When the electric guitar was originally created back in the 1930s, the main intent was simply to create an instrument that could be heard over the increasingly large jazz orchestras. It is highly doubtful that the instruments inventors could ever have imagined the uses to which their creation would someday be put. The modern electric guitar is a source of an apparently unending array of tones, pitches and sounds. Artists have pushed the instruments limits in an attempt to find new and innovative noises, and they continue to do so. The sounds of the electric guitar have become an art form in and of them selves, so much so that specific devices have been invented to create them. Such devices are referred to as guitar effects, and they modify the tone, pitch and sound of the electric guitar to help create the sounds that define some modern music genres.

It would be almost impossible to cover the wide range of effects used by electric guitars, so only the most widely used will be covered herein. One group of very popular effects is distortion-related effects. Such effects are produced by distortion pedals, which distort, or clip the guitar signals waveform. Distortion effects fall into four main subcategories: overdrive/distortion, overdrive/crunch, fuzz and hi-gain. Some of these effects are often associated with specific genre or artists. Overdrive/crunch pedals, for example, produce sounds very similar to those in the music of Carlos Santana and Eddie Van Halen. Hi-gain pedals, on the other hand, create the sounds most often connected with the genre of heavy metal.

Then there are the volume-related effects. As with distortion effects, those related to volume are also created via a pedal. The guitarist is able to use this pedal to adjust an instruments volume during a performance; it can also be used to make a guitars notes or chords fade in and out. Such attributes are useful during human vocal sections, when the percussive plucking of strings needs to be softened or eliminated altogether. There are at least three different types of volume pedals, these being auto-volume/envelope volume, tremolo and compressor. Each type boasts specific attributes useful to different situations and musical genres.

Time-based effects include delay/echo, looping, and reverberation or reverb. The first, delay/echo, creates a copy of an incoming sound, delays it slightly and then repeats it either once for a slap effect or multiple times for an echo effect. Looping involves recording a phrase or passage and then accompanying that passage as it replays. This technique involves the use of extremely long time delays. Finally, reverb refers to the persistence of a sound in a particular space after the original sound is gone. In essence, it is a large and extended number of echoes.

Modulation-related effects include several devices, including the rotary speaker, the rotary speaker simulator, the vibrato pedal, the phase shifter and the flanger. The rotary speaker and its simulator offer something known as a Doppler effect, which is a change in a waves frequency and wavelength. A vibrato pedal reproduces the sound of the rotary speaker by synchronizing a standard speakers volume oscillation, frequency-specific volume oscillation, vibrato, phase shifting and chorusing. A phase shifter creates a complex frequency response that results in a whooshing noise, similar to that of a flying jet. And finally, if an artist wishes to simulate the sound originally created by slowing a tape down by holding something against the flange and then allowing the tape to speed up again, a flanger can produce such a sound.

When the electric guitar was earlier created back in the 1930s, the main intent was simply to create an instrumentate that could be heard over the increasingly large jazz orchestras. It is highly tentative that the instruments inventors could ever have notional the uses to which their institution would someday be put. The modern font electric guitar is a beginning of an apparently unending array of tones, pitches and sounds. Artists have pushed the instruments limits in an attack to find new and advanced noises, and they continue to do so. The sounds of the electric guitar have become an art form in and of them selves, so much so that specific devices have been fictional to create them. Such devices are referred to as guitar effects, and they modify the tone, pitch and sound of the electric guitar to help make the sounds that define some modern music genres.

It would be almost impossible to cover the wide range of effects used by electric guitars, so only the most wide used will be covered herein. One group of very popular effects is distortion-related effects. Such effects are produced by overrefinement pedals, which distort, or clip the guitar signals waveform. Distorted shape effects fall into four main subcategories: overdrive/distortion, overdrive/crunch, fuzz and hi-gain. Some of these personal effects are often associated with specific genre or artists. Overdrive/crunch pedals, for example, raise sounds very similar to those in the music of Carlos Santana and Eddie Van Halen. Hi-gain pedals, on the other hand, create the sounds most often connected with the genre of heavy metal.

Then there are the volume-related effects. As with distortion effects, those related to volume are also created via a pedal. The guitarist is able to use this pedal to adapt an instruments volume during a performance; it can also be used to make a guitars notes or chords fade in and out. Such attributes are useful during human vocal sections, when the percussive plucking of strings needs to be softened or eliminated altogether. There are at least three different types of loudness pedals, these being auto-volume/envelope volume, tremolo and compressor. Each type boasts particular attributes useful to different situations and musical genres.

Time-based effects include delay/echo, looping, and reverberation or reverb. The first, delay/echo, creates a copy of an entrance sound, delays it slightly and then repeats it either once for a slap consequence or multiple times for an echo effect. Looping involves transcription a phrase or handing over and then accompanying that passage as it replays. This technique involves the use of extremely long time delays. Finally, reverb refers to the persistence of a sound in a particular space after the original sound is gone. In essence, it is a large and lengthened phone number of echoes.

Modulation-related effects include several devices, including the circular speaker, the rotary utterer simulator, the vibrato pedal, the phase shifter and the flanger. The roundabout verbaliser and its simulator offer something known as a Doppler effect, which is a change in a waves oftenness and wavelength. A vibrato pedal reproduces the sound of the rotary speaker unit by synchronizing a standard speakers intensity oscillation, frequency-specific mass oscillation, vibrato, phase shifting and chorusing. A phase shifter creates a complex frequency response that results in a whooshing noise, similar to that of a flying jet. And finally, if an artist wishes to simulate the sound to begin with created by slowing a tape down by holding something against the flange and then allowing the tape to speed up again, a flanger can produce such a sound.

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About the Author (text)

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music, guitar tab, and home theater audio. You can find the best marketplace at these sites: www.4guitars.info , www.4sheetmusic.info, and www.theateraudio.info.

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Electric guitars are used in various forms and styles of music including pop, country, rock and roll, jazz or blues. These guitars are used largely in rock music, and are a bit more forgiving than are acoustic guitars. Depending on the venue, electric guitars are one of the most common guitars used in the 20th century. The strings used on electric guitars are steel strings as on acoustic guitars, but usually of a much lighter gauge so they are generally easier on your fingers. The guitars themselves are much heavier than are acoustic guitars. The wood is heavier and the electronic parts on the inside add weight to the guitar, as well. While the specific wood type for the body, neck and fingerboard is less of a factor in electric guitars, the wood chosen for a particular electric guitar does contribute its distinctive sound and as well as the feel of the guitar in your hands and even in your style of playing. The neck of the electric guitar must also take more stress due to the heavy body of the guitar. Because of the type of strings used on the electric guitar, they are considered to be easier to play. The lighter gauge of the strings for the electric guitar makes picking and strumming much simpler. The trade-off, of course, is the weight of the guitar and ability to be heard by larger audiences. Electric guitars are slightly more expensive than are acoustic guitars but quality electric guitars can be found in the lower price ranges, as well. The important thing to remember in planning to purchase an electric guitar is that they only sound good with an amplifier, so you must count on purchasing one of those as well as the guitar. While various historians would argue about the time frame, electric guitars became popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. At that point, rock n’ roll was the prevailing culture in the world of music. Electric guitars became a necessity in the competition with the amplified instruments used by jazz orchestras. They quickly became popular, even though there were some difficulties with their construction. The body of the electric guitar would vibrate because of the amplified sounds that came through the speakers, to which they were connected, causing what we know as feed-back. Electric guitars don’t work with microphones, but with special pickups on the body of the guitar that senses the movement of strings. These pickups also tend to pick up the various electrical noises of the room, giving the guitar a bit of a “hum” which can be a very large or very small depending on where the guitar is being played. Several different designs for electric guitars were tried and left unused because of this difficulty in the decades before the 70’s. However, the Les Paul by Gibson and the Stratocaster by Fender rose above the other models to help eliminate some of these difficulties and secured their place in electric guitar history. There are many types of electric guitars: solid body, hollow body and metal body. The solid body electric guitar is actually carved from hardwood and has a lacquer finish. The guitars with the metal bodies are affected by the “weight relief” holes that are bored into the solid metal guitars or they are chambered metal so that the guitar will not weigh so much. The hollow bodied electric guitars are said to add resonance and sustain to the guitar while being lighter in weight for the guitarists handling of the instrument. The hollow body electric guitars have the pick-ups mounted in such a way that they convert the combination of the string and the instrument’s body vibration into the electrical signal sent to the amplifier. Electric guitars are great instruments to have around. They can be played for large audiences and their versatility of style is excellent. Earphones are a great addition to the guitar and the amplifier for the student who lives in the house with others that don’t necessarily want to hear the instrument played all night or all day. With this one upgrade, the electric guitar is a great addition to the other instruments in my household!

Compared to its acoustic cousin, the electric guitar has a very short history. In modern times, electric guitars are most often associated with genres such as rock and roll, blues rock, and jazz. However, this instrument has its origins in the big band music of the 1930s and 1940s. As the jazz orchestras of those days grew and their brass sections increased proportionally, the need for an amplified guitar became more and more pronounced. Adolph Rickenbacher, George Beauchamp, and Paul Barth, all of who eventually founded the Electro String Company, are usually credited with the production of the first electric guitars around 1931. Whoever did it first, the eventual result was a guitar that used pickups to convert the vibrations of its steel strings into an electrical current, which was made louder with an instrument amplifier and speaker.
As mentioned, an electric guitar’s strings are always steel. This is, however, one of the few features shared by all the various types. Electric guitars come in a variety of models, including solid body, hollow body, wood, metal, one- six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, and twelve-string, and even double neck models.
The first of these, the solid body type, is the most common. They are generally made of some kind of lacquered wood, which can be anything from maple, to koa, to ebony. The average solid body electric guitar has six strings, and the vibrations of this type of guitar are produced by the strings alone. This is notable in comparison to the hollow body electric guitar. Although the two types work similarly, the body of the hollow body guitar vibrates along with the strings, which means that the pickups convert both string and body vibrations into an electrical signal. A semi-hollow body guitar is a combination of the solid and the hollow types, and it is generally held to strike a balance between the attributes of the two. Then there are the metal body electric guitars. The bodies of these models are chambered (due to weight considerations), but they are designed to be played as though made of solid wood. Finally, the electric guitar can sport anywhere from one to twelve strings, which makes for, as one might imagine, a plethora of sounds and potential musical applications.
While there are any number of electric guitar manufacturers in the world, some are certainly more famous than others. Fender and Gibson, for example, established their reputations in the 1950s as makers of high-quality mass-produced guitars, and they remain some of the most well-known products available. Other reputable companies include BC Rich, ESP, and Peavey.
The electric guitar has gained a certain notoriety over the years, thanks to its association with a number of high-profile artists, among them Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, and the irrepressible Keith Richards. Interestingly, there has been a movement over the past few decades towards the use of the electrical guitar in contemporary classical music. However, such compositions are by no means common, and the genres of rock and jazz remain the primary territory of the electric guitar.

Electric Guitars The Electric guitar hasn’t been around nearly as long as the Acoustic and Classical guitars. In fact, the Electric guitar was created just 70 years ago (the 1930s) by Adolph Rickenbacker. Since that time, the Electric guitar has greatly evolved to the where it is today. In this article, we’ll go over the history of the Electric guitar. The History Guitars, or similar instruments, have been around for thousands of years. The Electric guitar was first manufactured in the 1930s by Rickenbacker. Original Electric guitars used tungsten pickups. Pickups basically convert the vibration of the strings into electrical current, which is then fed into the amplifier to produce the sound. The very earliest Electric guitars featured smaller soundholes in the body. These guitars are known as semi-hollow body Electric guitars and still are somewhat popular today, mainly due to the fact that they are flexible guitars. However, with the use of pickups, it was possible to create guitars without soundholes (like the Acoustic and Classical guitars have) that still had the ability to be heard, if plugged into amplifiers. These guitars are called solid body Electric guitars. The Electric guitar’s popularity began to increase during the Big Band era of the ’30s and 40s. Due to the loudness of the brass sections in jazz orchestras, it was necessary to have guitars that could be heard above the sections. Electric guitars, with the ability to be plugged into amplifiers, filled this void. The Electric guitar that is most prevalent today is the solid body Electric guitar. The solid body guitar was created by musician and inventor Les Paul in 1941. It is a guitar made of solid wood with no soundholes. The original solid body guitar created by Paul was very plain-it was a simple rectangular block of wood connected to a neck with six steel strings. Les Paul’s original solid body guitar shape has, of course, changed from the original rectangular shape to the more rounded shape Les Paul guitars have today. During the 1950s, Gibson introduced Les Paul’s invention to the world. The Gibson Les Paul, as it was and still is called, quickly became a very popular Electric guitar. It has remained the most popular guitar for 50 years. Around the same period of time, another inventor named Leo Fender came up with a solid body Electric guitar of his own. In the late 1940s, Fender introduced the Fender Broadcaster Electric guitar. The Broadcaster, which was renamed the Stratocaster, was officially introduced to the public in 1954. The Strat, as it is now known, was a very different guitar in comparison to the Les Paul. It had a different shape, different hardware and was significantly lighter. Fender’s Stratocaster Electric guitar is the second most popular guitar in the world, second to only the Les Paul. Over the years, other companies, such as Ibanez, Jackson, Paul Reed Smith, ESP and Yamaha have all produced solid body Electric guitars of their own. However, most Electric guitars still feature the familiar shape of a Les Paul or Strat guitar.