar manufacturers use a distinctive headstock shape, often in combination with a logo and model information.
Neck
The neck of a guitar extends from the body. It can be a single piece of wood but often it is several pieces glued and cut to the proper shape. The fretboard is attached to the neck, along with the head stock at the end. Some necks are glued to the body (called a set neck) and others have it bolted on. Set necks are almost universal amongst acoustic guitars. The bolt-on or screw-on neck are most common in electric guitars. Most necks are wood though there are several alternative materials, such as carbon fibre composites. A few guitars are made entirely of one piece of wood, where the body is carved from one piece and sides are attached. These sorts of guitars often do not have truss rods.
See below for more details on electric guitar necks.
Nut
All strings pass through the nut at the end of the fretboard. It roughly divides the fretboard and headstock, and its function is to maintain proper string spacing and provide an endpoint for the string. On Acoustic guitars, the nut and saddle are usually made of similar material. Electric guitars commonly use plastic, synthetics, and sometimes metal nuts. As tremolo bars can cause tuning problems, guitars equipped with them usually have some manner of locking nut, where the strings are clamped down. Fender produces a roller nut, where the nut incorporates a system of ball bearings, making it similar to a locking nut, but without biting into the strings.
Pick Guard
This is a flat piece of plastic on the body of the guitar, beneath the sound hole or surrounding pickups. It prevents the body from being scratched by the pick. Some Electric guitars have raised pick guards, so when you strum through a chord, your pick is directed out and away from the volume and tone knobs (but also the strings). Most pick guards can be replaced by players, but it is best to take the guitar to an experienced luthier. The pick guard is also called a scratch plate.
Sound Hole
This is where the sound waves made by the strings exits the body. Most sound holes are round, but some Electric guitars (archtop guitars) have violin style, f-shaped sound holes.
Truss Rod
Most Acoustic and Electric guitars have a steel truss rod that runs through the neck under the fretboard. It counteracts the pull of the strings on the neck, strengthening it, and allows the curvature of the neck to be adjusted. Classical guitars do not require a truss rod, because there is less tension from their strings, and some less expensive acoustics do not have truss rods. Adjusting the truss rod is a step in setting up the guitar, but you should know what you're doing before you perform this adjustment.
Tuning Pegs
These are attached to the headstock, and these are where the strings end. They are used to raise and lower the pitch of the strings. There are two main styles, those found on steel string Acoustics and Electric guitars, where the tuning pegs are attached straight into the side of the headstock, and on classicals where they are perpendicular to the headstock. The style of tuning pegs on classicals resembles the tuning pegs on violins.
Electric Guitar
Pickups
A pickup is a magnet wrapped in a coil of copper wire. When the string is plucked, the vibration of the strings cause magnetic flux, which is then amplified and played through a speaker. There are three main kinds: passive single coils, passive humbuckers, and active humbuckers.
Passive single coils have one electromagnet and are found on Stratocasters and their copies. They have a bright and twangy clean sound but traditionally have less output which results in a thinner sound. Due to their design they pick up the background hum caused by the induction of the AC current. Single coils are used by guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Some single coils, such as P-90, are larger than regular single coils, and thus warmer than a standard single coil. However they still retain more of a single coil sound and still can pick-up background hum. Another single coil style is the “Lipstick” style (commonly found on Danelectro Guitars), where the entire pickup is placed in a metal enclosure with a small gap left between the two metal halves. It tends to be brighter sounding, and the magnetic field caused by the gap in the metal case causes some hum reduction.
Humbuckers, however, use two magnetic coils, operating in opposite magnetic polarity, to cancel out the hum generated by single coils. They provide a warm, fat sound and it is interesting to note that they are used most in the metal and blues genres. Humbuckers allow you to use a lot of overdriven gain and you can make the guitar sound very heavy. Some humbuckers also allowed either coil tap (using only one of the coils) or parallel connection, which provide a sound similar to single coil. Passive humbuckers are for rich, thick, naturally decaying distortion, and they are used by artists like Dimebag Darrell from Pantera. Active humbuckers use battery or phantom power to provide enhanced sensitivity, and thus have longer sustain and can take heavy distortion. Active humbuckers are used most famously by James Hetfield of Metallica.
Ultimately, however, any pickup can be used for any genre: some people use humbuckers for blues and jazz, while others may use the single coil for the sound they prefer. It is also important to remember that amplifiers and effect pedals can greatly change the tone of any guitar.
There are many different arrangements for pickups. The most basic is a single pickup, typically near the bridge. There also the following:
- S-S - telecaster style; due to the large spacing between, provide what is typically known as "country twang", a chirpy sound with lots of treble. Even when using thick single coils (eg Jazzmaster and P90 Les Pauls), the tone is more emphasized on the treble side.
- S-S-S - Strat and and Strat copies
- H-S-S - "Fat strat", basically the pick-up at the bridge is replaced by a humbucker. A common choice for people who may like both the clean tone and hum-free fat (and dirty) tone.
- H-H - Gibson Les Paul, and common humbucker arrangement. Also known as "Double fat strat" when mounted on a Strat like body.
- H-S-H - "super strat". Typically used for metal, such as Ibanez's Steve Vai signature model.
- H-H-H - Gibson Firebird VII, SG Special, Les Paul Special.
Of course, these are some of the basic configurations, since a S-S-S configuration can be configure into H-S-H or even H-H-H through single-coil sized humbucker. A humbucker slot can easily utilize a much hotter super distortion type humbucker (essentially 2 single-coil sized humbucker connect together), giving output that is as high as an active pick-up.
On almost every electric guitar there will be a pickup selector that allows you to choose which pickups to use.
A 2 pickup guitar will usually have a 3 way switch, the first for the neck, the third for the bridge and the middle for both.
Three magnetic pickups on an electric guitar. From left to right they are a humbucker and two single coils.
On guitars with 3 pickups there is usually a five way switch.
- neck
- neck-middle. In the case of H-S-H without coil tap, it will be two single coil in between
- middle
- middle-bridge. In the case of H-S-H without coil tap, it will be two single coil in between
- bridge pick-up.
For 2 humbuckers, there could be either 3 ways (as mentioned above for 2 pick-ups) or 5 ways:
- neck
- neck at parallel (which produce a tone similar to single coil)
- both humbuckers
- both humbuckers, each in single coil mode (inner coils)
- bridge humbuckers
Sometimes, instead of neck at parallel, it could be both humbuckers, each in single coil mode (outer coils); said to produce more of a telecaster-like tone.
While it is rare, some guitars, such as Fender Jaguar, Fender Mustang, and Red Special utilize independent switches for each pickup, which can provide even more flexibility.
Bridge
For electric guitars there are basically two kinds of bridge: those that have a tremolo (whammy) bar, and those that do not, (also known as hardtail). For the sake of discussion, we also include the tail end, where the string terminates.
A tremolo bar is a bar that stretches and slack the strings, causing the sound to change pitch. Pushing down on the bar lowers the pitch of the strings, and pulling up will raises the pitch. Rapidly pushing and releasing (or pushing and pulling for exaggerated effect) will produce a modulation in pitch, called vibrato. Vibrato is often confused with tremolo (modulation in volume), hence the misnomer tremolo bar. While traditionally used for vibrato, It is more commonly used for dive bombs and various other guitar tricks.
There are basically four kinds of tremolo:
- Bigsby comes with a tail piece that natch at the bottom end of the body, it usually provide only a half pitch bend on both up and down. Typically installed on archtop guitars, though its modified version exists as Gibson Vibrola. Despite its limited range, it does go out of tune as easily and other non-locking tremolo.
- Vintage synchronized tremolo, aka strat-type tremolo, can only down bend. Can go out of tune easily, though not as much as floating
- Floating bridge tremolo Out of all non-locking tremolo, these can go out of tune most easily, due to the fact that it can upbend and downbend for two half-steps or more. On poorly designed version, these can go out of tune even during palm mute. However, it can be convert to downbend only, by tipping the "down" side of the bridge against the body.
- Locking tremolos (Floyd Rose). These tremolos can stay in tune almost indefinitely. However, once set up it's hard to change tuning with these, and changing strings and setting up in the first place is a huge chore, and thus can be overly complicated for a beginner. The way to tell if it's a locking tremolo is to see if it has a set of locks at the nut section. The benefit of having a locking tremolo is that the guitar stays in tune, but you should always tune your guitar every time you play, even if you have locks (In the case of Floyd Rose, by microtuner).
The only way to rarely go out of tune is to either use the Floyd Rose tremolo or a hardtail (no tremolo). If you prefer to ease of setup while staying in tune with a tremolo, you can also try Yamaha's "finger clamp" locking tremolo, which requires no tools when setting up, or use locking tuners and roller nuts, as in Fender's locking tremolo.
As mentioned, a hardtail (no tremolo) bridge is great at staying in tune. However, it also has additional benefits, in that it also improved sound and sustain. The fixed bridge also makes it easier to perform string bends, and gives an altogether warmer and rounder sound than one with tremolo.
Despite such simple concept, there are at least three versions of ending the string:
- The first kind is the stop bar method, used from cheap budget types to expensive archtop and PRS guitars, where a stop bar that's mounted on top of the body holds the string's end. Sometimes it is also integrated to the bridge.
- The second kind is known as thru-body, where the string goes into the body; this enhanced sustain, but typically more expensive. the bridge, however, is a separate piece of hardware. Example would be Gibson's tune-o-matic. Despite this, strings still slide over the nut and saddles when playing/bending strings, just not as much as they do on a normal synchronized tremolo.
- The third kind of tail bridge is the fixed locking bridge, based upon the Floyd Rose tremolo except it is fixed; in this configuration, the string is clamped down, which ensure the string is stay in tune. Due to the fact that it's a fixed bridge, there are no spring cavity in the back; instead, the bridge is more or less mounted directly above the tail piece, which is usually thru-body. This is the best method to stay in tune. Currently, only Ibanez makes fixed locking bridge.
Switches and Knobs
Almost all electric guitars have a switch that changes which pickups are being used and at least two knobs, one for the master volume and one for the master tone. If the guitar has four knobs, then it has two volume and two tone, with each-volume-pair assigned to a pickup. Fender Stratocasters typically have one master volume and a tone control for the neck and mid pickup.
Do note that, unless it is an active pickup, the volume and and tone control are much closer to a set of filter for the signal. Even if you turn the amplifier to eleven, if the guitar's volume is set low, it won't generate enough current to drive the amplifier to overdrive. As for the tone, it acts as a low pass filter, which help "boost" a certain range of frequency.
Neck-joint
This is where the neck is connected to the body, and there are several different kinds of joins:
Bolt-on neck - as the name indicate, the neck is attached to the body by a series of bolts and mounting plate for stability. Typically, there should be no less than 4 bolts, otherwise it will start to be detestable (as demonstrated on CBS Fender guitars). The mounting plate, as well as a square-shaped joint, typically made accessing the upper frets difficult. To rectify it, some manufacturers, such as Ibanez, uses hidden plate bolt on, with the bolts mounted deeper into a smoothed body, while some like MusicMan have a contoured joint that follows the angled contour of joint (though still use metal plate); both results in an easy access for the upper frets. The standard Bolt-on is famously used by Fender, with Ibanez making all its bolt-on joins with hidden plates, even for the budget range.
Set-in neck - For acoustic guitars, this is the common joining but for electrics, this is typically reserved for more expensive guitars as it requires more careful manufacturing to ensure a good result. This method involves joining guitar neck and body with some sort of adhesive. This yields a stronger connection than a bolt-on neck, though not as strong as a neck-thru body joint. Gibson and Epiphone both use the set-in neck. It has the following advantage in comparison to bolt on:
- Warmer tone
- More sustain
- Usually better access to top frets in comparsion to bolt-on necks utilizing a metal plate; even on a hidden-plate bolt on, due to the neck join can slope even more, set-in still give more access to the upper frets.
Thru-body necks involves extending the piece (or pieces, in a laminate construction) of wood used for the neck the entire length of the body. The strings, fretboard, pickups and bridge are all mounted on this piece. So-called ears or wings (i.e. side parts of the body) are glued or laminated to the central "stick". The wings may be bookmatched in order to give a symmetrical appearance and they are often cut from one piece of wood. The thru-body construction method was pioneered by Les Paul, who made his "The Log" out of the same method.
As this is significantly harder to mass-produce than bolt-on or set neck constructions, it is primarily found on high-end guitars. It is somewhat more common in basses than in guitars. Neck-thru construction allows easier access to upper frets (those nearer the guitar body), because there is no need for a heel – the thickened area on the neck where it bolts to the body. Many musicians also hold the opinion that neck-through construction provides greater sustain, though guitar greats such as Eric Johnson, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai (Ibanez JEM) and Joe Satriani (Ibanez JS series) have managed quite well with hidden-plate bolt-on necks. Neck-through instruments supposedly stay in tune longer., and due to the fact that the string is on the entire piece of wood, it has much better sustain.
Set through can be seen as a modification of a thru-body neck, which is done by the following
- A pocket in the instrument's body for insertion of neck, as in bolt-on method. However, the pocket is much deeper than usual one.
- Long neck plank, comparable to the scale length, as in the neck-through method.
- Glueing (setting) the long neck inside the deep pocket, as in the set-in method.
The result is usually told to have combined advantages of all these methods, mostly eliminating their disadvantages. Luthiers frequently cite:
- improved tone and sustain (due to deep insertion and body made of single piece of wood, not laminated as in neck-through),
- "warmer" tone (due to set joint)
- comfortable access to top frets (due to lack of hard heel and bolt plate),
- better wood stability.
Amplifier and effects
The amplifier is absolutely necessary when playing the electric guitar. Acoustic guitars with no internal pickup may be amplified with a microphone and a specifically built acoustic amp or PA. Different amplifiers will give the same guitar a different sound and some amps are more appropriate for certain genres of music. Many amplifiers have effects built in. The most common being distortion; often called overdrive. If the amplifier has a "lead" channel then this can be turned up to produce distortion. This is possible because the pre-amplifier (pre-amp) will overdrive the amplifier's tubes or transistors therefore causing the amplification not to be linear. The more the tubes and transistors are driven, the greater the distortion.
Turning up the pre-amplifier will increase the volume. To compensate amps also have a "gain" knob which can be turned down to reduce the volume after overdrive. Overdriving an amp can result in sounds loud enough to cause damage especially blown speakers. This can happen to small 25w amps as well as large rigs. If you have just bought an amp or have use of unfamiliar equipment then always turn down the gain when plugging in and slowly and carefully adjust to the appropriate level. Distortion can also be provided by effects pedals. Other on-board effects you may find on an amp are chorus, reverb, wah-wah, compression and delay.
Getting started: DIFFERENT TYPES of Guitars
There are various types of guitar and they all have their own particular sound. Playing different guitars in a music shop is a great way of familiarising yourself with each model's unique qualities but don't forget to take off any objects that could scratch the guitar. A music salesman will let you try as many guitars as you like but may not be too happy at the little scratch your coat button left. Your choice of guitar will usually be based on the type of music you wish to play and the aesthetic appeal of the colour and design.
Acoustic Guitars
The acoustic guitar is found all over the globe and this cultural adoption and historical evolution has led to many variations in design and purpose. The ukulele, which was based on the four-stringed braginho or cavaquinhos from Portugal is an example of an earlier small-sized European guitar being introduced to a different society; the word ukulele is Hawaiian for “flea”. There are two kinds of acoustic guitar: steel-string and classical. Classical guitars have a wider neck and use nylon strings. Steel-strings have a defined and sharp sound that is a distinctive component of a wide range of popular music styles; country and rock are two examples. The nylon strings of the classical guitar allows the guitarist to play complicated arrangements and barres with ease. Both types of guitar can be played using a plectrum (pick) or finger-style. The steel-string acoustic is sometimes referred to as a flat top. The word top refers to the face or front of the guitar. The front is also sometimes called the table.
The body of any acoustic is large and hollow; acting as a resonating chamber which amplifies the strings. Larger bodied guitars with bigger curves tend to have a deeper or heavier tone, while guitars with a smaller body tend to sound brighter. Acoustic guitars sometimes have cutaways, similar to the cutaway on the Gibson Les Paul shown in the picture below, which allows greater access to the higher frets but this also changes the tone. Acoustic guitars have a weaker sustain than electric guitars but master-built classical or steel-string guitars often feature very good sustain and excellent overall performance. There are many entry-level acoustic guitar models that are manufactured to a high standard that are entirely suitable as a first guitar for beginners. If you wish to buy something more expensive then it is important that the table should be made from a single piece of wood (not ply) and closely grained.
The timbre (pronounced tam - bre) of the acoustic guitar lends itself to a variety of tasks and roles. It's a songwriter's tool because of its portability and ease of use and its gentle harp-like arpeggios and rhythmic chordal strumming has always found favour in an ensemble setting. When the performance is in a personal setting or amphitheater, the acoustic guitar can be heard with no additional amplification because the resonating chamber of the guitar itself creates acoustic amplification. In some situations the acoustic guitar is not loud enough to be heard by all the people in an audience and amplification is required. An acoustic guitar can be amplified by placing a microphone several inches from the sound hole or by installing a pickup designed for acoustic guitars. The need for guitars that retain their acoustic qualities when plugged into an amp or PA has led to the invention of the electro-acoustic guitar.
Electric Guitars
The electric guitar is the workhorse of rock music and is also used extensively in blues, jazz and pop music. Electric guitars need to be plugged into an amplifier to be heard adequately. They are usually solid-body guitars but archtop electric guitars with hollow bodies are available which gives them some acoustic resonance (see below). The timbre of the electric guitar is not comparable to the timbre of an acoustic guitar. The pickups are vital to the sound of the guitar. The pickups and amplifier used with a solid-body electric guitar creates a sound that is metallic with a lengthy decay (sustain).
The design of the electric guitar is not determined by the need for a deep resonating body that acoustic guitars must possess and this had led to the development of contoured and thin electric guitars which can be more comfortable to play. The design variations amongst electric guitars allows them to produce a wide variety of tones. The two most popular basic shapes of the electric guitar are the Fender Stratocaster design and the Gibson Les Paul design. The strings of an electric guitar are thinner than the strings of an acoustic and closer to the neck; therefore less force is needed to press them down. The electric guitar is capable of producing sounds and effects that would be difficult on an acoustic. The ease of bending strings sometimes used in combination with a whammy bar has created some of the greatest modern guitar solos. Fret-tapping is an electric guitar technique that has led to a different way of using the fretboard; allowing chords and melody lines to be played that would have been impossible using the standard technique of strumming and fingerpicking.
The choice of amplifier is fundamental to the sound created and should be regarded as the second half of the guitar. See the Buying an Amplifier section for details. Seven-string electric guitars have a string above the low E string which is tuned to a B and lower in pitch than the low E. They are popular with guitarists who play metal music.
Electro-acoustic guitars
Electro-acoustic guitars have pickups specifically designed for the subtle nuances of the timbre of the acoustic guitar. This allows electro-acoustics to be plugged into a PA and they are essential for many guitarists who rely on using the house PA when they gig. The Ovation range of electro-acoustics is a prime example of the departure in design from ordinary acoustics. Ovation guitars use under-the-saddle piezo pickups and a synthetic bowl-back. Purists were derisory of Ovation's innovations but professional musicians found that the synthetic bowl-back provided a tough construction that stands up to the rigours of the road. Ovation were the first company to provide on-board equalization and this is now a standard feature found on most electro-acoustics. Electro-acoustic pickups are designed to sound neutral with little alteration to the organic acoustic timbre. Another famous electro-acoustic brand is the Taylor guitar range. Taylor uses the traditional all-wood construction and the necks of these guitars have a reputation for superb action and playability.
Twelve-string guitars
The twelve-string is usually an acoustic though twelve-string electric guitars are available. Twelve-string guitars are not the same as double-neck guitars. Double-neck guitars are essentially two guitar necks bolted onto one body. Twelve-string guitars have the regular six strings and a second set of thinner strings with each string of the second set corresponding to the note of its regular string counterpart. The second set of strings are tuned an octave higher. The strings form pairs; so you still play the guitar in the same manner as a standard six-string.
Twelve-string guitars produce a brighter and more prominent tone and are harder to play than a standard six-string guitar. They are usually confined to niche roles, such as rhythm guitar. The additional strings require more pressure to press down and bending notes also requires an extra muscular effort. Twelve-string guitars are more expensive to buy than the standard acoustic or electric and may need more maintenance because of the strain the additional strings place on the neck.
Archtop guitars
An archtop is a hollow or semi-hollow acoustic or electric guitar which uses steel strings. The arched top creates a unique timbre and other elements taken from the design of the mandolin or violin also add to the distinctive tone of the archtop guitar. The body of the archtop guitar, whether hollow or semi-hollow, has a sound block in the middle and they also have violin f-holes cut into the table.
Archtop guitars may be acoustic or electric and can look very similar with the only distinguishing feature being an electromagnetic pickup. One problem with archtop hollow-bodied guitars is that when played through an amplifier they tend to generate feedback. The semi-hollow archtop was developed to make feedback less of an issue. Archtop guitars have been particularly popular in jazz music because their thicker strings add tone.
Some solid-body electric guitars have a body shape which includes the arched top but the name is usually reserved for the hollow/semi-hollow body form.
Steel guitars
The steel guitar is unusual in that it is played horizontally, either across the players knees or on its own stand. There are two main varieties of the instrument, which are played using the metal slide, or 'steel' from which the guitar takes its name. The steel is held in the left hand, when used by a right-handed player. The two main variations are the lap steel guitar, which typically has six strings and the pedal steel guitar which can have more - sometimes two or even three separate sets; each tuned differently. Pedals and knee-levers are used to alter the tuning on particular strings whilst playing, which along with the sliding action of the steel, gives the pedal steel its distinctive voice which is most often heard in country music.
Resonator guitars
Often also called 'steel' guitars due to some models possessing metal bodies. The acoustic resonator guitar is distinctive in not having a regular sound hole. Resonator guitars have a large, usually circular—plate which conceals the resonator cone. The cone closely resembles an audio loudspeaker and is made from spun aluminium. The bridge of the guitar is connected either to the centre of the cone or to the edge by an aluminium 'spider' and the strings' vibrations are thus amplified and projected outwards through the perforated plate on the guitar's top. The most common resonator guitars have a single cone, although the original model has three. Resonators possess a loud, bright voice, making them easily heard in a large room or open air performance. They are popular with blues musicians and country players and can be played in the conventional style or with a metal or glass slide.
Bass guitars
The bass guitar has a longer scale-length and thicker strings than a standard guitar. These factors create a range of notes that are pitched an octave lower than the guitar. Often the bass is considered part of the rhythm section but there are some players whose skills are comparable to any other soloist. Acoustic and electric bass guitars are available but the electric bass is more common. The standard bass is the four string bass though five and six string basses are also manufactured. The four strings of the bass correspond to the lowest four strings of the guitar an octave lower.
Double-neck guitars
The double-neck guitar is basically two different kinds of guitar sharing one body. This design allows the guitarist to easily access and switch between either neck. Made famous by Jimmy Page, the double neck guitar typically will have a standard six-string neck and a twelve-string neck. Other combinations exist, such as a six-string and bass or a six-string with frets and its fretless version. Steve Vai has been known to play a triple-neck guitar. The double-neck guitar came about in the 1970s because of the changes in recording technology. The recording technology of the 1960s relied on only 4 tracks and multi-layered guitar parts, though possible, were not frequently used. The bands of the 1960s would usually have two guitarists and this achieved the desired affect. The invention of 8 track recording meant more freedom to create complex guitar parts. The guitarist could lay down the rhythm track using a twelve-string guitar and then record onto a separate track, the lead break using a six-string guitar. This left the problem of how a single guitarist could perform these parts live without stopping to change guitars and the double-neck guitar provided the solution.
Acoustic Guitars
The acoustic guitar is found all over the globe and this cultural adoption and historical evolution has led to many variations in design and purpose. The ukulele, which was based on the four-stringed braginho or cavaquinhos from Portugal is an example of an earlier small-sized European guitar being introduced to a different society; the word ukulele is Hawaiian for “flea”. There are two kinds of acoustic guitar: steel-string and classical. Classical guitars have a wider neck and use nylon strings. Steel-strings have a defined and sharp sound that is a distinctive component of a wide range of popular music styles; country and rock are two examples. The nylon strings of the classical guitar allows the guitarist to play complicated arrangements and barres with ease. Both types of guitar can be played using a plectrum (pick) or finger-style. The steel-string acoustic is sometimes referred to as a flat top. The word top refers to the face or front of the guitar. The front is also sometimes called the table.
The body of any acoustic is large and hollow; acting as a resonating chamber which amplifies the strings. Larger bodied guitars with bigger curves tend to have a deeper or heavier tone, while guitars with a smaller body tend to sound brighter. Acoustic guitars sometimes have cutaways, similar to the cutaway on the Gibson Les Paul shown in the picture below, which allows greater access to the higher frets but this also changes the tone. Acoustic guitars have a weaker sustain than electric guitars but master-built classical or steel-string guitars often feature very good sustain and excellent overall performance. There are many entry-level acoustic guitar models that are manufactured to a high standard that are entirely suitable as a first guitar for beginners. If you wish to buy something more expensive then it is important that the table should be made from a single piece of wood (not ply) and closely grained.The timbre (pronounced tam - bre) of the acoustic guitar lends itself to a variety of tasks and roles. It's a songwriter's tool because of its portability and ease of use and its gentle harp-like arpeggios and rhythmic chordal strumming has always found favour in an ensemble setting. When the performance is in a personal setting or amphitheater, the acoustic guitar can be heard with no additional amplification because the resonating chamber of the guitar itself creates acoustic amplification. In some situations the acoustic guitar is not loud enough to be heard by all the people in an audience and amplification is required. An acoustic guitar can be amplified by placing a microphone several inches from the sound hole or by installing a pickup designed for acoustic guitars. The need for guitars that retain their acoustic qualities when plugged into an amp or PA has led to the invention of the electro-acoustic guitar.
Electric Guitars
The electric guitar is the workhorse of rock music and is also used extensively in blues, jazz and pop music. Electric guitars need to be plugged into an amplifier to be heard adequately. They are usually solid-body guitars but archtop electric guitars with hollow bodies are available which gives them some acoustic resonance (see below). The timbre of the electric guitar is not comparable to the timbre of an acoustic guitar. The pickups are vital to the sound of the guitar. The pickups and amplifier used with a solid-body electric guitar creates a sound that is metallic with a lengthy decay (sustain).
The design of the electric guitar is not determined by the need for a deep resonating body that acoustic guitars must possess and this had led to the development of contoured and thin electric guitars which can be more comfortable to play. The design variations amongst electric guitars allows them to produce a wide variety of tones. The two most popular basic shapes of the electric guitar are the Fender Stratocaster design and the Gibson Les Paul design. The strings of an electric guitar are thinner than the strings of an acoustic and closer to the neck; therefore less force is needed to press them down. The electric guitar is capable of producing sounds and effects that would be difficult on an acoustic. The ease of bending strings sometimes used in combination with a whammy bar has created some of the greatest modern guitar solos. Fret-tapping is an electric guitar technique that has led to a different way of using the fretboard; allowing chords and melody lines to be played that would have been impossible using the standard technique of strumming and fingerpicking.
The choice of amplifier is fundamental to the sound created and should be regarded as the second half of the guitar. See the Buying an Amplifier section for details. Seven-string electric guitars have a string above the low E string which is tuned to a B and lower in pitch than the low E. They are popular with guitarists who play metal music.
Electro-acoustic guitars
Electro-acoustic guitars have pickups specifically designed for the subtle nuances of the timbre of the acoustic guitar. This allows electro-acoustics to be plugged into a PA and they are essential for many guitarists who rely on using the house PA when they gig. The Ovation range of electro-acoustics is a prime example of the departure in design from ordinary acoustics. Ovation guitars use under-the-saddle piezo pickups and a synthetic bowl-back. Purists were derisory of Ovation's innovations but professional musicians found that the synthetic bowl-back provided a tough construction that stands up to the rigours of the road. Ovation were the first company to provide on-board equalization and this is now a standard feature found on most electro-acoustics. Electro-acoustic pickups are designed to sound neutral with little alteration to the organic acoustic timbre. Another famous electro-acoustic brand is the Taylor guitar range. Taylor uses the traditional all-wood construction and the necks of these guitars have a reputation for superb action and playability.
Twelve-string guitars
The twelve-string is usually an acoustic though twelve-string electric guitars are available. Twelve-string guitars are not the same as double-neck guitars. Double-neck guitars are essentially two guitar necks bolted onto one body. Twelve-string guitars have the regular six strings and a second set of thinner strings with each string of the second set corresponding to the note of its regular string counterpart. The second set of strings are tuned an octave higher. The strings form pairs; so you still play the guitar in the same manner as a standard six-string.
Archtop guitars
An archtop is a hollow or semi-hollow acoustic or electric guitar which uses steel strings. The arched top creates a unique timbre and other elements taken from the design of the mandolin or violin also add to the distinctive tone of the archtop guitar. The body of the archtop guitar, whether hollow or semi-hollow, has a sound block in the middle and they also have violin f-holes cut into the table.
Some solid-body electric guitars have a body shape which includes the arched top but the name is usually reserved for the hollow/semi-hollow body form.
Steel guitars
The steel guitar is unusual in that it is played horizontally, either across the players knees or on its own stand. There are two main varieties of the instrument, which are played using the metal slide, or 'steel' from which the guitar takes its name. The steel is held in the left hand, when used by a right-handed player. The two main variations are the lap steel guitar, which typically has six strings and the pedal steel guitar which can have more - sometimes two or even three separate sets; each tuned differently. Pedals and knee-levers are used to alter the tuning on particular strings whilst playing, which along with the sliding action of the steel, gives the pedal steel its distinctive voice which is most often heard in country music.
Often also called 'steel' guitars due to some models possessing metal bodies. The acoustic resonator guitar is distinctive in not having a regular sound hole. Resonator guitars have a large, usually circular—plate which conceals the resonator cone. The cone closely resembles an audio loudspeaker and is made from spun aluminium. The bridge of the guitar is connected either to the centre of the cone or to the edge by an aluminium 'spider' and the strings' vibrations are thus amplified and projected outwards through the perforated plate on the guitar's top. The most common resonator guitars have a single cone, although the original model has three. Resonators possess a loud, bright voice, making them easily heard in a large room or open air performance. They are popular with blues musicians and country players and can be played in the conventional style or with a metal or glass slide.
Bass guitars
The bass guitar has a longer scale-length and thicker strings than a standard guitar. These factors create a range of notes that are pitched an octave lower than the guitar. Often the bass is considered part of the rhythm section but there are some players whose skills are comparable to any other soloist. Acoustic and electric bass guitars are available but the electric bass is more common. The standard bass is the four string bass though five and six string basses are also manufactured. The four strings of the bass correspond to the lowest four strings of the guitar an octave lower.
Double-neck guitars
The double-neck guitar is basically two different kinds of guitar sharing one body. This design allows the guitarist to easily access and switch between either neck. Made famous by Jimmy Page, the double neck guitar typically will have a standard six-string neck and a twelve-string neck. Other combinations exist, such as a six-string and bass or a six-string with frets and its fretless version. Steve Vai has been known to play a triple-neck guitar. The double-neck guitar came about in the 1970s because of the changes in recording technology. The recording technology of the 1960s relied on only 4 tracks and multi-layered guitar parts, though possible, were not frequently used. The bands of the 1960s would usually have two guitarists and this achieved the desired affect. The invention of 8 track recording meant more freedom to create complex guitar parts. The guitarist could lay down the rhythm track using a twelve-string guitar and then record onto a separate track, the lead break using a six-string guitar. This left the problem of how a single guitarist could perform these parts live without stopping to change guitars and the double-neck guitar provided the solution.
Monday 2 August 2010
History
Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides". The term is used to refer to a number of related instruments that were developed and used across Europe beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. These instruments are descended from ones that existed in ancient central Asia and India. For this reason guitars are distantly related to modern instruments from these regions, including the tanbur, the setar, and the sitar. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard.The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, have been applied to a wide variety of cordophones since ancient times and as such is the cause of confusion. The English word guitar, the German gitarre, and the French guitare were adopted from the Spanish guitarra, which comes from the Andalusian Arabic qitara, itself derived from the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the Ancient Greek kithara, possibly a descendant of Old Persian sihtar "three-stringed".
Although the word guitar is descended from the Latin word cithara, the modern guitar itself is not generally believed to have descended from the Roman instrument. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar. One commonly cited influence is of the arrival of the four-string oud, which was introduced by the invading Moors in the 8th century.Another suggested influence is the six-string Scandinavian lut (lute), which gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across medieval Europe. Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried. It is likely that a combination of influences led to the creation of the guitar; plucked instruments from across the Mediterranean and Europe were well known in Iberia since antiquity.
Two four string medieval instruments that were called "guitars" (but weren't in the modern sense) were in use by 1200: the guitarra moresca (Moorish guitar) and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar). The guitarra moresca, though not Moorish, shows Moorish influences; it had a rounded back, wide fingerboard, and several soundholes. The guitarra latina had a single soundhole and a narrower neck.By the 14th century the qualifiers "moresca" and "latina" had largely been dropped and these two four course cordophones were usually simply referred to as guitars.
The Spanish vihuela or (in Italian) "viola da mano", a guitar-like instrument of the 15th and 16th centuries, is widely considered to have been a seminal influence in the development of the guitar. It had six courses (usually), lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist. It was also larger than the contemporary four course guitars. By the late 15th century some vihuelas were played with a bow, leading to the development of the viol. By the sixteenth century the vihuela's construction had more in common with the modern guitar, with its curved one-piece ribs, than with the viols, and more like a larger version of the contemporary four-course guitars. The vihuela enjoyed only a short period of popularity in Spain and Italy during an era dominated elsewhere in Europe by the lute; the last surviving published music for the instrument appeared in 1576. Meanwhile the five-course baroque guitar, which was documented in Spain from the middle of the 16th century, enjoyed popularity, especially in Spain, Italy and France from the late 16th century to the mid 18th century.Confusingly, in Portugal, the word vihuela referred to the guitar, whereas guitarra meant the "Portuguese guitar", a variety of cittern.
A brief for Guitar!
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, played either with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number but sometimes more, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Some modern guitars are made of polycarbonate materials. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric.
Acoustic guitars (and similar instruments) with hollow bodies, have been in use for over a thousand years. There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.
Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was found more suitable. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, jazz, jota, mariachi, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.
Acoustic guitars (and similar instruments) with hollow bodies, have been in use for over a thousand years. There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.
Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was found more suitable. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, jazz, jota, mariachi, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.
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