Electric Guitar Buying Guide

When buying an electric guitar, there are so many options that you can easily become overwhelmed. Because of the plethora of options and styles, you should have some idea what you are looking for before walking into the music store. Listed here are a few of those basic things you should know.

The neck and fingerboard of the instrument have as many variants as the body does. More often than not, they are made of mahogany or maple. Maple is used mostly for bolt on necks and mahogany for attached necks. Some neck designs are thick and rounded, while others fit into the hand with a wedge shape. Ibanez and Jackson create their own unique, thinner necks designed for faster playing. When looking for a guitar, the size and shape of the neck should be matched to your preference.

Tremolo and stop-tail are the two main forms of bridges on guitars. The tremolo bridge is also known as the whammy bar and can bend all the strings at the same time. This ability is great for metal styles of music, but can force the strings out of tune. The stop-tail lasts longer than the tremolo bridge as it is more solidly mounted into the body.

Many guitars have two pickups. One is near the bridge and produces a more treble sound that brings out the plucky sound. The second is located near the neck and provides a thicker sound. A three-position switch gives the player the ability to choose with pickup he wants to use. He can use one or the other or even a combination of the two. Some guitars even have a five-position switch that can further blend the pickups for a different sound. A few select guitars have a third pickup to add to the sound mixing qualities.

Not much thought is put into the wood of the guitar by starting players, but it makes more of a difference than they know. Based on the density and level of hardness, the wood can change the tone of the instrument drastically. Below are a few examples of different wood and how they affect the tone:

Basswood is fragile and light, and is harmed easier than other woods. It does have its advantages though. It is often used in rock or metal guitars for its warm bass sound. Alder is similar to poplar and makes a full sound. Normally used on strats, this is a lightweight wood. There are two types of ash used in guitar construction, swamp and hard. Swamp ash is lightweight and commonly considered a balance between maple and mahogany. Hard ash has a much brighter tone and is much more durable. Maple has a similarly bright tone. Mahogany has a very warm, full sound. It is also fairly durable.

Today, electric guitars come in a seemingly endless variety of shapes and forms. However, there are really only 4 basic electric guitar designs from Fender and Gibson from which all modern electrics are derived. They are as follows:

1. Stratocaster

The Stratocaster has been used by many leading guitarists, and thus can be heard on many historic recordings, and is considered one of the most enduring and common models of electric guitar in the world. Much of the popularity of the Stratocaster can be attributed to its versatility. The neck, middle, and bridge (termed "rhythm", "normal tone" and "lead", respectively) pickups provide a wide range of tones. The standard single-coil pickups often found in Stratocasters produce a trebly sound with a high top end and bell-like harmonics.

The Stratocaster is played by artists like: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Arctic Monkeys to Iron Maiden.

2. Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul is a popular solidbody electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s with endured popularity into the new millennium. Gibson's humbucking pickups contribute immensely to the Les Paul's unmistakably classic tone. These pickups help produce not only a higher output signal, but also give the Les Paul's tone a mellow quality.The heavy wood body of the Les Paul also contributes to its full and mellow tone. These are some of the heaviest guitars and this helps them easily sustain a deeper bass.

The Les Paul played by Artists like: Slash, Pete Townshend (The Who), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones), My Chemical Romance, Bloc Party, Snow Patrol and Franz Ferdinand. For more information on the Gibson Les Paul, click here.

3. SG

Designed by Gibson in the 1960s as a direct competitor to Fender’s cheaper solid body models, the SG has a shallower body than the Les Paul, and thus is much lighter; the neck profile is also typically shallower, The SG is "neck heavy", a fairly uncommon trait in an electric guitar. Perhaps the most striking visual difference is that the SG is a double-cutaway guitar. The standard SG shares the basic pickup and control layout (twin humbuckers with dedicated tone and volume controls, three position selector switch) with the standard Les Paul. The set neck and solid body make for great sustain and full bodied tones.

The SG is played by artists like: Angus Young (AC/DC), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Noel Gallagher and Eric Clapton.

4. Telecaster

The Fender Telecaster, also known as a Tele, is a double cutaway, dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender in the 1950s. It was the first guitar of its kind to be produced on a substantial scale, and is sometimes considered the world's senior solid-body electric guitar The Telecaster is known for its bright, cutting tone. A capacitor is fitted between the slider of the volume control and the output, allowing treble sounds to bleed through while the mid and lower ranges are dampened. A slanting bridge pickup enhances the guitar's treble tone. The solid body allows the guitar to deliver a clean amplified version of the strings' tone.

The Telecaster is played by artists like: Jeff Beck, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Keith Urban, Thom Yorke (Radiohead).

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