Skip to main content

Instruments & Voices

Electric Guitar

Definition

The electric guitar is a guitar whose magnetic pickups turn string vibrations into an electrical signal for an amplifier. It is tuned and written like the acoustic guitar and leads much rock, blues and pop.

The electric guitar uses the same six strings, tuning and fretboard as the acoustic guitar, but it does not rely on a hollow body to be heard. Pickups under the strings turn their vibration into an electrical signal, and an amplifier and speaker make it loud. That electrical step gives the instrument its huge range of sounds, from clean and glassy to heavily distorted.

How it makes its sound

A pickup is a magnet wrapped in thousands of turns of fine wire. When a steel string vibrates above it, the string disturbs the magnetic field and induces a small electrical current with the same pattern as the vibration. The signal runs through the guitar's volume and tone controls, out through a cable and into an amplifier (amp).

Most electric guitars have two or three pickups and a switch to choose between them: the pickup near the neck sounds warmer, the one near the bridge brighter. Single-coil pickups have a clear, bright sound; humbuckers use two coils wired to cancel electrical hum and sound thicker. Many electric guitars have a solid wooden body, which resists the howling feedback a hollow body can produce at high volume; hollow and semi-hollow models remain popular in jazz and blues.

Effects and amplifiers

Between the guitar and the amp, players often add effects pedals: distortion and overdrive (the gritty sound of rock), reverb and delay (space and echoes), chorus, wah and many more. The amplifier is part of the instrument too: the same guitar sounds very different through different amps.

Range and notation

The strings are tuned E2, A2, D3, G3, B3 and E4, and the music is written in treble clef an octave higher than it sounds, as for acoustic guitar. With 22 frets the highest note is D6; a 24-fret guitar reaches E6. Electric guitarists read tablature at least as often as standard notation, and TAB adds symbols for bends, slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Two panels. Left, labeled Written: a treble staff with whole notes E3 below three ledger lines and D6 above the staff with an 8 sign over it. Right, labeled Sounds: a grand staff with E2 below the bass staff and D6 above the treble staff, named underneath.
Left, as written: low E below three ledger lines under the treble staff, and the top note, the 22nd fret of string 1, printed as D6 with 8 above it (8va: an octave higher), so it means D7. Right, as it sounds, an octave lower: E2 to D6.

Its role

The electric guitar spread quickly in the mid-twentieth century and has been central to blues, rock, jazz, funk, country and pop music ever since. In a band one guitarist may play rhythm parts (riffs, power chords and chord patterns) while another plays lead lines and solos, and often one player does both.

Tips for beginners

  • The light strings on most electric guitars make chords and bends easier on the fingertips than a steel-string acoustic.
  • Practice with a clean amp sound some of the time: distortion hides mistakes that a clean tone reveals.
  • Mute the strings you are not playing, with the palm of your picking hand or the fingers of your fretting hand.
  • Keep the volume at a safe level, and use headphones for long practice sessions.

Common questions

Can you play an electric guitar without an amp?

Yes, but unplugged it is very quiet and you won't hear its real sound. For quiet practice, plug into a headphone amp, a modeling amp with a headphone jack, or an audio interface on a computer.

Is the electric guitar easier than the acoustic guitar?

In some ways. Electric guitars usually have lighter strings and a slimmer neck, so chords and bends take less finger strength. The notes, chords and tuning are the same, so skills carry over in both directions.

Practice it: free worksheets