History of The Electric Guitar

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Electric Guitar The electric guitar was first made in the Oklahoma. This electric guitar design that was made in Oklahoma was the first of its kind and changed music for everyone. The simplicity of the electric guitar surprised many people. All electric guitars since then have been based on this simple guitar design. Many famous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many other have made electric guitar more affordable and widely available. Many parts to a guitar exist; one of the most important parts of the guitar is the bridge. The bridge of the guitar is usually mounted to the top of the guitar and is usually what fastens the stings to the body. A few different types of bridges exist such as hard tail, floating, vibrato, and a string through. A hard tail runs the strings from the head of the guitar to directly behind the bridge. A floating guitar bridge is similar to a vibrato in that they both have a whammy bar. With a string through guitar, the strings pass through the bridge and are anchored at the back of the guitar. An example of a string through bridge is telecasters and schecter. (Broadbent, Peter) Without a pickup in an electric guitar, no sound would be heard. A pickup works by sending an electrical current through magnets, then through the tone and volume knobs, and on out to the amplifier. A couple different types of pickups exist, the commonly used to give guitarists different sounds. A single coil pickup gives the guitar a very clean and more acoustic sound. A double coil or humbucker was created to reduce the amount of hum the single coil made. A humbucker uses two single coils wired in series to remove the hum; this is how it gets the name “humbucker”. (Broadbent, Peter) Every guitar has ... ... middle of paper ... ... original sound. Many people dislike solid state amps because they do not have the classic tone of a tube amp. The cost of a solid state amp will be on the lower end of the scale. If the player wants the best of both worlds, another type of amp he or she can consider is called a hybrid amp. A hybrid amp will contain both solid state technology and valve technology. Many hybrid amps will have the power come from the solid state section and have the tubes power the sound. The cost of a hybrid amp will be between the cost of a solid state amp and a tube amp. The electric guitar has greatly impacted how music was played in the past, the present, or the future. Players can be creative and achieve a great sound from the wide variety of guitars, pickups, pedals, or amps. Whatever type of music you enjoy, everyone should appreciate the importance of the electric guitar.

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