Acoustic And Electric Guitar How They Stack Up Against Each Other

Other Articles | January 14, 2009

A guitar is a musical instrument, usually with six strings. Thissix-stringed guitar finds its origin in Spain. It can be played byhandpicking or by finger-picks or plectrum. Plastic plectrums find...

A guitar is a musical instrument, usually with six strings. Thissix-stringed guitar finds its origin in Spain. It can be played byhandpicking or by finger-picks or plectrum. Plastic plectrums find wideusage today. However, the tonal quality is higher when tortoise shellpicks are used. Guitars can broadly be divided into two categories:acoustic and electric.

Acoustic guitars are generally crafted from wood, be it the low costlaminates or the pure hard wood like spruce, or a combination of both.Acoustic guitars are hollow-bodied and do not need an externalamplifier. However, their utility is hampered in bands and orchestraswhich call for mandatory electric amplification. Amplification can bedone through piezo and magnetic pick-ups.

There are many types of acoustic guitars. Among them, classical andsteel string guitars are the most popular. The classical guitar isadorned with nylon strings. The strings are plucked with the fingers orfinger-nails. Besides pure classical music all kinds of modern musictoo can be played on it. The music repertoire of the classical guitaris vast and varied. The roots of the classical guitar can be tracedback to the lute, the vihuela and the Renaissance guitar.

The steel strings of a steel-string acoustic guitar offer a brighterand louder sound. It is essentially larger than the classical guitar toaccommodate the tension of the steel strings. A plectrum is a must forplaying a steel-string guitar.

Unlike the case of an acoustic guitar, pick-ups are a must in electricguitars. Pick-ups convert the mechanical energy to electrical energy. Aproper and compatible pick-up is a must for good tonal quality.Pick-ups which have found popularity among most musicians are eitherelectromagnetic or piezoelectric.

The modern day electric guitar is made of solid wood like maple andmahogany. Some plastic material and aluminum alloys are used to give asleek finish. Jazz, blues and rock-and-roll are the popular versions ofmusic played on an electric guitar.

Lloyd Loar was one of the earliest inventors of the electric guitar butthe first commercial guitar was made by Stromberg-Voisinet in 1928. Inrecent times, the electric guitar has revolutionized the musicindustry, especially rock music. The American culture is incompletewithout the electric guitar. The thin neck of an electric guitar allowsthe musician to comfortably hold and play the strings of the guitar.Being lightweight is another advantage of the electric guitar.

Sophisticated equipment complements the electric guitar and a varietyof effects can be produced like tapping and effects pedals. Modernelectronics has a say in the tremendous sound effects that an electricguitar can produce. Electric guitars can be of many types: solid body,hollow body and metal body. A solid body electric guitar is carved fromhardwood and sports a lacquer finish. Pick-ups are used to reproducesounds, which then pass through an amplifier and are heard from aspeaker. Les Paul was one of the earliest inventors of this form of theguitar.

The hollow body electric guitar has a lighter weight and greaterresonance. The pick-ups are lined up on the body of the guitar and ithas one or two sound holes. Metal body guitars were first manufacturedin the 1950`s, but did not gain much popularity because of theirinherent weight problem. Holes were dug into some of their variantswhich hampered the sound effects of the electric guitar. So, all we caninfer is that acoustic guitars are a classical musician`s delightwhereas an electric guitar is the soul and life of a band.