If Your First Guitar Was Acoustic, Perhaps You Are Now Looking to Play With Power and Go Electric.

Get Wired For Sound

The next step up from acoustic is an electric acoustic. This looks and feels just like an acoustic but has pickups and a power lead jack to connect it to an amplifier.

This is a good option if you have fallen in love with the "classical" sound of the acoustic guitar and this suits your style of playing.

However, if Rock is your thing then switch to electric guitar.

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses electronic pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cord strings into electrical current. The signal may be electrically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier, which produces the final sound which can be either an electrical sound or an acoustic sound. Distortion, equalization, or other pedals can change the sound that is emitted from the amplifier.

The electric guitar is used extensively in many popular styles of music, including almost all genres of rock and roll, country music, pop music, jazz, blues, and even contemporary classical music. Its distinctive sound and intimate association with many legendary internationally-famous musicians has made it the signature instrument of late twentieth-century music.

Specialised steel guitars, although they are also electric instruments descended from the guitar, are normally not considered electric guitars but rather as a separate instrument. This distinction has important consequences on claims of priority in the history of the electric guitar.

Parts of Typical Electric Guitars

   1. Headstock

   2. Nut

   3. Machine heads
    (or pegheads, tuning keys,
      tuning machines, tuners)

   4. Frets

   5. Truss rod

   6. Inlays

   7. Neck and fretboard

   8. Neckjoint

   9. Body

10. Pickups

11. Electronics

12. Bridge (saddle)

13. Pickguard

Electric Guitar Detail: Pick-ups, controls, and whammy bar

Electric guitars can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies, and produce little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups (single and double coil) convert the vibration of the steel strings into electric signals which are fed to an amplifier through a cable or radio device. The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices or natural distortion of valves (vacuum tubes) in the amplifier.

The electric guitar is used extensively in jazz, blues and rock and roll/ It was commercialised by Gibson together with Les Paul and independently by Leo Fender.

The lower fret-board action (the height of the strings from the fingerboard) and its electrical amplification lend the electric guitar to some techniques which are less frequently used on acoustic guitars.

These techniques include

Seven-string solid body electric guitars were developed in the 1990s (earlier in jazz) to achieve a much darker sound through extending the lower end of the guitar's range.

Although the most commonly found 7 string is the variety in which there is one low B string, Roger McGuinn (of Byrds/Rickenbacker Fame) has popularised a variety in which an octave G string is paired with the regular G string as on a 12 string guitar, allowing him to incorporate chiming 12 string elements in standard 6 string playing. Ibanez makes many varieties of electric 7 strings.

Electric Acoustic Guitars

Some steel-string acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups purely as an alternative to using a separate microphone. These are called electric acoustic guitars, and are regarded as acoustic guitars rather than electric guitars. These should not be confused with hollow body electric guitars, which are more of electric guitars fitted with hollow sound chambers.

Hybrids of acoustic and electric guitars are also common. There are also more exotic varieties, such as double-necked guitars, all manner of alternate string arrangements, fretless fingerboards (used almost exclusively on bass guitars, meant to emulate the sound of a stand-up bass), 5.1 surround guitar, and such.

Strings

The materials used in the strings gives players a range of tonal options. String types include all-metal strings (roundwound or flatwound), metal strings with different coverings, such as tapewound and plastic-coatings, and non-metal strings made of nylon.

Roundwounds have a brighter timbre with greater sustain than flatwounds. Flatwounds are still used by bassists who want a more vintage, smooth, or damped sound.

An excellent supplier of high quality guitar strings is Sfarzo. They have a good range and variety so no matter what instrument you have you will find a set to suit.

I use them myself and I highly recommend them. You can order online and have them delivered by clicking on any of the Sfarzo banners you see on the site.

If Your First Guitar Was Acoustic, Perhaps You Are Now Looking to Play With Power and Go Electric.

Electric Acoustic Guitars

Strings

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