The electric guitar is a popular instrument in the world of music. However, it’s not as easy to learn how to play as you might think. There are many different types of guitars that come with their own unique set of strings and playing styles. Electric guitars are also available for purchase, but they can be expensive or hard to find depending on where you live. The process of learning how to play an electric guitar takes time and patience–but thankfully there are plenty of tutorials online for beginners! Today, let’s learn more about electric guitars and amps.
1) Types of Electric Guitars
There are many different types of electric guitars. The most popular being the Stratocaster and the Fender Telecaster. The Stradocaster has a slimmer neck and is easier to play for beginners. It has three single coil pickups and are often used for country, blues, jazz and rock music. Whereas the Telestar guitar has a wider neck (at the nut), often with jumbo frets, and six single-coil pickups. These guitars have a warmer, rounder tone which is usually associated with heavy rock or psychedelic music.
2) How Electric Guitars Work
Electric guitars produce an electric signal through an amplifier and speaker from an electric guitar. The signal is a representation of the vibrations created by the strings on the guitar. However, it’s the amp that acts as the controller of this signal and produces the sound for a listener. Electric guitar amps come in many shapes, sizes, colors and wattages depending on your needs and wants. Electric guitar amps allow you to control how distorted or clean you want your sound to be–and they’re easy to use!
3) Types of Electric Guitar Amps
The electric guitar amp is the instrument amplifier. As the name suggests, an electric guitar amp amplifies the signal from a standard internal speaker and sends it to another speaker which is placed in front of the musician on stage or in recording studio. Some amps act as a control unit for both input and output, whereas some are dedicated input units where sound source can be plugged directly into them without needing to use external speakers. There are many different types of amps that come with their own unique set of features depending on what you need and want out of your amplifier:
Tube Amplifiers
These are usually older amps that have been used by musicians over time. amps produce warm, smooth distortion and break up when pushed. Many amps come with transformers, which are responsible for delivering the right voltage to your speaker.
Solid State Amplifiers
These amps are less expensive than tube amps and produce a clean sound without any distortion or warm sound. They’re generally lightweight (compared to heavy duty tube amps) and compact.
Hybrid Amplifiers
Hybrid amplifiers take features from both tube and solid state amps: they generally have a single 12AX7 Preamp Tube along with additional solid-state components for increased power output (solid-state amp), but also feature a standard “MOSFET” type power amplifier that uses high gain preamplification (tube amp). These types of amps provide great sound quality and good reliability without breaking the bank.
Head/Cabinet Combos
These amplifiers allow you to plug your guitar into a single cabinet with either a single 12″ speaker or multiple speakers, providing you will a range of different sounds, from low-end heavy distortion to crisp clean tones. Some amps are equipped with a built-in pre-amplifier so that you don’t need to buy an additional external unit for them to work (though these amps are pretty rare).
Tube vs Solid State Amp Controversy
Many people debate whether tube or solid state amplifies sound better. While many musicians swear by the warmth and tone provided by their tube amps, there’s no denying that advances in solid-state technology have resulted in amps that produce great tone with less weight and a much lower price tag. Though tube amps tend to provide richer cleans, they also need more attention in the way of maintenance and do produce more heat (which can be dangerous for gigs) than their solid-state counterparts. Tube amps are typically larger in size compared to the compact design of modern solid state amps, making it difficult to carry them from gig to gig or place them on your pedal board without having them take up too much space.
3) How Electric Guitar Amps Work
Electric guitars produce an electric signal through an amplifier and speaker from an electric guitar, but it is the amp that acts as the controller of this signal and produces the sound for a listener. An electric guitar amp can come in many shapes, sizes and wattages depending on your needs and wants. There are 4 basic parts of an amplifier: pre-amp stage, power amp stage, tone stack, and output stage (see diagram below).
1) The input jack receives the electronic signal from the guitar cable.
2) Once inside the amplifier’s circuitry, the signal is sent to the pre-amp section where it is increased in voltage via a circuit called a pre-amplifier or “pre-amp” for short. A pre-amplifier then sends this tiny signal on to a more powerful circuit known as a power amplifier.
3) The power amplifier increases the strength of the signal and sends it to a device called a tone stack. This allows the musician to control different aspects of their sound such as treble, mid-range and bass–thus allowing them to fine tune their sound.
4) The final stage is known as the output stage, which then sends the signal on its way through an audio speaker or headphones.
4) Parts of an Electric Guitar Amp
There are typically four parts to a standard electric guitar amp: the pre-amp, the tone/equalizer controls, gain and master volume. The pre-amp section is where your signal enters the amplifier. It’s important that this section is able to match the impedance of the instrument you’re using so that it can produce maximum sound quality out of your amplifier. Once you have a clean (distortion free) sound in your pre-amp stage, it’s time to move on to setting up your equalization(EQ). Setting up EQ settings should happen after you’ve created an appropriate level and volume for your sound as well as matching impedances from instrument to amplifier. Then there
Conclusion
The electric guitar is one of the most iconic instruments in music, and it’s a must-have for any musician. There are many different types of guitars that come in all shapes and sizes to suit your needs–and they’re not just for classical musicians! Let us help you find the perfect instrument for playing rock or jazz with our list of options. Are there any other questions we can answer about buying an electric guitar?
