An electric guitar is a guitar that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical impulses. The most common guitar pickup uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker. Since the output of an electric guitar is an electric signal, the signal may easily be altered using electronic circuits to add "color" to the sound. Often the signal is modified using effects such as reverb and distortion.
Invented in 1931, the electric guitar became a necessity as jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound in the big band format. During the 1950s and 1960s, the electric guitar became the most important instrument in pop music.[1] It has evolved into a stringed musical instrument that is capable of a multitude of sounds and styles. It served as a major component in the development of rock and roll and many other genres of music.
History
Various experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument date back to the early part of the twentieth century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters adapted and placed inside violins and banjos to amplify the sound. Hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge, however these detected vibration from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal.[2] With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, there are many claimants to have been the first to invent an electric guitar.Electric guitars were originally designed by guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. Guitar innovator Les Paul experimented with microphones attached to guitars. Some of the earliest electric guitars adapted hollow bodied acoustic instruments and used tungsten pickups. The first electrically amplified guitar was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, General Manager at National Guitar Corporation with Paul Barth who was Vice President.[3] The maple body prototype for the one piece cast aluminum "Frying Pan" was built by Harry Watson, factory superintendent of National Guitar Corporation.[3] Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro-Patent-Instrument Company Los Angeles),[4][5] a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker (originally Rickenbacher), and Paul Barth.[6] By 1934 the company was renamed Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company.
The need for the amplified guitar became apparent during the big band era as orchestras increased in size, particularly when guitars had to compete with large brass sections. The first electric guitars used in jazz were hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies with electromagnetic transducers. By 1932 an electrically amplified guitar was commercially available. Early electric guitar manufacturers include: Rickenbacker (first called Ro-Pat-In) in 1932, Dobro in 1933, National, AudioVox and Volu-tone in 1934,Vega, Epiphone (Electrophone and Electar), and Gibson in 1935 and many others by 1936.
The solid body electric guitar is made of solid wood, without functionally resonating air spaces. Rickenbacker offered a cast aluminum electric steel guitar, nicknamed "The Frying Pan" or "The Pancake Guitar", developed in 1931 with production beginning in the summer of 1932.
The first solid body "Spanish" standard guitar was offered by Vivi-Tone no later than 1934. An example of this model, featuring a guitar-shaped body of a single sheet of plywood affixed to a wood frame. Another early, substantially solid Spanish electric guitar, called Electro Spanish, was marketed by the "Rickenbacker" guitar company in 1935 and made of Bakelite. By 1936, the Slingerland company introduced a wooden solid body electric model.
The earliest documented performance with an electrically amplified guitar was in 1932, by Gage Brewer.[2] The Wichita, Kansas-based musician had an Electric Hawaiian A-25 (frypan, lap-steel) and a standard Electric Spanish from George Beauchamp of Los Angeles, California. Brewer publicized his new instruments in an article in the Wichita Beacon of 2 October 1932 and through performances that month.
The first recordings using the electric guitar were by Hawaiian style players, in 1933. Bob Dunn of Milton Brown's Musical Brownies introduced the electric Hawaiian guitar to Western Swing with his January 1935 Decca recordings, departing almost entirely from Hawaiian musical influence and heading towards jazz and blues. Alvino Rey was an artist who took this instrument to a wide audience in a large orchestral setting and later developed the pedal steel guitar for Gibson. An early proponent of the electric Spanish guitar was jazz guitarist George Barnes who used the instrument in two songs recorded in Chicago on 1 March 1938, "Sweetheart Land" and "It's a Low-Down Dirty Shame". Some incorrectly attribute the first recording to Eddie Durham, but his recording with the Kansas City Five was 15 days later.[7] Durham introduced the instrument to a young Charlie Christian, who made the instrument famous in his brief life and would be a major influence on jazz guitarists for decades thereafter.[8]
Gibson's first production electric guitar, marketed in 1936, was the ES-150 model ("ES" for "Electric Spanish"; and "150" reflecting the $150 price of the instrument, along with a matching amplifier). The ES-150 guitar featured a single-coil, hexagonally shaped "bar" pickup, which was designed by Walt Fuller. It became known as the "Charlie Christian" pickup (named for the great jazz guitarist who was among the first to perform with the ES-150 guitar). The ES-150 achieved some popularity, but suffered from unequal loudness across the six strings.
Early proponents of the electric guitar on record include: Jack Miller[disambiguation needed] (Orville Knapp Orchestra), Alvino Rey (Phil Spitalney Orchestra), Les Paul (Fred Waring Orchestra), Danny Stewart (Andy Iona Orchestra), George Barnes (under many aliases), Lonnie Johnson, Floyd Smith, Big Bill Broonzy, T-Bone Walker, George Van Eps, Charlie Christian (Benny Goodman Orchestra) Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, and Arthur Crudup.
A functionally solid body electric guitar was designed and built by Les Paul from an Epiphone acoustic archtop. His "log guitar" (so called because it consisted of a simple 4x4 wood post with a neck attached to it and homemade pickups and hardware, with two detachable Epiphone hollow body halves attached to the sides for appearance only) shares nothing in design or hardware with the solid body "Les Paul" model sold by Gibson. However, the feedback problem associated with hollow-bodied electric guitars was understood long before Paul's "log" was created in 1940; Gage Brewer's Ro-Pat-In of 1932 had a top so heavily reinforced that it essentially functioned as a solid-body instrument.[2]
In 1945, Richard D. Bourgerie made an electric guitar pickup and amplifier for professional guitar player George Barnes. Bourgerie worked through World War II at Howard Radio Company making electronic equipment for the American military. Barnes showed the result to Les Paul, who then arranged for Bourgerie to have one made for him.
Construction
1.1 machine heads
1.2 truss rod cover
1.3 string guide
1.4 nut
2. Neck:
2.1 fretboard
2.2 inlay fret markers
2.3 frets
2.4 neck joint
3. Body
3.1 "neck" pickup
3.2 "bridge" pickup
3.3 saddles
3.4 bridge
3.5 fine tuners and tailpiece assembly
3.6 tremolo arm (whammy bar)
3.7 pickup selector switch
3.8 volume and tone control knobs
3.9 output connector (output jack)(TS)
3.10 strap buttons
4. Strings:
4.1 bass strings
4.2 treble strings
Electric guitar design and construction varies greatly as to the shape of the body, and configuration of the neck, bridge, and pickups. However, some features are present most guitars. The photo below shows the different parts of an electric guitar. The headstock (1) contains the metal machine heads (1.1), which use worm gear for tuning. The nut (1.4)—a thin fret-like strip of metal, plastic, graphite or bone—supports the strings at the body end of the instrument. The frets (2.3) are thin metal strips that stop the string at the correct pitch when the player pushes a string against the fingerboard. The truss rod (1.2) is a metal rod (usually adjustable) that counters the tension of the strings to keep the neck straight. Position markers (2.2) provide the player with a reference to the playing position on the fingerboard.
The neck and fretboard (2.1) extend from the body. At the neck joint (2.4), the neck is either glued or bolted to the body. The body (3) is typically made of wood with a hard, polymerized finish. Strings vibrating in the magnetic field of the pickups (3.1, 3.2) produce an electrical current in the pickup winding that passes through the tone and volume controls (3.8) to the output jack. Some guitars have piezo pickups, in addition to or instead of, magnetic pickups.
Some guitars have a fixed bridge (3.4). Others have a spring-loaded hinged bridge called a vibrato bar tremolo bar, or whammy bar that lets players bend notes or chords up or down in pitch, or perform a vibrato embellishment. A plastic pickguard on some guitars protects the body from scratches or covers the control cavity that holds most of the wiring.
The degree to which the choice of woods and other materials in the solid guitar body (3) affects the sonic character of the amplified is disputed. Many believe it is highly significant, while others think the difference between woods is subtle. In acoustic and archtop guitars, wood choices more clearly affect tone.
Typical solid body electric guitars woods include alder (brighter, but well rounded)[citation needed], swamp ash (similar to alder, but with more pronounced highs and lows)[citation needed], mahogany (dark, bassy, warm)[citation needed], poplar (similar to alder),[citation needed] and basswood (very neutral)[citation needed].
Maple, a very bright tonewood,[citation needed] is also a popular body wood, but is very heavy. For this reason it is often placed as a 'cap' on a guitar made primarily of another wood. Cheaper guitars are often made of cheaper woods, such as plywood, pine or agathis—not true hardwoods—which can affect durability and tone. Though most guitars are made from wood, any material may be used. Materials such as plastic, metal, and even cardboard have been used in some instruments.
The guitar output jack typically provides a monaural signal. Many guitars with active electronics use a jack with an extra contact normally used for stereo. These guitars used the extra contact to break the ground connection to the on-board battery to preserve battery life when the guitar is unplugged. These guitars require a mono plug to close the internal switch and connect the battery to ground. Standard guitar cables use a high impedance 1/4 inch (6.35 mm) mono plug. These have a tip and sleeve configuration referred to as a TS phone connector.
A few guitars feature stereo output. For example Rickenbacker guitars equipped with Rick-O-Sound. There are a variety of ways the "stereo" effect may be implemented. Commonly, but not exclusively, stereo guitars route the neck and bridge pickups to separate output buses on the guitar. A stereo cable then routes each pickup to its own signal chain or amplifier. For these applications, the most popular connector is a high impedance 1/4 inch plug with a tip, ring and sleeve configuration—also known as a TRS phone connector. Some studio instruments, notably certain Gibson Les Paul models, incorporate a low impedance 3-pin XLR connector for balanced audio. Many exotic arrangements and connectors exist that support features such as midi and hexaphonic pickups.
Bridge and tailpiece systems
The bridge and tailpiece, while serving separate purposes, work closely together to affect playing style and tone. There are four basic types of bridge/tailpiece systems on electric guitars. Within these four types are many variants.Hard-tail
A hard-tail guitar bridge anchors the strings at or directly behind the bridge, and is fastened securely to the top of the instrument. These are common on carved top guitars such as the Gibson Les Paul, Paul Reed Smith models, and on slab body guitars like the Music Man Albert Lee and Fender guitars that are not vibrato arm equipped.Floating tailpiece
A floating or trapeze tailpiece (similar to a violin's) fastens to the body at the base of the guitar. These appear on Rickenbackers, Gretschs, Epiphones, a wide variety of archtop guitars, particularly Jazz guitars, and the 1952 Gibson Les Paul.[9]Vibrato arms
Pictured is a tremolo arm or vibrato tailpiece style bridge/tailpiece system, often called a whammy bar or trem. It uses a lever ("vibrato arm") attached to the bridge that can temporarily slacken or tighten the strings to alter the pitch. A player can use this to create a vibrato or a portamento effect. Early vibrato systems were often unreliable and made the guitar go out of tune easily. They also had a limited pitch range. Later Fender designs were better, but Fender held the patent on these, so other companies used older designs for many years.
String-through body
Pickups
Main article: Pickup (music technology)
Compared to an acoustic guitar, which has a hollow body, electric
guitars make less audible sound when their strings are plucked, so
electric guitars are normally plugged into a guitar amplifier. When an
electric guitar is played, string movement produces a signal by
generating (i.e., "inducing") a small electric current in the magnetic pickups, which are magnets
wound with coils of very fine wire. The signal passes through the tone
and volume circuits to the output jack, and through a cable to an amplifier.[10] The current induced is proportional to such factors as string density, and amount of movement over the pickups.
Because of their natural inductive qualities, all magnetic pickups tend to pick up ambient, usually unwanted electromagnetic interference or EMI. The resulting hum is particularly strong with single-coil pickups, and aggravated by the fact that many vintage guitars are insufficiently shielded against electromagnetic interference. The most common source is 50 or 60 Hz hum from power transmission systems (house wiring, etc.). Since nearly all amplifiers and audio equipment associated with electric guitars must be plugged in, it is a continuing technical challenge to reduce or eliminate unwanted hum.
Double-coil or "humbucker" pickups were invented as a way to reduce or counter the unwanted ambient hum sounds (known as 60 cycle hum). Humbuckers have two coils of opposite magnetic and electric polarity to produce a differential signal. Electromagnetic noise that hits both coils equally tries to drive the pickup signal towards positive on one coil and toward negative on the other, which cancels out the noise. The two coils are wired in phase, so their signal adds together. This high combined inductance of the two coils leads to the richer, "fatter" tone associated with humbucking pickups.
Piezoelectric pickups use a "sandwich" of quartz crystal or other piezoelectric material typically placed beneath the string saddles or nut. These devices respond to pressure changes from all vibration at these specific points.
Optical pickups are a type of pickup that sense string and body vibrations using infrared LED light. These pickups are not sensitive to EMI.
Some "hybrid" electric guitars are equipped with additional microphone, piezoelectric, optical, or other types of transducers to approximate an acoustic instrument tone and broaden the sonic palette of the instrument.
Guitar necks
Electric guitar necks vary in composition and shape. The primary metric of guitar necks is the scale length, which is the vibrating length of the strings from nut to bridge. A typical Fender guitar uses a 25.5 inch scale length, while Gibson uses a 24.75 inch scale length in their Les Paul. While the scale length of the Les Paul is often described as 24.75 inches, it has varied through the years by as much as a half inch.Frets are positioned proportionally to scale length—so the shorter the scale length, the closer the fret spacing. Opinions vary regarding the effect of scale length on tone and feel. Popular opinion holds that longer scale length contributes to greater amplitude. Reports of playing feel are greatly complicated by the many factors involved in this perception. String gauge and design, neck construction and relief, guitar setup, playing style and other factors contribute to the subjective impression of playability or feel.
Necks are described as bolt-on, set-in, or neck-through depending on how they attach to the body. Set-in necks are glued to the body in the factory, and are said to have a warmer tone and greater sustain.[citation needed] This is the most traditional type of joint. Leo Fender pioneered bolt-on necks on electric guitars to facilitate easy adjustment and replacement. Neck-through instruments extend the neck the length of the instrument so that it forms the center of the body, and are known for long sustain and for being particularly sturdy.[citation needed] While a set neck can be carefully unglued by a skilled luthier, and a bolt-on neck can simply be unscrewed, a neck-through design is difficult or even impossible to repair, depending on the damage. Historically, the bolt-on style has been more popular for ease of installation and adjustment. Since bolt-on necks can be easily removed, there is an after-market in replacement bolt-on necks from companies such as Warmoth and Mighty Mite. Some instruments—notably most Gibson models—continue to use set/glued necks. Neck-through bodies are somewhat more common in bass guitars.
Materials for necks are selected for dimensional stability and rigidity, and some allege that they influence tone. Hardwoods are preferred, with maple, mahogany, and ash topping the list. The neck and fingerboard can be made from different materials, such as a maple neck with a rosewood or ebony fingerboard. In the 1970s, designers began to use exotic man-made materials such as aircraft grade aluminum, carbon fiber, and ebonol. Makers known for these unusual materials include John Veleno, Travis Bean, Geoff Gould, and Alembic.
Aside from possible engineering advantages, some feel that in relation to the rising cost of rare tonewoods, man-made materials may be economically preferable and more ecologically sensitive. However, wood remains popular in production instruments, though sometimes in conjunction with new materials. Vigier guitars, for example, use a wooden neck reinforcesd by embedding a light, carbon fiber rod in place of the usual heavier steel bar or adjustable steel truss rod. After-market necks made entirely from carbon fiber fit existing bolt-on instruments. Few, if any, extensive formal investigations have been widely published that confirm or refute claims over the effects of different woods or materials on electric guitar sound.
Several neck shapes appear on guitars, including shapes known as C necks, U necks, and V necks. These refer to the cross-sectional shape of the neck (especially near the nut). Several sizes of fret wire are available, with traditional players often preferring thin frets, and metal shredders liking thick frets. Thin frets are considered better for playing chords, while thick frets allow lead guitarists to bend notes with less effort.
An electric guitar with a folding neck called the "Foldaxe" was designed and built for Chet Atkins by Roger C. Field.[11] Steinberger guitars developed a line of exotic, carbon fiber instruments without headstocks, with tuning done on the bridge instead.
Fingerboards vary as much as necks. The fingerboard surface usually has a cross-sectional radius that is optimized to accommodate finger movement for different playing techniques. Fingerboard radius typically ranges from nearly flat (a very large radius) to radically arched (a small radius). The vintage Fender Telecaster has a typical small radius of approximately a 7 inches. Some manufacturers have experimented with fret design, fret layout, number of frets, and modifications of the fingerboard surface for a variety of reasons. Some innovations were intended to improve playability by ergonomic means, such as Warmoth Guitars compound radius fingerboard. Scalloped fingerboards added enhanced microtonality during fast legato runs. Fanned frets intend to provide each string with an optimal playing tension and enhanced musicality. Some guitars have no frets—and others, like the Gittler guitar, have no neck in the traditional sense.
Sound and effects
While an acoustic guitar's sound depends largely on the vibration of the guitar's body and the air inside it, the sound of an electric guitar depends largely on the signal from the pickups. The signal can be "shaped" on its path to the amplifier via a range of effect devices or circuits that modify the tone and characteristics of the signal. Amplifiers and speakers also add coloration to the final sound.Built-in sound shaping
Electric guitars usually have one to three—and rarely four—magnetic pickups. Identical pickups produce different tones depending on how near they are to the neck or bridge. Bridge pickups produce a bright or trebly timbre, and neck pickups are warmer or more bassy. The type of pickup also affects tone. Dual-coil pickups sound warm, thick, perhaps even muddy—and single coil pickups sound clear, bright, perhaps even biting. Guitars don't require a uniform pickup type: a common mixture is the "fat Strat" arrangement of one dual-coil at the bridge position, and single coils in the middle and neck positions.Some guitar have piezoelectric pickup in addition to electromagnetic pickups. Piezo pickups produce a more acoustic sound. The piezo runs through a built-in equalizer (EQ) to improve similitude and control tone. A blend knob controls the mix between electromagnetic and piezoelectric sounds.
Where there is more than one pickup, a pickup selector switch usual. These typically select or combine the outputs of two or more pickups, so that two-pickup guitars have three-way switches, and three-pickup guitars have five-way switches. Further circuitry sometimes combines pickups in different ways. For instance, phase switching places one pickup out of phase with the other(s), leading to a honky', nasal, or funky sound. Individual pickups can also have their timbre altered by switches, typically coil tap switch that effectively short-circuit some of a dual-coil pickup's windings to produce a tone similar to a single coil pickup.
The final stages of on-board sound-shaping circuitry are the volume control (potentiometer) and tone control (which "rolls off" the treble frequencies). Where there are individual volume controls for different pickups, and where pickup signals can be combined, they would affect the timbre of the final sound by adjusting the balance between pickups from a straight 50:50.
The strings fitted to the guitar also have an influence on tone. Rock musicians often prefer the lightest gauge of roundwound string, which are easier to bend, while jazz musicians go for heavier, flatwound strings with a rich, dark sound. Steel, Nickel, and Cobalt are common string materials, and each gives a slightly different tone color.
Recent guitar designs may incorporate much more complex circuitry than described above: see Digital and synthesizer guitars, below.
Classic amplifier sounds
In the 1960s, some guitarists began exploring a wider range of tonal effects by distorting the sound of the instrument. To do this, they used overdrive — increasing the gain, of the preamplifier beyond the level where the signal could be faithfully reproduced, resulting in a "fuzzy" sound. This effect is called "clipping" by sound engineers, because when viewed with an oscilloscope, the wave forms of a distorted signal appear to have had their peaks "clipped off", approximating a square wave. This was not actually a new development in the instrument, but rather a shift of aesthetics, the sound having not been recognized as desirable previously.After distortion became popular, amplifier manufacturers included various provisions for it, making amps easier to overdrive, and providing separate "dirty" and "clean" channels so that distortion could easily be switched in and out. The distortion characteristics of vacuum tube amplifiers are particularly sought-after, and various attempts have been made to emulate them without the disadvantages (fragility, low power, expense) of actual tubes.
Guitar amplifiers have long included at least a few effects, often tone controls and a spring reverb unit. The use of offboard effects is assisted by the provision of effect loops, an arrangement that takes effects out of the signal path when not required.
Effects units
Main article: Effects unit
A rack-mount effects unit may contain the identical electronic circuit, but is mounted in a standard 19" equipment rack. Usually, however, rack-mount effects units contain several types of effects. They are typically controlled by knobs or switches on the front panel, and often by a MIDI digital control interface.
Typical effects include:-
- Effects such as stereo chorus, phasers and flangers that shift the pitch of the signal by a small and varying amount, creating swirling, shimmering and whooshing noises.
- Effects such as octavers, which displace pitch by an exact musical interval.
- Distortion, such as transistor-style fuzz, or effects incorporating or emulating vacuum tube distortion.
- Filters such as wah-wah
- Envelope shapers, such as compression/sustain or volume/swell.
- Time-shift effects such as delay and reverb.
Modern amplifier techniques
In the 1970s, as effects pedals proliferated, their sounds were combined with tube amp distortion at lower, more controlled volumes by using power attenuators such as Tom Scholz' Power Soak as well as re-amplified dummy loads such as Eddie Van Halen's use of a variac, power resistor, post-power-tube effects, and a final solid-state amp driving the guitar speakers. A variac is one approach to power-supply based power attenuation, to make the sound of power-tube distortion more practically available.Recent amplifiers may include digital technology similar to modern effects pedals, including the ability to model or emulate a variety of classic amps.
Digital and software-based effects
By the 1980s and 1990s, software effects became capable of replicating the analog effects used in the past. These new digital effects attempted to model the sound produced by analog effects and tube amps, to varying degrees of quality. There are many free guitar effects computer programs for computers that can be downloaded via the Internet. Now, computers with sound cards can be used as digital guitar effects processors. Although digital and software effects offer many advantages, many guitarists still use analog effects.
Synthesizer and digital guitars
In 2002, Gibson announced the first digital guitar, which performs analog-to-digital conversion internally. The resulting digital signal is delivered over a standard Ethernet cable, eliminating cable-induced line noise. The guitar also provides independent signal processing for each individual string. In 2003, modelling amplifier maker Line 6 introduced the Variax guitar. It differs in some fundamental ways from conventional solid-body electrics. It has on-board electronics capable of modelling the sound of a variety of unique guitars and some other stringed instruments. At one time, some models featured piezoelectric pickups instead of the conventional electromagnetic pickups.Playing techniques
The sound of a guitar is not only adapted by electronic sound effects, but also heavily by all kinds of new techniques developed or becoming possible in combination with the electric amplification. This is called extended technique.
Extended techniques include:-
- String bending. This is not quite unique to the electric instrument, but is greatly facilitated by the light strings typically used on solid body guitars.
- Neck bending, by holding the upper arm on the guitar body and bending the neck either to the front or pulling it back. This is used as a substitute for a tremolo bar, although not as effective and too powerful of force use could snap the guitar neck.
- The use of the whammy bar or "tremolo" arm, including the extreme technique of dive bombing.
- Tapping, in which both hands are applied to the fretboard.Tapping may be performed either one-handed or two-handed. It is an extended technique, executed by using one hand to 'tap' the strings against the fingerboard, thus producing legato notes. Tapping usually incorporates pull-offs or hammer-ons as well, where the fingers of the left hand play a sequence of notes in synchronization with the tapping hand.
- Hammering on the string with the fretting hand.
- Pinch harmonics or Artificial Harmonics, sometimes called "squealies". This technique involves adding the edge of the thumb or the tip of the index finger on the picking hand to the regular picking action, resulting in a high pitched sound.
- Volume swells, in which the volume knob is repeatedly rolled to create a violin-like sound. Note that the same result can also be accomplished through the use of an external swell pedal, although the knob technique can enhance showmanship and conveniently eliminate the need for another pedal.
- Use of audio feedback to enhance sustain and change timbre. Feedback has since become a striking characteristic of rock music, as electric guitar players such as Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix deliberately induced feedback by holding their guitars close to the amplifier. Lou Reed created his 1975 album Metal Machine Music entirely from loops of feedback played at various speeds. A perfect example of feedback can be heard on Jimi Hendrix's performance of Can You See Me? at the Monterey Pop Festival. The entire guitar solo was created using amplifier feedback.[12]
- Substitution of another device for the plectrum, for instance the cello bow (as famously used by Jimmy Page) and the e-bow, (a device using electromagnetic feedback to vibrate strings without direct contact). Like feedback, these techniques increase sustain, bring out harmonics and change the acoustic envelope.
- Sustainers built into the guitar itself.
- Use of slide or bottlenecks. This is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles. Instead of altering the pitch of the strings in the normal manner (by pressing the string against frets), a slide is placed upon the string to vary its vibrating length, and pitch. This slide can then be moved along the string without lifting, creating continuous transitions in pitch.
- Sometimes guitars are even adapted with extra modifications to alter the sound, such as Prepared guitar and 3rd bridge.
Types
Solid body
Solid body electric guitars have no vibrating soundboard to amplify string vibration as is the case with acoustic guitars. Solid body instruments depend on electric pickups and an amplifier (or amp) and speaker. The solid body ensures that the amplified sound reproduces the string vibration alone, thus avoiding the wolf tones and unwanted feedback associated with amplified acoustic guitars of the period. These guitars are generally made up of hardwood covered with a hard polymer finish, often polyester or lacquer. In large production facilities, the wood is stored for 3 to 6 months in a wood-drying kiln before being cut to shape. Premium custom built guitars are frequently made with much older, hand selected wood.One of the first solid body guitars was invented by Les Paul. Gibson did not present their 'Les Paul' guitar prototypes to the public, as they did not believe it would catch on. The first mass-produced solid-body guitar was Fender's Broadcaster (later to become the 'Telecaster') first made in 1948, five years after Les Paul made his prototype. The Gibson Les Paul appeared soon after to compete with the Broadcaster.[13] Another notable solid-body design is the Fender Stratocaster, which was introduced in 1954 and became extremely popular among musicians in the 1960s and 1970s for its wide tonal capabilities and more comfortable ergonomics than other models.
Chambered bodies
Some solid-bodied guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul Supreme, the PRS Singlecut, or the Fender Telecaster Thinline among others, are built with hollows in the body. These hollows are designed specifically not to interfere with the critical bridge and string anchor point on the solid body. In the case of Gibson and PRS, these are called "chambered" bodies. The motivation for this may be to reduce weight, to achieve a semi-acoustic tone (see below) or both.[14][15][16]Semi-acoustic
Main article: Semi-acoustic guitar
Full hollowbody guitars
Main article: Archtop guitar
Full hollowbody guitars have large, deep bodies made of
glued-together sheets or "plates" of wood, and are often capable of
being played at the same volume as an acoustic guitar,
and therefore of being used unplugged at intimate gigs. They qualify as
electric guitars inasmuch as they have fitted pickups. Historically,
archtop guitars with retrofitted pickups were among the very earliest electric guitars. The instrument originated during the Jazz age of the 1920s and 1930s, and are still considered the classic jazz guitar (nicknamed "jazzbox"). Like semi-acoustic guitars, they often have f-shaped sound holes.Having humbucker pickups (sometimes just a neck pickup) and usually strung heavlly, jazzboxes are noted for their warm, rich tone. A variation with single-coil pickups, and sometimes a Bigsby tremelo, has long been popular in country and rockabilly; these have a distinctly more "twangy", biting, tone than the classic jazzbox. The term "archtop" indicates a method of construction subtly different from the typical acoustic (or "folk" or "western" or "steel string" guitar): the top starts of as a moderately thick (1 inch or 2–3 cm) piece of wood, which is then carved out into a thin (0.1in, 2-3mm) domed shape, whereas conventional acoustic guitars have a thin, flat top.
Electric acoustic
Main article: Electric acoustic guitar
Some steel-string acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups purely as an alternative to using a separate microphone. They may also be fitted with a piezoelectric pickup under the bridge, attached to the bridge mounting plate, or with a low mass microphone
(usually a condenser mic) inside the body of the guitar that converts
the vibrations in the body into electronic signals, or even combinations
of these types of pickups, with an integral mixer/preamp/graphic
equalizer. These are called electric acoustic guitars,
and are regarded as acoustic guitars rather than electric guitars
because the pickups do not produce a signal directly from the vibration
of the strings, but rather from the vibration of the guitar top or body.These should not be confused with semi-acoustic guitars, which have pickups of the type found on solid body electric guitars, or solid-bodied hybrid guitars with piezoelectric pickups.
String, bridge, and neck variants
One-string
Although rare, the one-string guitar is sometimes heard, particularly in Delta blues, where improvised folk instruments were popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Eddie "One String" Jones had some regional success.[citation needed] Mississippi blues musician Lonnie Pitchford played a similar, homemade instrument. In a more contemporary style, Little Willie Joe, the inventor of the Unitar, had a rhythm and blues instrumental hit in the 1950s with "Twitchy", recorded with the Rene Hall Orchestra.Four-string
The best-known proponent of the four-string guitar, often called the tenor guitar was Tiny Grimes, who played on 52nd Street with the beboppers and played a major role in the Prestige Blues Swingers. Grimes' guitar omitted the bottom two strings. Max Cavalera of Cavalera Conspiracy and Deron Miller of CKY both use only four strings, but play six string guitars with the two highest strings removed. Many banjo players use this tuning: DGBE, mostly in Dixieland. Guitar players find this an easier transition than learning plectrum or tenor tuning.Seven-string
Main article: Seven-string guitar
Seven-string electric guitars were popularized among rock players in the 1980s by Steve Vai. Along with the Japanese guitar company Ibanez, Vai created the Universe series seven string guitars in the 1980s, with a double locking tremolo system for a seven string guitar. These models were based on Vai's six string signature series, the Ibanez Jem. Seven-string guitars experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 2000s, championed by Limp Bizkit, Slayer, KoRn, Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, Nevermore, Muse and other hard rock/metal bands. Metal musicians often prefer the seven-string guitar for its extended lower range. The seven-string guitar has also played an essential role in progressive metal rock, and is commonly used in bands such as Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation and by experimental guitarists such as Ben Levin.
Eight and nine-string
Main article: Eight-string guitar
Eight-string electric guitars are rare, but not unused. One is played by Charlie Hunter, which was manufactured by Novax Guitars, the largest manufacturer of 8- to 14-strings is Warr Guitars. Their models are also used by Trey Gunn (ex King Crimson) who has his own signature line from the company. Similarly, Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah used 8-string guitars made by Nevborn Guitars and now guitars by Ibanez. Munky of the nu metal band KoRn
is also known to use seven-string Ibanez guitars and it is rumored that
he is planning to release a K8 eight-string guitar similar to his K7
seven-string guitar. Another Ibanez player is Tosin Abasi, lead guitarist of the progressive metal band Animals as Leaders, who uses an Ibanez RG2228 to mix bright chords with very heavy low riffs on the 7 and 8th strings. Stephen Carpenter of Deftones also switched from 7 to 8 string in 2008 and released his signature STEF B-8 with ESP Guitars. In 2008, Ibanez released the Ibanez RG2228-GK which is the first mass-produced eight-string guitar. Jethro Tull's
first album uses a nine-string guitar on one track. Minarik Guitars
manufactures the "Inferno V" 9 stringed guitar that has the top three
strings doubled up with strings that are an octave higher, like 12
stringed guitars. Bill Kelliher, guitarist for the heavy metal group Mastodon, worked with First Act on a custom mass-produced nine-string guitar.Ten-string
Main article: Ten-string guitar
B.C.Rich manufacture a ten-string six-course electric guitar known as the Bich,
whose radical shape positions the machine heads for the four secondary
strings on the body, avoiding the head-heaviness of many electric
twelve-string guitars. However many players bought it for the body shape
or electrics and simply removed the extra strings. The company
recognized this and released six-string models of the Bich, but
ten-string models also remain in production.In October 2008, a ten-string electric jazz guitar by Mike Shishkov was demonstrated at the 3rd International Ten String Guitar Festival. This instrument was based on the ten-string extended-range classical guitar.
Twelve-string
Main article: Twelve-string guitar
Twelve string electric guitars feature six pairs of strings, usually
with each pair tuned to the same note. The extra E, A, D, and G strings
add a note one octave above, and the extra B and E strings are in
unison. The pairs of strings are played together as one, so the
technique and tuning are the same as a conventional guitar, although
creating a much fuller tone. They are used almost solely to play harmony
and rhythm. They are relatively common in folk rock music. Lead Belly is the folk artist most identified with the twelve-string guitar, usually acoustic with a pickup.George Harrison of The Beatles and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds brought the electric twelve-string to notability in rock and roll. During the Beatles' first trip to the US, in February 1964, Harrison received a new "360/12" model guitar from the Rickenbacker company, a 12-string electric made to look onstage like a 6-string. He began using the 360 in the studio on Lennon's "You Can't Do That" and other songs. Roger McGuinn began using electric 12-string guitars to create the jangly sound of The Byrds. Another notable guitarist to utilize electric 12-string guitars is Jimmy Page, the guitarist with hard rock-heavy metal and rock group Led Zeppelin.
3rd bridge
Main article: 3rd bridge
The 3rd bridge guitar is an electric prepared guitar
with an additional 3rd bridge. This can be a normal guitar with for
instance a screwdriver placed under the strings, but can also be a custom made instrument. Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth plays with a 3rd bridge.Double neck guitar
Main article: Double neck guitar
Uses
Popular music
Popular music and rock groups often use the electric guitar in two roles: as a rhythm guitar which provides the chord sequence or "progression" and sets out the "beat" (as part of a rhythm section), and a lead guitar, which is used to perform melody lines, melodic instrumental fill passages, and guitar solos. In some rock or metal bands with two guitarists, the two performers may perform as a guitar tandem, and trade off the lead guitar and rhythm guitar roles. In bands with a single guitarist, the guitarist may switch between these two roles, playing chords to accompany the singer's lyrics, and then playing a guitar solo in the middle of the song.In the most commercially available and consumed pop and rock genres, electric guitars tend to dominate their acoustic cousins in both the recording studio and the live venue, especially in the "harder" genres such as heavy metal and hard rock. However the acoustic guitar remains a popular choice in country, western and especially bluegrass music, and it is widely used in folk music.
Jazz and jazz fusion
Jazz guitar playing styles include rhythm guitar-style "comping" (accompanying) with jazz chord voicings (and in some cases, walking basslines) and "blowing" (improvising solos) over jazz chord progressions with jazz-style phrasing and ornaments. The accompanying style for electric guitar in most jazz styles differs from the way chordal instruments accompany in many popular styles of music. In rock and pop, the rhythm guitarist usually performs the chords in dense and regular fashion which sets out the beat of a tune. In contrast, in many modern jazz styles, the guitarist plays much more sparsely, intermingling periodic chords and delicate voicings into pauses in the melody or solo. Jazz chord voicings are usually rootless and emphasize the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord.When jazz guitar players improvise, they use the scales, modes, and arpeggios associated with the chords in a tune's chord progression. Jazz guitarists have to learn how to use scales (whole tone scale, chromatic scale, etc.) to solo over chord progressions. Jazz guitar improvising is not merely the recitation of jazz scales and rapid arpeggios. Jazz guitarists often try to imbue their melodic phrasing with the sense of natural breathing and legato phrasing used by horn players such as saxophone players. As well, a jazz guitarists' solo improvisations have to have a rhythmic drive and "time feel" that creates a sense of "swing" and "groove".
In addition to the traditional rhythm/comping and lead/blowing roles, some jazz guitarists use the electric instrument to play unaccompanied, combining harmony and melody to form a complete piece of music, like classical guitarists.
Most jazz guitarists play hollow body instruments, but solid body guitars are also used. Hollow body instruments were the first guitars used in jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1970s jazz fusion era, many jazz guitarists switched to the solid body guitars that dominated the rock world.
Contemporary classical music
Until the 1950s, the acoustic, nylon-stringed classical guitar was the only type of guitar favored by classical, or art music composers. In the 1950s a few contemporary classical composers began to use the electric guitar in their compositions. Examples of such works include Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen (1955–57); Donald Erb's String Trio (1966), Morton Feldman's The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar (1966); George Crumb's Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death (1968); Hans Werner Henze's Versuch über Schweine (1968); Francis Thorne's Sonar Plexus (1968) and Liebesrock (1968–69), Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden (1965–70); Leonard Bernstein's MASS (1971) and Slava! (1977); Louis Andriessen's De Staat (1972–76); Helmut Lachenmann's Fassade, für grosses Orchester (1973, rev. 1987), Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint (1987), Arvo Pärt's Miserere (1989/92), György Kurtág's Grabstein für Stephan (1989), and countless works composed for the quintet of Ástor Piazzolla. Alfred Schnittke also used electric guitar in several works, like the "Requiem", "Concerto Grosso N°2" and "Symphony N°1".In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, a growing number of composers (many of them composer-performers who had grown up playing the instrument in rock bands) began writing contemporary classical music for the electric guitar. These include Frank Zappa, Shawn Lane, Steven Mackey, Nick Didkovsky, Scott Johnson, Lois V Vierk, Tim Brady, Tristan Murail, John Rogers[disambiguation needed], and Randall Woolf.
Yngwie Malmsteen released his Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in 1998, and Steve Vai released a double-live CD entitled Sound Theories, of his work with the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra in June 2007.[17] The American composers Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca have written "symphonic" works for large ensembles of electric guitars, in some cases numbering up to 100 players, and the instrument is a core member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars (played by Mark Stewart). Still, like many electric and electronic instruments, the electric guitar remains primarily associated with rock and jazz music, rather than with classical compositions and performances.[18] R. Prasanna plays a style of Indian classical music (Carnatic music) on the electric guitar.
In the 21st century, European avant garde composers like Richard Barrett, Fausto Romitelli, Peter Ablinger, Bernhard Lang, Claude Ledoux and Karlheinz Essl have used the electric guitar (together with extended playing techniques) in solo pieces or ensemble works. Probably the most ambitious and perhaps significant work to date is Ingwe (2003–2009) by Georges Lentz (written for Australian guitarist Zane Banks), a 60-minute work for solo electric guitar, exploring that composer's existential struggles and taking the instrument into realms previously unknown in a concert music setting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_guitar
No comments:
Post a Comment