What Makes an Electric Guitar a “Good One”
A good electric guitar has the ability to free the inner voice within a special guitar player, giving him or her the ability to sing from deep with in their soul, sending melodies outward from the tips of their fingers. Much work and extreme attention detail goes into the construction of a finely made electric guitar whether it be made on an assembly line of a large manufacturer or in a shop of a private luthier (guitar maker). A good electric guitar can be seen as a sum of individually selected parts that come together in a cooperative way to perform successfully, expressively and masterfully, in the hands of gifted and learning musicians alike.
A master luthier’s first mission is to find the wood for the body of the guitar. The resonance and tonal quality is different for every particular kind of wood. Ash, for example, is a very popular wood used in making electric guitar bodies. “Southern Soft” or “Swamp Ash” is found in the swamps of the Southern United States. Swamp ash trees spend their lives well hydrated by the waters they grow in, so the wood is very porous and lightweight, lending to resonance and sustain across the whole frequency spectrum of a guitar. A standard, non-exotic wood often used is alder. Alder is popular because of its lightweight and harder, thicker grains, offering long sustain, balanced tone, with a complex resonance, and good dynamic range, making alder very desirable for blues playing. As first choice body materials such as alder, ash, and mahogany become more scarce in the United States, luthiers look to other continents such as Africa and Australia, choosing woods such as bubinga and blackwood whose tonal qualities mirror those of woods found on the American continent.
What good is the resonance of an electric guitar’s body if that resonance is not transferred somehow to the listener? The purity of tone can be heard by placing one’s ear up to the body, experiencing the tonality and resonant vibration firsthand, but of course, that sound must be captured and amplified for it to be enjoyed by others. This is where the pickups on an electric guitar become important. Pickups on electric guitars act as microphones, picking up string vibration and sending it through the 1/4” cable to an awaiting amplifier for amplification. There are basically two different types of pickups, piezoelectric that capture vibrations of all types of strings, and magnetic pickups which naturally only work with steel strings.
Along with a choice of fingerboard and neck, the body and pickups work together resulting in a sweet amalgam that successfully captures and transmits the melodies and rhythms from guitarists’ hands to listeners’ ears. Specially trained salespeople at fine music stores like Strait Music of Austin, Texas, are available to assist all levels of musicians in the choosing and purchasing of a fine instrument that will prove to be an extension of the musician’s very soul.
About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of electric guitars and guitar accessories to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.
A master luthier’s first mission is to find the wood for the body of the guitar. The resonance and tonal quality is different for every particular kind of wood. Ash, for example, is a very popular wood used in making electric guitar bodies. “Southern Soft” or “Swamp Ash” is found in the swamps of the Southern United States. Swamp ash trees spend their lives well hydrated by the waters they grow in, so the wood is very porous and lightweight, lending to resonance and sustain across the whole frequency spectrum of a guitar. A standard, non-exotic wood often used is alder. Alder is popular because of its lightweight and harder, thicker grains, offering long sustain, balanced tone, with a complex resonance, and good dynamic range, making alder very desirable for blues playing. As first choice body materials such as alder, ash, and mahogany become more scarce in the United States, luthiers look to other continents such as Africa and Australia, choosing woods such as bubinga and blackwood whose tonal qualities mirror those of woods found on the American continent.
What good is the resonance of an electric guitar’s body if that resonance is not transferred somehow to the listener? The purity of tone can be heard by placing one’s ear up to the body, experiencing the tonality and resonant vibration firsthand, but of course, that sound must be captured and amplified for it to be enjoyed by others. This is where the pickups on an electric guitar become important. Pickups on electric guitars act as microphones, picking up string vibration and sending it through the 1/4” cable to an awaiting amplifier for amplification. There are basically two different types of pickups, piezoelectric that capture vibrations of all types of strings, and magnetic pickups which naturally only work with steel strings.
Along with a choice of fingerboard and neck, the body and pickups work together resulting in a sweet amalgam that successfully captures and transmits the melodies and rhythms from guitarists’ hands to listeners’ ears. Specially trained salespeople at fine music stores like Strait Music of Austin, Texas, are available to assist all levels of musicians in the choosing and purchasing of a fine instrument that will prove to be an extension of the musician’s very soul.
About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of electric guitars and guitar accessories to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.
Labels: austin electric guitars, austin music stores, Austin TX guitar Stores
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