Electric guitar

A guitar whose strings drive magnetic pickups instead of a soundboard, so the sound is created electrically and then amplified.

The strings are still steel, because a moving metal string is what induces current in the coils, but the body has almost no acoustic job to do. Manufacturers can therefore choose woods for weight, feel and looks as much as for tone, and the amplified sound is shaped mainly by pickups, wiring values, pedals and the amplifier. That separation of string from sound is what made the instrument so flexible: the same guitar can sound like a clean archtop or a wall of distortion.

Example: a solid body bolted together from two woods, plugged into a valve amplifier with the volume rolled back, will sing cleanly, and push the volume up and it will bite.

Electric guitar

See also