Passion Of Guitar....

Electric guitars come in many shapes and sizes. Each one has strengths and weaknesses. Often, the type of guitar selected will depend on the type of music that will be played. Simple retrofitted acoustics are good for country or indie music, whereas exotic heavy wood solid bodies may be more suited to heavy metal.

1. Acoustic Electric

   • In its simplest form, an electric guitar can be made by putting a pickup on an acoustic guitar. Guitars can be fitted with two general classes of pickup, a traditional magnetic pickup to give the guitar a more electric sound or a piezoelectric pickup that would retain most of the acoustic sound of the guitar. A magnetic pickup senses movement of a steel string over a magnet. A piezoelectric pickup generates a signal based on vibrations in the guitar moving a piezoelectric crystal.

   Hollow Body Electric

   • Hollow body electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, were the first true electric guitars. They are designed to be primarily played through an amplifier but retain a hollow portion in the body. They are usually much thinner than acoustic electric guitars. B. B. King and George Thorogood are well-known hollow body guitar players.

   Fender Solid Body

   • Leo Fender introduced the first commercially manufactured solid body guitar. Fender solid body guitars traditionally feature single-coil pickups, which have a more biting sound. Fender guitars traditionally have a neck that is bolted on to the body. The best known Fender solid body guitars are the Telecaster and the Stratocaster. Two well known players of the Stratocaster were Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, with Muddy Waters and Jeff Beck being well known Telecaster players.

   Gibson Solid Body

   • Shortly after Fender introduced the solid body guitar, Gibson introduced the Les Paul. The Les Paul uses dual coil pickups to deal with the hiss and noise of single coil. Dual coil pickups have a softer, warmer sound. Gibson guitars traditionally have a neck that is glued to the body. Well-known Les Paul players are Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

   Custom Guitars

   • From factory custom guitars to musicians who buy a solid body electric and then pay to have it hollowed out, there really is only one rule for electric guitars: There are few rules. From body shape to paint to string type, almost anything that a guitarist can imagine can be created.