Different types of electric guitar

Electric Guitars: Essential Elements For Different Types of Music Genres

A Normal Strat

1.      One of the greatest assets to pop music is the modern electric guitar. It was invented just 80 years ago by Adolph Rickenbacker. It instantly surpassed the popularity of acoustic and classical guitars. Electric guitar acts on the principle of converting the vibration of the strings into electric current, which is then fed into the amplifier to produce the sound. Since its invention in 1930s, it became a necessity to jazz musicians as they needed to amplify their sound. It can display a multitude of sounds and styles. For its uniqueness, it served as a key component in the growth of rock n’ roll music, and also contributed to other types of music genres.

There are different types of electric guitar. ‘Solid body’ is one of the types of it. Like acoustic guitars, these guitars have no vibrating soundboard to amplify string vibrations. They rather use electric pickups, amplifier, and speaker for that purpose. This type of guitar was invented by Les Paul in 1941. Now the ‘Les Paul’ guitars we have are, of course, changed a lot from the original design. Les Paul’s invention was presented before the world by Gibson in 1950s which was known as ‘Gibson Les Paul’.

A Les Paul

 It was an instant hit and remained the most popular guitar for almost fifty years. Another inventor Leo Fender introduced his own designed solid body guitar which came into the market in 1954. The name of his guitar was ‘Stratocaster’ which also became very popular and came second to ‘Gibson Les Paul’ in popularity. A hollow bodied guitar with electronic pickups mounted on the body known as ‘semi-acoustic’ is another type of electric guitars. They are made from thin sheets of wood. They are not compatible for live performances but can be used ‘unplugged’ for practices. Blues, funk, indie rock, sixties pop, are some of the music genres that make use of acoustic guitars. ‘Full hollowbody guitars’ with their large, deep bodies made of sheets of wood, are another type of electric guitar which were considered as the classic ‘jazz guitars’. This instrument came into the surface during the ‘jazz age’ of 1920s and 1930s. 

These types of electric guitars are noted for their warm and rich tones.

Apart from these types, there are different types of electric guitar based on differences of string, bridge, and neck. There are one-string, four-string, seven-string, eight and nine string, ten-string, and twelve-string guitars. The inclusion of twelve-string electric guitars in the rock n’ roll music genre was done by The Beatles. The use of electric guitars is seen in popular music, and jazz and jazz fusion. In pop and rock music genres, electric guitar is used as a rhythm guitar and a lead guitar. In jazz music it is used as rhythm guitar.

Different types of electric guitar are used in different types of music genres for serving different types of functions. Electric guitars are one of the most popular music instruments of the world. They have made their way into many music styles.  It is the workhorse of rock music and also extensively used in Blues, Jazz, and Pop music. They are, indeed, an essential element of Rock, Metal, Pop, Country, and Blues, and have prominent roles in many other styles from Jazz to Hip-Hop.