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Buying Your First Electric Guitar

When I was a young teen and bought my first electric guitar, I felt as though I had just won the lottery. I couldn’t wait to get home from school, plug it in and strum that same E chord over and over. As years went by, I found myself with more guitars and more chords to master.

First of all, electric guitars come in many shapes and sizes. Some are not shaped like traditional guitars at all. Electric guitars use pickups that act like microphones under the strings. The sound is then transferred through the internal wiring and then out to a cable plugged into an amplifier. The sound and tone of the electric guitar is dependant on several things. These can be the wood, the pickups, the hardware and the amp.

1. The Wood: Most solid bodied electric guitars are made with a hardwood of some sort. Many are made from alder and have a maple neck. The neck can also have a fingerboard made from a layer of rosewood. The more wood used in the guitar, results in more natural sustain. This means the notes will hold their vibration longer.

2. The Pickups: The pickups can be single coil, humbuckers or stacked humbuckers. Single coil pickups produce a strong clear tone with bright trebles and a strong low end. The downside is that these pickups can also pick up tones from lights and other electronic devices that can create a hum at about 60Hz. This is especially noticeable when using distortion. Humbuckers are less clear than single coil pickups however many rock musicians prefer this type of pickup due to the hum canceling effect and the warm tone. Stacked Humbuckers give you the best of both worlds with a bright clear sound and the hum canceling effect. They typically have a slightly lower output because of how they are wired.

 Humbucker

 Humbucker

 Stacked

 Single Coil

3. The Hardware: The hardware includes the parts of the guitar that help make it work. This includes the machine heads, (for tuning) the volume and tone knobs, the bridge, the toggle switch and the overall wiring. The toggle is used to switch between pickups to achieve different tones. The pickup closest to the neck will sound warmer than the bright sounding pickup closer to the bridge.

4. The Bridge: If you are a beginner, I would recommend staying away from a locking nut and tremolo system. It takes considerable time to set up and change a broken string.

The important thing to remember is you need an instrument that feels comfortable in your hands. Plug the guitar into an amp and listen to the differences between pickups. Remember, the guitar itself does not produce distortion. The amp or an effect pedal will create this common rock tone. Make sure the guitar will stay in tune. Check the intonation with an electronic tuner. The note played at the 12th fret should be the same as the string played open. Intonation is not difficult to set up for a person who knows about guitars. If you change the string gauge on an electric, you have to correct the intonation.

Electric guitars are easier to play than acoustic guitar because they typically use a lower gauge string.

by Ken Mason