In this article, you will learn the structure of an electric guitar, so that you have a clear idea of \u200b\u200bthis instrument.

Let's take a close look at the electric guitar:

1- neck
2- building
3- pickups (sensors)
4- headstock
5- pegs
6- bridge (car)
7- volume and tone knobs
8- socket for connecting the cord
9- sills and frets
10- pickup switch
11- strings
12- nut
13- lever

Let's take a closer look at the design of an electric guitar.

Body (or deck)

The body (or soundboard) of a guitar greatly affects the acoustic properties of the instrument, which determine how the guitar sounds through the amplifier. Decks are thick or thin, soft or dense wood.

It is believed that dense, heavy woods such as ash and mahogany (mahogany) give more sustain (sustain). But not only the weight of wood determines the sound of the instrument.

Listen to guitars made of maple or alder - medium to heavy rocks - these are the breeds that Fender makes most of their instruments. Or, for example, very lightweight basswood or swamp ash guitars. Guitars made from all of these woods are in the arsenal of the world's great guitarists.

This means that by the weight of the instrument, it is impossible to say unambiguously whether it sounds good or not. Light woods sound as neutral as possible, without embellishing the sound. They absorb the vibrations of the strings more than they reflect them.

The best electric guitar decks are made from a single piece of wood. Cheap tools are made from lots of small pieces of wood, with lots of glues. The more of them, the more likely the appearance of the so-called "tops" - notes that differ in sound from the rest. The optimal number of pieces of wood is three. These guitars usually sound much worse due to the loss of the resonant properties of wood in the places of gluing.

Separately, it is worth noting guitars like Gibson Les Pauls, which deliberately use different types of wood (mahogany for the bottom of the deck and maple for the top) in order to give the guitar the desired color.

Stratocaster

Les Paul

So, let's note for ourselves that mahogany guitars give a softer, lower sound, more sustain ( les Paul, PRS, Ibanez and ESP).

And guitars made of alder, American linden, ash give a more sonorous, bright sound (for example, Fender stratocaster).

The neck is the most important part of any guitar. This is the surface on which you will play, the part of the instrument that will come into direct contact with your hands. The width and thickness of the fretboard determine how comfortable you will be playing a given instrument.

Fans of hard, fast music - those who play a lot of tapping, legato and other techniques of playing the fretboard - will appreciate the wide and thin necks (you can try the guitars Jackson soloist, Ibanez RG, Washburn N series).

Lovers of classical styles - rock and blues - usually prefer the standard, more rounded necks, which are good for chords (worth checking out the guitars Fender and Gibson Les Paul).

Compound radius fingerboards represent a reasonable compromise: the neck is rounder closer to the head, and flatter closer to the soundboard (pickups, typewriter). True, such necks are used only on certain models of instruments and are more expensive than conventional ones.

The fretboard material also makes a significant contribution to the sound of the guitar, as the fretboard itself receives vibrations from the strings and transfers them to the neck and body of the instrument, or reflects these vibrations.

It is worth noting that about 2/3 of the strings are over the fretboard and only one third over the body. And if the body of the guitar can in principle be replaced, then a poor-quality fretboard is a damaged neck, and therefore a damaged guitar.

What separates the best bar from the worst? First of all, it is a tree. Vultures are mostly made of maple or mahogany.

Neck can also be made from composite materials (which are used in today's space industry and other fields) such as "never dry" graphite.

Fingerboards that are made of wood are usually varnished to prevent them from warping due to drying out. Note, however, that many celebrities such as Van Halen and Joe Satriani ( Joe satriani), prefer to play on unvarnished necks.

The fretboard material plays an equally important role in the sound of the instrument. There are three standard options: maple, ebony and rosewood.

Maple (light wood seen on type guitars Fender telecaster) is soft to the touch and has a bright sound.

Ebony, almost black in color, sounds much denser and deeper.

Rosewood is an intermediate option between the dense sound of ebony and the bright sound of maple. This breed has a reddish brown hue. It is the most porous of the three breeds, and has perhaps the warmest and softest sound.

Typically, manufacturing firms have a large number of models in their arsenal, some of which are maple, some are rosewood, and the most expensive signature models of famous guitarists are ebony.

At the same time, it is impossible to say unequivocally which fingerboards sound better than others - these three types of wood simply sound differently. Maple grows in many countries of the world, it is easy to process, so its cost is low. The maple fingerboard gives the guitar a bright sound.

Rosewood is more expensive than processed maple, and grows only in rare southern countries, therefore it is more expensive. The standard fingerboard on a decent guitar is made from rosewood, although this wood is also often used on expensive signature series instruments such as the Ibanez Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale, Fender Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

Ebony is the densest tree. It is brought to Europe and America from the most southern points of the planet. It is very expensive to process and requires special drying and storage conditions. You will never see an ebony fingerboard on an inexpensive instrument.

We can say that ebony is an elite tree that is only used on expensive signature guitars. Guitars with ebony fingerboards are played by Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, George Benson and many others.

In general, we can say that each guitarist chooses for himself which tree is more convenient for his fingers to play.

Remember!

The neck, along with the soundboard, are the most important parts of the guitar. Basically, they determine its value. You can change the pickups, typewriter, tuners, whatever you want, but replacing the neck or deck is the most expensive and sometimes impossible task. It's easier to buy another guitar!

Pickups (sensors)

From a purely physical point of view, a pickup (or pickup) is a device that converts one type of energy into another. In the case of a magnetic pickup, the vibration of the string in a magnetic field is converted into an alternating current electrical signal, which is then fed to an amplifier.

It happens as follows: the string vibrates in the field created by the permanent magnet (s) of the sensor. An electric current is generated inside a coil of wire wound around these magnets, which is fed through the wires to the amplifier.

Often, buying more expensive sensors can improve the sound of budget instruments, give a new color to an expensive guitar, so let's dwell on this topic in more detail.

Pickups are divided into Single and Hambacker, passive and active.

1.Single or Hambacker... They even differ visually.

Hambecker

Singles - sensors with one coil (single-single). They are characterized by a bright, "clear" (not distorted) sound. Their design is usually based on 4 or 6 permanent magnets, around which from 7 to 10 thousand turns of copper wire, 0.06 mm thick, are wound. Thanks to their high sound quality, these sensors are very popular.

As a result, in addition to the sound of strings, you can hear extraneous noise or background. This is especially true when playing with drive or distortion effects.

However, now they are releasing split singles with a humbucker effect. Two windings, each of which surrounds its half of the magnets, are connected in antiphase. The magnets inside each have opposite polarity. As a result, the problem of interference and noise is solved, while the sensors produce the traditional single coil sound.

The most popular single coil guitar is the Fender Stratocaster.

Humbuckers (hambacking - noise reduction) - pickups with two coils, which are connected in series, but in antiphase, with each of them facing the strings with different poles of the magnets.

As a result, extraneous noise or background is canceled out, and the useful signal is added, and the output level is twice as high as that of the single.

However, the humbucker sound itself turns out to be poorer, lower and devoid of "highs". The reason for this is that the spaced coils (15-17 mm) produce two different signals, which results in subtraction of some of the high-frequency components.

Sorry - I got carried away! I just graduated from a technical university ... J

As a result, on a clean sound they give out a smoothed round sound, with overdrive they sound aggressive, distinct and without background. An example of a guitar with humbuckers - Gibson Les Paul.

2. Passive and active.

The principle of operation of passive sensors is described above. Active sensors have fewer turns in the coils, which means they have a wide frequency range and a weak output signal.

To amplify it, a preamplifier is attached to the guitar, which is powered by a 9-volt "crown" battery. Active pickups come in both singles and humbuckers.

Single EMG

Hambacker EMG

Critics of active transducers have argued that they produce a sterile, unnatural sound that is the result of an artificially created frequency response.

The opposite side claims that in addition to the low noise level, active sensors expand the guitarist's capabilities. He can play an unconventional sound and then switch to a more familiar sound.

The most famous producers of "passive" - Di marzio, Seymour duncan, Fender, Gibson; "Asset" - EMG.

I almost forgot: when describing pickups such as "Hot", "Vintage", "Pro" are very subjective and buying a pickup without listening to it (for example, in a store) is a lottery.

Bridge (car, tailpiece)

Bridge is a device by which the strings are attached to the deck.
There are two types of breeches: with and without tremolo system. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

1. Breeches with tremolo system.
A more common name is a typewriter: Fender, Floyd Rose, Kahler, are usually played on stratocasters or strato-like instruments. Their advantage lies in the ability to lower and, in some models, raise the pitch of notes on the guitar with the right hand. For this there is a lever in it.

Guitars with cars Floyd Rose and Kahler equipped with a lockable clothespin and micro adjustment. Thanks to this, with active use of the lever, the instrument does not get out of tune, and it is always possible to adjust the tuning without loosening the “clothespin” screws.

These machines allow you to swing the string up and down by 1.5 - 2 tones and perform some fun tricks like Stive vai... Therefore, you can greatly diversify your game.

The main disadvantages are as follows:

If string breaksthe guitar goes out of tune immediately;
- to replace the string, it is necessary to do a lot of manipulations (to climb for the key from the "clothespin", unscrew, insert, twist, etc.);
- the guitar is more difficult to tune;
- the guitar is more difficult to rebuild into a different system;
- machines of this type most strongly "gobble up" the sustain (duration of notes);
- due to the large number of parts, these machines most often fail;

Guitars with cars Fender free from all tricks:

Due to their simpler design, there are fewer problems with them, but still:
- if the string breaks, the guitar is immediately upset, though not so much;
- use the lever more carefully, the guitar may get upset;
- the sustain is still decreasing, although it brings its own flavor;
- these machines only allow you to lower the pitch (swing the lever down).

2. Breeches without tremolo. They are put on guitars such as Les Paul, Telecaster, some Heavy Metal and semi-acoustic. Their design is even simpler, the number of parts is kept to a minimum:

They keep the tuning better, they sound more melodious, there are fewer problems with them at concerts. There is only one drawback, as you may have already guessed - there are no such opportunities that the machine gives.

Which bridge to choose is up to you, but if you're a beginner and don't have much money for a guitar, choose with or without a simple tremolo. With cheap Floyd Rose much more problems.

Electronics (volume and tone knobs, pickup switch, cord jack).

These parts, with the exception of the socket, are used to change the character of the sound of the guitar and adjust its volume.

The Pickup Selector is used to select the desired pickup. Depending on the wiring diagram and the number of "sounds", each switch position produces a unique guitar sound.

This jack is used to connect the guitar to the amplifier using a cord.

Lines and frets.

Metal inserts cut into the neck perpendicular to the strings are called saddles. The areas of the neck between the saddles are called frets. By pressing the strings at different saddles, the length of the string changes, and thus sounds of different heights are produced.

Nut.

A plastic or wood plate with string slots that prevents the strings from vibrating outside the neck.

Strings.

The strings pass through the nut slots and are secured to the tuning pegs. The sound of any guitar can be degraded by using old or poor quality strings. This is an expense budget for any guitarist.

The most common string manufacturers are: D "Addario, DR, Ernie Ball, GHS, Dean Markley, La Bella. Elixir.

Tuners.

Six worm gears that can be used to boost or cut guitar sounds by turning the tuning pegs and tightening or releasing the string tension.

Just don't overdo it when you play new strings!

Headstock

The top of the neck where the tuning pegs are attached.

If you also want to know

- how to choose an electric guitar depending on your style preferences.

How to buy a really good tool, not "plywood".

- What amps, amps, guitar effects, processors and other useful devices for the guitarist are?.

How to connect an electric guitar and other equipment.

- And many more interesting and useful things for a beginner guitarist ...

The guitar is a magical instrument. Her parts can be heard in any style of music - from classics to modern rock compositions. The history of this goes back to ancient times. After all, for more than 4000 years, mankind has been using its related kifara, citrus, and lute. You can often find this beautiful instrument in our homes, but not everyone asks the question of what a guitar consists of.

History of origin

Translated from Persian "chartra" - four-stringed. It was the instruments with four strings that came to the countries of the Middle East and Europe from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Then a fifth string was added to the guitar. It happened in Italy during the Renaissance. At this time, the number of frets on the neck also increased from eight to twelve. The six-strings familiar to us appeared in the middle of the 17th century, and since then the structure of classical guitars has remained practically unchanged. In the 30s of the last century, a kind of guitar revolution began, and by musical instruments electronic components, amplifiers, and various sound effects were added in the following decades.

The device and features of classical guitars

The predecessors of the classical instruments were the Spanish flu. They had five double strings and not quite familiar to them. Then, in the 18-19th centuries, a sixth string was added to the Spanish one, musical masters experiment with forms, scale length, and invent new tuning mechanisms. The result is a classic that has come down to us.

So what does a classical guitar consist of? The main parts of the instrument are the head, neck and body. On the head of the neck with the help of pegs, strings are attached and pulled, and it itself is equipped with frets and frets to change the length of the vibrating string and thereby the frequency of sound. The body of the instrument consists of the top, the back with a shell, the resonator hole, and the stand where it connects to the body. Next, let's look at what an acoustic guitar consists of.

Device and features of acoustics

What is this kind of guitar made of? The device acoustics is almost the same as classical instruments. The difference lies in the size of the body and the strings - they are metal. Depending on their size, such instruments are classified into dreadnoughts, jumbo and folk guitars. They are widely used in musical styles such as blues, rock, bard song, and many other song genres.

Various types of wood are used for the production of tools. Despite the fact that guitars from exotic woods are not uncommon, acoustics are made from certain species. After all, the sound is influenced by every wooden element from its structure.

The device and features of the electric guitar

Electric guitars differ from acoustic and classical guitars by the presence of pickups and electrical circuitry with knobs and switches. These guitars require amplification equipment. For playing at home, the most popular are tube and transistor combo amplifiers with a power of 4-35 watts.

Magnetic pickups date back to the mid-1920s at Gibson. And the guitar revolution came a decade later, when jazz musicians discovered a wide range of possible electric guitar tones.

If we talk about the appearance of the tools, then the most distinctive and popular forms are:

The rest of the models of guitars from different manufacturers somehow borrowed the features of these instruments.

Materials for making

It was discussed above what parts the guitar consists of. What are they made of? The top deck has the most significant impact on the sound.

The traditional material for it in classical and acoustic guitars is spruce. High-end instruments have a deck made of red spruce. For simpler models, cheaper varieties are used. Used for the production of tops and cedar. Instruments made of cedar and spruce sound differently, but beautiful in their own way: the former have a brighter sound, while the latter have a softer and more enveloping sound.

Mahogany is the most popular material for the back and sides. The same material is used for the production of these guitar parts. In addition to mahogany, you can find instruments made of rosewood, maple, walnut, bubinga and koa wood.

Acoustic guitar neck is most often made of mahogany. Maple necks are the second most popular. The most common fingerboard is rosewood. In higher class acoustic and electric guitars made of ebony - ebony.

Electric guitars, as well as acoustic and classical instruments, are made of wood, although metal guitars and plastic models exist. "Classic" scheme for Gibson: Mahogany deck and neck, Maple top fingerboard, Mahogany fingerboard.

Fender instruments: alder deck, maple neck, maple or rosewood fingerboard.

The device and features of bass guitars

Bass guitars differ from other types of instruments in string thickness, increased scale and, as a result, large dimensions.

Such a guitar is a relative of the double bass. There are usually four or five strings, although six or more stringed instruments are found. Play with your fingers using a specific technique, or with a pick.

Electric guitar construction using the example of the Fender Stratocaster

1-Neck. 2-Building. 3-headstock. 4-nut. 5-fret nut. 6-Pegs. 7-Bridge (with tremolo). 8-Pickup humbucker. 9-Pickup single. 10-Lever. 11-Pickup Switch. 12-Tone control. 13-Volume control. 14-Cord connection socket. 15-Hole for anchor adjustment. 16-Belt attachment. 17-Fret marker.

Electric guitar neck (1) is practically no different from acoustics and consists of two parts: the neck itself and the fretboard, held together with glue. As a reminder, the fretboard is the top of the fretboard where the frets are located. On headstock (3) are also found pegs (6), and inside the neck there is anchor, whose task is still the same - to prevent the strings from bending the neck. The fretboard can be glued to the soundboard, or it can be attached with screws (this is one of the differences from acoustics).

Like an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar has a neck, body, strings, tuners ... But the body of an electric guitar is not at all the same as an acoustic one, but flat.

Electric guitar body (2) can be made entirely of wood or hollow.

Hollow body guitars have a warm, rich sound and are commonly used in jazz, blues and country music. The disadvantages of these guitars are the rapid decay of the sound, and the appearance of a creaking sound when played at high volumes.

Solid body guitars are made of either one or several pieces of wood, usually of the same grade, that are glued together. The more places where the body is glued, the worse the sound will be, due to the loss of wood resonance in these places. The exception is some models of guitars, the body of which is intentionally made from different types of wood to improve the sound. These guitars have a sharper and more aggressive sound, which is most suitable for playing heavy music.

Now about what is fundamentally different acoustic guitar from an electric guitar.

Bridge or car (7) is the device by which the strings are attached to the deck. There are two types of breeches: with a tremolo and without (in the picture a bridge with a tremolo). Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Tremolo breeches is a movable stand, which is set in motion by means of a lever (10), which allows you to change the tension of all strings and create a vibrato effect even with open strings. Typically, these machines are installed on stratocaster and similar instruments. Such machines allow you to change the pitch by one and a half to two tones, which greatly diversifies the sound.

Breeches without tremolo are put on telecaster and semi-acoustic guitars. Their design is even simpler, the number of parts is minimized, due to which guitars equipped with such bridges hold better in tune, sound more melodious, and there are fewer problems with them when you need to quickly change strings.

For beginners, it is better to choose guitars equipped with a typewriter with a simple tremolo (when the typewriter works only to reduce the sound) or without it at all.

Under the strings on the body of the electric guitar there are pickups - pickups that convert the vibrations of the string into an electrical signal. The pickup is a very important part of the guitar, the type and quality of the pickup determines the sound produced by the guitar.

Pickups are of two types: singles (9) and humbuckers (8). Singles have a clear and transparent sound. These pickups are used when playing blues and country music. The disadvantage associated with the design of such sensors is a lot of extraneous noise and a strong background when playing with distortion. Although now they are releasing split singles, which have significantly reduced noise.

Humbuckers suppress extraneous noise and are more suited for playing through guitar effects. These sensors provide more powerful and richer sound. Due to these qualities, humbuckers are more suitable for heavy styles of music.

Manufacturers combine both types of pickups in different sequences to achieve a variety of instrument sounds. In the description of an electric guitar, you can see something like S-S-H or H-S-H - thus, the sequence in which the pickups are installed on the guitar is S - single (single), H - humbucker (humbucker).

Pickups can be passive or active. Active sensors have a wider frequency range and a weak output signal. To amplify it, a crown-powered preamplifier is built into the guitar. Active sensors, like passive ones, come in both singles and humbuckers.

To switch between pickups, a switch (11) is installed on the guitar, making one or two of the pickups installed on the guitar active. By switching between pickups, you can change the sound produced by the guitar. Switches are often installed that turn on two pickups adjacent to each other and thus create new sounds.

Also, on the body of an electric guitar, as a rule, there are volume (13) and tone (12) sound controls.

Therefore, we continue to get acquainted with other varieties of six-string. Today you will study in detail the structure of an electric guitar and its main components. If you are just going to buy an electric guitar, then this post is for you.

Let's introduce ourselves!

Visually, and structurally, an electric guitar still has some similarities with an acoustic guitar, but no matter how these similarities combine them, they are still two fundamentally different types of instruments. We can observe the differences both in the design itself and in the way of obtaining sound. For acoustics, a resonator hole in its body is enough for us to hear it, but for an electric guitar we need a completely different approach - receiving sound through a number of devices by transferring it from pickups to an amplifying device and then outputting it to acoustic systems. Of course, you can try to play it without connecting, but you are unlikely to do this, because that is not why you bought it or are going to buy it.

Well, this seems to be sorted out! Since you are such an ardent fan of guitar music, then undoubtedly the electric guitar will become a good assistant in your creativity, it is possible that on long years... There are quite a few types of electric guitars today, but the differences in their design are not great, it can be, for example, the type of neck attachment to the guitar body, the type of tailpiece, the type of truss rod (1 anchor, 2 anchors) or the type of pickups installed, i.e. e. the differences are only in some details. Since the conversation has gone about the details, then let's see what an electric guitar consists of.

Electric guitar device

The images below show a solid body Fender Stratocaster - arguably the most popular instrument in rock music history. For many musicians, this is the ideal of form and unique sound. Well, now for more details about the design. The electric guitar consists of:

1. Housing
2. Pickguard
3. Pickups
4. Switch
5. Volume and tone controls
6. Bridge
7. Cable connector
8. Buttons (Streplocks)
9. Overlay
10. Labels (dots)
11. Nut
12. Vulture head
13. Tuners
14. Strings
15. Anchor nut
16. Mount the neck
17. Tone block cover

The example of this guitar shows the general structure of an electric guitar, and the numbers indicate its main parts. The two main components of any electric guitar are the body and also the neck.

Electric guitar body

It is very different from an acoustic guitar and can be either solid or hollow inside (a variety of semi-acoustic guitars) or glued from several pieces of wood (most often one). But there is one nuance - the more pieces in its composition, the worse the guitar sound will be due to the fact that all the resonating properties of the wood itself will be lost at the gluing points. The only exception will be a composite of different types of wood. Electric guitars with such a body have an aggressive and harsh sound, they mostly play heavy music.

In hollow cases, the sound is completely different - more saturated, but quickly fades away. These guitars are best suited for jazz, country or blues music. Its disadvantages include the fact that a creaking sound may appear when playing loudly. The quality and type of wood has a great influence on the sound in hollow-body guitars rather than solid-body guitars. But regarding the shape and design of the body of electric guitars, in contrast to acoustic ones, we can say the following - these parameters have little effect on the sound of the instrument.

The top of the body in some guitars is covered with a top - this is a special overlay that is made of a different wood and most often serves as a decorative element rather than a functional one. But on guitars like Fender Stratocacter, a plastic pickguard is installed. It contains: single-coil pickups, and other guitars may also have humbuckers; pickup switch that allows you to turn on the pickups individually or simultaneously; volume and tone controls, with which you can adjust the output level of the pickups, as well as change the tone of high and / or low frequencies.

To fasten the strings, there is a bridge on the body (also called a "machine"), which can be either with a tremolo system (Vintage Tremolo in the picture or Floyd Rose) or without it (Tune-o-Matic or Hardtail). But to connect an electric guitar to an amplifier, a jack-type connector (Jack TRS ¼ ”) is specially installed on the body, to which the plug located at the end of the instrument cable is connected. To hold the guitar in weight with a belt, special steel buttons are located on both sides, sometimes so-called strap locks (belt locks) are installed. Ok, we figured out the case, and now let's see how it works ...

Electric guitar neck

In terms of its structure, this part of the electrofusion is also noticeably different from the acoustic one. What are these differences? - you ask. Firstly, it is the length and radius of the fretboard, and secondly, the headstock can be of various shapes, this is a rare phenomenon in acoustic guitars. The fretboard is glued to the top of the main body of the neck and is most often made of rosewood or ebony. This is the part that you put your fingers on while playing. There are metal frets on the fretboard that divide the neck along the entire length into frets and allow you to change the key of the strings and, accordingly, take different ones, and there are also marks / points between these frets, specifying and denoting for convenience 3, 5, 7, 9 and subsequent frets ...

At the beginning of the bar, i.e. at the top, a nut is installed, and immediately after it is the head of the neck, on the platform of which there are mechanical pegs designed to tension and fix metal strings and, most importantly, a nut for adjusting the truss rod, which protects the neck from deformation due to tension load strings. In this example of a Fender Stratocacter guitar, the neck is not glued in and is attached to the body with 4 bolts. Cover on back side guitar covers the entire bridge mechanics as well as the electrical part.

Here is such a device for an electric guitar! Well, figured it out? Fine! Now you know well what parts it consists of. Perhaps this article will help you in choosing a guitar, but we will talk about this in more detail in another article. Don't miss the next post about! Must see interesting video under the article to consolidate the learned material.

Sometimes even the most virtuoso guitarists don't know exactly how an electric guitar works. There is nothing to be ashamed about, but understanding the design of your instrument can open up new horizons for you, new techniques for sound production, or allow you to better understand the operation of the instrument. In this article we will try to describe in as much detail as possible what a typical electric guitar consists of and how it works.

To make information about the device of an electric guitar better perceived, we will divide it into two logical parts: a description of the appearance and "stuffing".

Appearance

Below is the diagram on which the electric guitar parts are signed. This instrument is in many ways similar to an ordinary acoustic guitar: it also has a body, a soundboard and a neck, 6 metal strings, there may be pickups, but at the same time, an electric guitar is much more complicated. It contains details that acoustics do not have.

Housing

If we talk about similar elements: the deck (body), then they have a significantly different structure. The body of the electro is much smaller than that of the acoustics, and most often it is one-piece, but sometimes it is also hollow.

A solid deck is made from one or more pieces of wood glued together. The sound of such a body is sharp and “aggressive”, which makes it popular with rock musicians. The only drawback is that if the body consists of several parts, then the sound may deteriorate due to the violation of resonance at the joints of the wood.

One-piece electric guitar body

The hollow body is slightly wider than a solid body, it has a warmer and richer sound, such guitars are used for jazz, blues and country music. The disadvantage of such a body is a small sustain, that is, a short sounding, a fast fading of the sound.

Hollow body electric

On the side of the body at the bottom (if you place the guitar with the neck up) there is a jack for connecting an amplifier and outputting sound to the speakers. Sometimes, the input is located on the front of the guitar (approx.Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG)

Vulture

The neck is a very important element of the guitar because the quality depends on its convenience performed music... This detail can vary significantly from tool to tool. For example, some of the guitars have it narrower and rounder, while others have it wide and flat.

Of course, you need to select depending on the anatomical features of your hand, but traditionally it is believed that a narrow and wide neck is convenient for playing moving passages and other techniques that are usually found in the genres of metal and rock, and a narrow and rounded neck is suitable for playing chords in blues and jazz.

In general, the neck of an electric guitar is the same as that of an acoustics. The only difference is the number of frets, for an electric guitar it can reach 27, and for acoustics no more than 23. The most common models usually have 21, 22 or 24 frets.

Filling

Now it's time to talk about the parts that only the electric guitar has. We will call them filling.

The bridge is the part on the body to which the strings are attached, i.e. in simple words the saddle. It comes with and without tremolo. The tremolo bridge is complemented by a lever (vibrato lever) that sets it in motion. This system allows you to change the pitch by 1.5-2 tones, which makes the sound more interesting.

However, the tremolo bridge has several drawbacks: the guitar is more difficult to tune or rebuild into a non-standard tuning, has less sustain, and if one of the strings breaks, the whole instrument is out of tune. Accordingly, a system without a tremolo does not have all these drawbacks, but at the same time it is impossible to achieve an interesting vibrato on it.

Pickups (usually there are three of them), as the diagram shows, are located near the saddle under the strings and, in fact, remove the sound, i.e. convert string vibrations into loud sound. They are divided into types: single and humbucker.

They differ in the nature of the transmitted sound: the first makes it clearer and more transparent, and the second - more saturated and powerful. The single is traditionally used in jazz and country music, but the design of its pickups does not allow to suppress extraneous noise, which is why the guitar often makes phonies when playing with distortion. Accordingly, the humbucker is more suitable for playing heavy music.

The pickup selector allows you to choose between one or two of the three pickups located below the strings. As a rule, each of them gives its own unique sound, which explains the physical properties and construction of the instrument. Therefore, by switching between them, you can experiment with the sound.

Volume levers allow you to change the volume, and tone levers the character of the sound of the instrument.

This is all the basic information that can be supplied about an electric guitar device. As you can imagine, the construction of an electric guitar is quite simple. Of course, many of the elements can be described in much more detail, talking about their types and subspecies, but this will complicate the text and confuse the beginner.

Thank you for reading the article, we hope that in it you have found the answers to all your questions. If something is still unclear - write in the comments and may a diagram help you. And as you probably already know, we have a VKontakte group, where every day we post a lot of useful materials about guitars, as well as sheet music and tabs of popular compositions. So subscribe not to miss out on new information.