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When choosing an electric guitar online you will often be faced with quite a lot of information about the guitars you are looking at. I have written this article to try and help explain a few of these details in the hope that it will make your decision an easier and more confident one.

 I will start by briefly describing some of the more commonly used timbers. The main body of the guitar will usually be made of agathis, alder, basswood, mahogany, or more recently paulownia. Mahogany is used for a wide variety of guitars known for its dark properties as well as its light weight both of these combining to create a warm, rounded, hugely sustainable tone. Alder is used on top quality guitars and produces a brighter tone than other woods (like mahogany) and provides a resonant, well rounded tone with excellent sustain. Agathis is a good quality timber and is used for its good resonating qualities and low price of production. In the past basswood was usually used for less expensive models but due to its better resonance at mid and high frequency, and better sustain than alder it is now more commonly in use for higher quality guitars. Paulownia is a soft, light and warp resistant wood that is commonly used as a body material in high end custom guitars, it is used for its light weight, pale appearance, and its good resonance, it is highly sought after.

 The neck of the guitar will usually be made of mahogany, sometimes basswood, or maple. A neck made from maple would give a harder and brighter sound than one made from mahogany, and a maple fingerboard would have a brighter sound than a rosewood one.

 Finger boards are normally made of rosewood, maple and in some cases ebony. Rosewood is a term that refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining and usually of good quality. Ebony is a dense black wood and is used on some of the more expensive guitars.

 When choosing an electric guitar online you should pay attention to the pick ups, electric guitars commonly use two type of pick up, single coil and humbucker. One problem with single coil pick ups is that they pick up not just the sounds you are playing but a bit of mains hum as well. The humbucker was developed to over come this, a humbucker is basically two single coil pick ups of opposite magnetic polarity working together, the result is doubled output and a fatter, less trebly tone. Humbucker pickups can also be wired so that they are working in parallel, this produces a significantly cleaner sound but is fairly rare. When shopping for an electric guitar online information of the pick up configuration will usually be displayed like this: S-S-H , the S referring to a single coil pick up, and the H referring to a humbucker, the order of the letters from left to right is the order that the pick ups are on the guitar from the neck to the bridge.

 The last (and in my opinion the most important) thing you should consider when shopping for a guitar is the style – do you like the look of it?

J Weddell

acoustic guitars use the hollow resonating chamber of the body of the guitar to amplify and resonate the sound of the strings being plucked, but on an electric guitar, this isn’t the case. The body of an electric guitar is usually entirely solid, and the sound of the strings being struck is picked up by something called a pickup, which basically measures the amount of vibration of a particular string, and transmits this frequency to an amplifier. The amplifier then magnifies this frequency to create a sound which is not only audible, but also usually modified or distorted in some way to create the distinctive sound of an electric guitar. Without a pickup or an amplifier, the sound of an electric guitar is less than impressive, and is by no means merely a quieter version of what you would hear with an amplifier.

The pickups work by detecting the amount of vibration of a string, because the amount of vibration is directly equivalent to the frequency, and it is the frequency of a string’s vibration that generates the note. By holding a string down against one of the frets on the fret board or neck of the guitar, the length of the string is reduced, and as a result, the string’s natural vibration of frequency is changed, and this in turn affects the note. There are different types of pickup that work in slightly different ways, but the most commonly found variety is an electromagnet. The electromagnetic pickups are bundles of copper wire wound very tightly into a small coil, and these are then positioned right underneath the strings. When the string is struck, it moves, and this generates a very small electric field measurable in volts, and this voltage is the signal which is sent to the amplifier.

Effectively such electromagnetic pickups work in the same way as an electric generator. These coils of copper wires are either found as single coils or as doubles, with the advantage being that double coil pickups are less likely to pick up noise from other nearby electric fields. In the 1950s the double coil humbucker was developed, and this used two separate copper coils, with one placed in the opposite polarity of the other, and this effectively cancelled out any problem as far as stray electrical field noise was concerned. These double coil humbuckers do create a different sound and tone to the single coil pickups, generally considered to be a much heavier sound, whereas the single coil pickups are used by those players looking for a much brighter sound, and usually with a much broader range.

Today the style of pickup is generally tailored to suit the type of sound that the player wants to try to achieve, and the general rule of thumb is that the smaller the amount of copper wire used in the coil, the brighter the sound, whereas the more coils used, and the more wire used in the pickup, the heavier the overall sound will be. There are also sometimes options to have the coil wired for extra switching, so that effects can be achieved by altering the way the coil works, and thereby changing the sound of the note dynamically. These effects usually require the guitar to have battery power to achieve the changes.

Although double coil pickups are usually the maximum, there are exceptions, and the Fender Stratocaster is one very well known example. The Fender Stratocaster actually uses three coil pickups, and this is what gives this particular model of guitar such a distinctive tone. In complete contrast, there are also piezoelectric pickups which use crystals positioned under each string, and when the string is struck, its vibrations very slightly alter the shape of the crystal. As the crystal changes shape, a very small voltage of electricity is produced, and by amplifying this, the sound is achieved.

Victor Epand

acoustic guitars use the hollow resonating chamber of the body of the guitar to amplify and resonate the sound of the strings being plucked, but on an electric guitar, this isn’t the case. The body of an electric guitar is usually entirely solid, and the sound of the strings being struck is picked up by something called a pickup, which basically measures the amount of vibration of a particular string, and transmits this frequency to an amplifier. The amplifier then magnifies this frequency to create a sound which is not only audible, but also usually modified or distorted in some way to create the distinctive sound of an electric guitar. Without a pickup or an amplifier, the sound of an electric guitar is less than impressive, and is by no means merely a quieter version of what you would hear with an amplifier.

The pickups work by detecting the amount of vibration of a string, because the amount of vibration is directly equivalent to the frequency, and it is the frequency of a string’s vibration that generates the note. By holding a string down against one of the frets on the fret board or neck of the guitar, the length of the string is reduced, and as a result, the string’s natural vibration of frequency is changed, and this in turn affects the note. There are different types of pickup that work in slightly different ways, but the most commonly found variety is an electromagnet. The electromagnetic pickups are bundles of copper wire wound very tightly into a small coil, and these are then positioned right underneath the strings. When the string is struck, it moves, and this generates a very small electric field measurable in volts, and this voltage is the signal which is sent to the amplifier.

Effectively such electromagnetic pickups work in the same way as an electric generator. These coils of copper wires are either found as single coils or as doubles, with the advantage being that double coil pickups are less likely to pick up noise from other nearby electric fields. In the 1950s the double coil humbucker was developed, and this used two separate copper coils, with one placed in the opposite polarity of the other, and this effectively cancelled out any problem as far as stray electrical field noise was concerned. These double coil humbuckers do create a different sound and tone to the single coil pickups, generally considered to be a much heavier sound, whereas the single coil pickups are used by those players looking for a much brighter sound, and usually with a much broader range.

Today the style of pickup is generally tailored to suit the type of sound that the player wants to try to achieve, and the general rule of thumb is that the smaller the amount of copper wire used in the coil, the brighter the sound, whereas the more coils used, and the more wire used in the pickup, the heavier the overall sound will be. There are also sometimes options to have the coil wired for extra switching, so that effects can be achieved by altering the way the coil works, and thereby changing the sound of the note dynamically. These effects usually require the guitar to have battery power to achieve the changes.

Although double coil pickups are usually the maximum, there are exceptions, and the Fender Stratocaster is one very well known example. The Fender Stratocaster actually uses three coil pickups, and this is what gives this particular model of guitar such a distinctive tone. In complete contrast, there are also piezoelectric pickups which use crystals positioned under each string, and when the string is struck, its vibrations very slightly alter the shape of the crystal. As the crystal changes shape, a very small voltage of electricity is produced, and by amplifying this, the sound is achieved.

Victor Epand

Some guitarists, including those who are relatively new to the instrument, are instinctively drawn to electric bass guitars. Others prefer the standard six-string guitar. The truth is, however, that all guitarists have much to gain by taking up the bass.

The strings of electric bass guitars are generally plucked with the thumb and fingers, although a plectrum can be used. Guitarists will often find that what they learn on a bass, for example finger-picking styles or two-note power chords, can frequently embellish their six-string playing.

Another advantage of playing bass is that it can help the guitarist secure a post in a band; demand for bass players usually outstrips supply. One reason for this is the mistaken assumption that electric bass guitars merely play an “invisible” supporting role. A bass however drives a band, and bass lines can be melodic in their own right.

Some guitarists are also deterred by the unfamiliarity of playing what is the equivalent of the four bottom strings of their six-string guitar; often the instinct is to play these strings as if they mirrored the top four. One short-term solution is simply to re-tune the strings so that they do mirror the top four, in other words to re-tune from EADG to DGBE.

For those interested in electric bass guitars, here at Fret Music we can offer the best advice, and can help find the best model to match your needs, experience, and most importantly, your budget.

The Article is written by fretmusic.co.uk providing Electric Bass Guitars and Bass Guitars Services. Visit http://www.fretmusic.co.uk for more information on fretmusic.co.uk Products & Services___________________________ Copyright information This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included. Visit fretmusic.co.uk for more services!

Tom

The first guitars, although if they were not with the usual form, were born a lot of centuries ago in the Middle East. Over the centuries, this chord instrument, which used an amplification system with a sound box, underwent many transformations, until finally arriving to the instrument we know.

Of course even now there are several types, but the most common is the six-strings guitar. The guitar is composed of many pieces, starting from the top there are: the headstock together with the tuning keys used to keep tension in the strings and to change the tuning. Here we find the neck, the length can vary depending on the type of guitar, the neck is divided into frets that are used to tighten the strings and get the notes you want. Finally then we find the body with the soundboard and the bridge from where the strings branch off.

Of course in electric guitars we will not find the soundboard but a solid body (full body) that, to capture and disseminate the different sounds, uses pickups that are placed where would be the hole for the sound box. It is important to remember that in case of non-electric guitars sound quality and its uniqueness are completely dependent on the type of wood used to build the box and the type of joints inside it. Even in electric guitars, the wood is very important because the neck is subjected to a much higher tension than acoustic guitars, it also has a metal core; a good neck must be able to withstand the tension and its change when you change your tune and must also be sliding to let the right hand slide. One of the most important part is certainly the strings, that, plucked with the fingers or the plectrum, emit the characteristic sound of these musical instruments.

The strings are stretched in different ways to obtain different notes. The most common tuning is re-mi-sol-la-mi. This tuning, in which the interval between two adjacent strings is right one fourth (except that between the second and third string, a distance of a major third) has established itself for its ease in forming chords. In guitars with more strings such as those with seven or eight strings, more low note are added to obtain a sound more dark and powerful, characteristic of metal music. The power of the sound of the electric guitar is given mainly by the type of pickup installed that characterize the power and the type of sound that will be expressed through the use of amplifiers that can alter the sound in different ways. The most common amplifiers are the combo and those constituted by a surface plus a speaker.

The technical description still does not do justice to the emotions and feeling you get playing these instruments. In conclusion when you play you discover a part of you that you did not know it existed.

By Martina Meneghetti with support from amplificatore microfono for any information, please visit cuffie professionali or for more info visit controller musicali

Martinapp