Electric Guitar and what you need to know.

Electric Guitar Information and Pictures

This is a picture of a common electric guitar. They will have steel strings and some will be nickel plated. Sounds tough to play but you can use smaller thickness and get great results. This makes it a little easier on your fingertips.

A Nice Gibson SG Guitar

These use little magnets that act like microphones. They are called "pickups". There are 2 basic types of pickups and they have different looks and sounds.

The first is a single coil. See picture below:

Single Coil Pickup

The second is 2 single coils put together. Called a humbucker. You could also call it a dual coil but hardly anyone does. See picture below:

Humbucker Pickup

Now the single makes a sort of low volume hum when plugged in. It also sounds brighter or treblier than the humbucker. They named the humbucker that because it doesn't hum. It also has a more smoother sound.

1) The thing to decide when you go to buy a guitar is which pickup will give you the sound you want.

Here's a list of who uses what generally. Remember, now that you know what the different pickups look like, you can usually tell which kind your favorite player uses by looking at pictures of them with their guitars.

Players who use single coil most often include: Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards (Rolling Stones), Stevie Ray Vaughn, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), just to give you a starting point.

Players who use humbuckers most often include: Slash, Billie Joe (Green Day), Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath).

You can even have a guitar with both single and humbucker. See below:

Single Coil and Humbucker on Electric Guitar

2) The next thing to consider is the SHAPE. Remember, most practice will be done sitting down. SHAPE is important! It's hard to practice with a Flying V while sitting. Yes, it is a cool looking electric guitar, but make sure you can handle it.

Unusual Gibson Flying V

3) One other thing to think about is the Bridge. The part where the strings are held down by your picking hand. There are fixed bridges. I highly recommend these for people who don't want to be changing strings a lot. No moving parts to create friction. See below for fixed bridge:

Blue Gibson Bridge and Tail Piece

The other type is called a WHAMMY BAR. Oh they are fun, but this type can make you go out of tune if you get to happy with it. Also, strings will break. FACT: Beginners with whammy bars can become discouraged by not having extra sets of strings around, or just from having to change them so fast. More then once I've put on a new set only to have a string break after 10 minutes. Just because someone got "a little too excited with the WHAMMY BAR." See Below:

Strat Whammy Bar

Here's a picture of one that helps you stay in tune better. Only problem I have with them is trying to tune them in the first place. I don't think I'm the only one. These take a bit longer to change strings on. It's kind of a trade off. See Below:

Rare Floyd Rose on a Jackson RR

So we have 3 things to decide about electric guitar.

1) What sound do you want? Single or Humbucker? Or should I say who do you want to sound like?

2) Shape.

3) To Whammy or not to whammy? Fixed bridge or whammy.

Last but not least, pick a color you can live with. You could also cover the whole thing in stickers. I wouldn't if your electric guitar cost more than $150.

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