An electric guitar is one that is incorporated with pickups which catch and amplify sound through the amplifier and speaker. These guitars are to be played very much the same way as acoustic guitars. However, due to the high volume and gain levels, there are certain techniques that are conventionally associated with electric guitars; such as barre chords and tapping. But classical guitarists use these techniques on acoustic guitars as well. Note that there are no fixed types of electric guitars; these guitars are differentiated on the basis of aspects like number of strings, type of pickups, and the body style
Different Types of Electric Guitars – Body
Electric guitars do have different body types, out of which ‘solid body’ and ‘hollow body’ are two primary ones. Solid body guitars are those that do not have a sound box for amplifying sound; instead they use pickups. These are the best types of electric guitars when acoustic feedback can be an issue and the player wants a solid sound. A good example of solid body guitars can be a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster.
On the other hand, hollow body electric guitars do have a sound box with pickups as well. And this gives a clean acoustic tone and also a solid sound from the pickups. Electric guitars even come in different shapes as the Gibson Flying V, Gibson Explorer, Fender Telecaster, etc. A very interesting type of electric guitar is one with two fretboards. Double neck guitars have two fretboards; one which is used for normal rhythm playing and the other which is used for alternate guitar tunings or for 12-strings.
Different Types of Electric Guitars – Strings
In a standard electric guitar, there are six strings. Some musicians and guitarists, like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai use guitars made of seven strings. Playing seven-stringed guitars is a real difficult job, and requires years to master. There are even 12-stringed electric guitars, with each additional tiny string placed near the primary string. These guitars give a clean tone and sound the best if they are hollow bodied. Some well known guitarists order musical instrument companies to manufacture eight-stringed guitars.
Different Types of Electric Guitars – Pickups
Pickups are the components placed on the electric guitar which catch the mechanical vibrations of the strings and send them for processing to the amplifier. There are generally two major types of pickups for electric guitars; namely ‘humbucker’ and ‘single coil’. Humbuckers are usually used for a solid crunchy sound, especially while using heavy distortion effects. They can be seen in Gibson Les Paul models mainly. A single coil pickup is used for a sound more on the treble and softer side. These are standard setups for Fender Stratocaster models. Some guitarists may use a combination of humbuckers as well as single coil pickups to get a decent tone.
Different Types of Electric Guitars – Bass Guitars
Bass guitars are electric guitars which are used for giving out a bass sound as backup. These guitars are available in a wide range of shapes, sizes, strings, etc. The strings of a bass guitar are thick which give out the low tones. Even in bass guitars, you will find those with variations in the number of strings. Typically, a bass guitar has four strings, and the number may vary as per the requirements of the player. Models of five, six, and eight strings are also available in musical instrument stores.
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