Do you love the sound of those electric guitar solos?
If so, then this article is for you! I have put together a comprehensive guide on how these guitars work. By mastering their basic concepts and learning to play them well, we can enjoy that epic sound in our own lives.
This article focuses on electric guitars designed with six strings and magnetic pickups.
This article will teach you everything you need to know about electric guitars, and more specifically the parts that make them up, how they work and what is required for playing one well. Let’s start!
The Mechanics Of Modern Electric Guitars
Electric guitars have been around since the early 1900s, and their popularity continues to this day. While there are many different types and styles of electric guitar, they all share a few common features.
The first is that they are constructed from a variety of materials, including wood and metal. This combination of materials gives the guitar its unique sound and appearance.
Second, the sound is generated by the mechanics of the string winding around a post. As the string vibrates, it creates an electrical signal that can be amplified and controlled by various electronics in the guitar.
Third, modern electric guitars come in a wide variety of tolerances. This includes locking designs that keep strings in tune for longer periods of time as well as self-clipping designs that make it easier to change strings.
Fourth, electric guitars are popular among players of all skill levels. This means that there is something for everyone when it comes to choosing an electric guitar.
Finally, pickups and tailpieces are two components on a guitar that continue to be used despite being outdated. While these parts may not be perfect, they remain popular among all player groups due to their ease of use and overall functionality
Body
The most common woods used for electric guitar bodies are maple and alder. Maple is hard, dense, and strong; it produces a bright tone with lots of highs. Alder is softer than maple but still strong. It has a mellower sound than maple, with more lows and mids.
Each material has its own unique tonal qualities.
Neck, frets, and fingerboard
The neck is a long piece of wood that runs down the center back of an electric guitar and connects it to the body. The frets are metal strips running perpendicular to the neck on which the player presses the strings down to produce different notes. The fingerboard is the wood where the frets are inserted.
Strings
They produce the sound that we hear when the instrument is played. There are many different types and brands of strings available on the market, each with its own unique characteristics.
Gauge refers to the thickness of the string, while construction refers to how the string is made (i.e., wrapped around a core or not).
Some popular coatings include nickel-plated strings, which have a brighter tone than uncoated strings; coated strings, which have a smooth feel and last longer than uncoated strings; and stainless steel strings, which offer a bright tone and extra corrosion resistance.
There are many different options available, so take your time in finding the right set for you.
Bridge and Nut
The bridge serves as an anchor point for the strings. The nut is glued to the fretboard and sits at the end of the neck. It’s responsible for spacing out the strings evenly along the neck and holds them in place at the headstock.
Tuning Machines
They work by turning a worm gear that meshes with a pinion gear. As the gears turn, the string is tightened or loosened, changing its pitch.
Geared tuners have a small number of teeth on the gears, which makes them less likely to slip than friction tuners. Friction tuners use a set of pads against which the string rubs to change its tension. They are more common on cheaper guitars because they are less expensive to manufacture and easier to use.
However, some guitars — particularly older models — come with friction tuners. If your guitar has friction tuners, it’s a good idea to replace them with geared tuning machines as soon as possible. This will make it easier to tune your guitar and keep it in tune during performances
Pickups Of The Electric Guitar
The electric guitar wouldn’t be the same without its pickups. These devices convert the vibrations of the strings into electrical energy, which is then sent to an amplifier and turned into sound. The most important part of any electric guitar is its pickups, which can be found near the neck or bridge of the guitar.
Pickups are made from magnets and copper wire wrapped into a coil. When played by an instrument with a pickup connected to it, these pickups generate an electrical signal. There are two types of pickups: single coil and humbucker. Single coil pickups have one magnet, while humbuckers have two next to each other. There are also active or passive pickups. Active pickups have fewer coils of wire and rely on a pre-amp for power, while passive pickups do not need a pre-amp to work.
An electric guitar doesn’t just create sound–it also generates electricity! In order to make sure you’re getting the perfect sound out of your instrument, it’s important that you understand how your electric guitar works
Potentiometers And Pickup Switches
In the 1950s, potentiometers were invented and quickly became ubiquitous on electric guitars. Today, they are an essential part of how electric guitars work, helping guitarists control tonality, output, and more complex effects without the use of an amp.
Pickup switches and potentiometers have led to a new era of creative distortion. For example, with a three-way pickup switch in combination with a dual-tone pot setup, you can get six unique sounds from your instrument. This opens up a world of possibilities for creative expression in the studio or on stage.
Potentiometers and pickup switches help electric guitarists control tonality, output, and more complex effects without the use of an amp. With this increased flexibility, players can explore their new sonic territory and create music that is truly their own.
Amplification And Pedals
When you think about it, the electric guitar is a bit of an oddity. It’s a stringed instrument that needs to be plugged into an amplifier in order to make any sound. And that amplifier needs to be turned up pretty loud in order for the guitar to really cut through the mix.
That wasn’t always the case, of course. Early amplifiers were small and weak, and they didn’t do much to enhance the sound of the guitar. It was Jimi Hendrix who first started using large amplifiers with distorted tones, and that changed everything. Suddenly, guitarists took notice of electric guitars and began using them more in their music.
Nowadays, there are all sorts of different amps and pedals available on the market. Some amps are designed for country music or blues, while others are meant for metal or punk rock. And then there are all sorts of different pedals available, from overdrive pedals to delay pedals.
The bottom line is that amplification and pedals play a huge role in shaping the sound of the electric guitar. They help to create all those distinctive tones that we’ve come to love over the years
Conclusion
So, what have we learned? We’ve covered the basics of electric guitars and how they work. We’ve also looked at some of the key concepts that you need to understand in order to start learning about guitars. In particular, we’ve talked about harmonics and dynamic characteristics, which play a big role in sound quality.
Of course, this is just a starting point. There’s a lot more to learn about electric guitars, and there are plenty of other resources available to help you do so. But if you’re just getting started, these are some important things to keep in mind.
