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| Electric Guitar Amps (guitar lessons & info) | ||
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 Electric Guitar Amps Electric guitars do not produce any audible sounds, they have electro-magnetic "Pickups" that convert the vibration of the strings into an electrical signal. The electric guitar is plugged into an Amplifier (Amp), which produces sounds from the vibration signal it receives. All electric guitars require an amp or other electric amplification device. Acoustic-electric guitars, however, do make audible sounds - as they are essentially acoustic guitars with a built in pickup microphone. You can plug an acoustic-electric guitar to an amp to increase the volume, or to use guitar effects with it. Guitar amps are rated in Watts, which is the amount of power they draw. The amount of power is directly proportional to the volume level a guitar amp is capable of; the higher the wattage, the louder the amp. For home use a 10 or 20 Watt amp should be sufficient. Concert halls use multiple 1000+ Watt amps, but they are huge spaces. Guitar amps have a speaker in the casing; and amps with higher power ratings have larger speakers, which increases the overall size of the amp case. you (or anyone else) may have noticed huge stacks of speakers behind your favorite rock guitarist (see picture above). 
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 Several types of guitar amps are available today, and come with many features and effects built-in. Volume and tone controls, of course, are standard - that is how you control the amount and tone of sound. The Reverb effect is available in many guitar amps, this simple and elegant effect provides a warmth to guitar music , and can we live without music? . Another effect that is commonly available in guitar amps is the Distortion effect. Using Pre and Post Gain controls, guitarists can alter the sound of their guitar - from a flat "thunk" to a screeching "wail". If you are lucky enough to have a spouse that also plays guitar, some amps have Dual input jacks - so both of you can play together. For the opposite case, where the spouse keeps yelling at you to TURN THAT DARN THING DOWN, some amps have a Headphone jack - so you can plug in and tune out. Can you dig it? I knew that you could. And for those play-along guitarists, some amps have a CD Input jack - so you can plug your CD player in and play along with your favorite music. Guitar Effects<<<Previous Next>>>Guitar Care
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The original guitar amps (and all electronic devices of that day) used Vacuum Tubes, which were the precursors to our modern day miniature transistor. Vacuum tubes were delicate (they were made of glass) and prone to overheating. Today, most guitar amps are "solid state" - using transistors and other silicon chip technology that is sturdy and uses less power. However, the sound quality from a tube amp is far superior to modern solid state amps - so tube amps are still available. Today's tube amps tend to be more expensive, and cost more to maintain (in replacing burnt out vacuum tubes) - they are usually the choice of professional musicians. For home and hobby use, cheaper solid state guitar amps are just fine. 
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| Parts of an Electric Guitar (guitar lessons & info) | ||
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Electric Guitar Parts Here is a picture of a typical electric guitar with its parts marked. Click the menu on the left side if you want to jump to the Acoustic Guitar Parts or to selecting an Acoustic or Electric Guitar. Scroll down for detailed information on the electric guitars parts. 
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The length of the Neck depends on the scale of the guitar and the number of frets it has. The back of the neck could be "C" shaped, or "V" shaped (sideways < if you compare it to the letter C). The front of the neck is the Fingerboard or Fretboard, that (or this, or whatever) contains the Frets embedded in notches along its surface. The Strings run down the neck over the frets. The height of the strings over the frets is called the Action; if the action is too high the strings are harder to press down, if the action is too low the strings may rattle against the frets muffling the notes. The neck usually has "dot" markers on the top and the side facing the player, showing the position of the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th (which has two dots), 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 24th (which also has two dots) fret. Note that not all electric guitars have 24 frets. Those guitars that do have 24 frets will have smaller spacing between all the other frets, which is may make things a little difficult for large hands and fingers.
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 There are three main sections zoomed in the picture; the Headstock, the Neck, and the Body. The headstock holds the Tuner Posts around which the strings are wrapped and terminated. The Tuners are knobs that increase or decrease the tension on the string wrapped around the tuner posts (tuning the sound made by the strings). Note that some electric guitars may have different looking tuners, and some may even have three tuner keys on opposite sides. Even though they may look different, they work in the same manner. The Nut guides the strings to the tuner posts and maintains the height of the strings.
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The body of the electric guitar has one, two or three Pickups under the strings. These electro-magnetic coils "pickup" the vibration from the strings and send it to the amp. There are two varieties of pickups, single-coil and humbucker (dual-coil), and electric guitars have different combinations of these pickups in the three possible positions - closest to the neck, in the middle, and furthest from the neck. A Pickup Selector Switch allows you to choose which pickup will be active, some models even allow you to select combinations of pickups for unique sounds. The strings terminate in the Bridge, some versions also have a Whammy Bar to create Tremolo effects (by rapidly pushing the bar in and out, changing the angle of the bridge). Volume and Tone control knobs are also present on the body, allowing you to make minor changes to your guitars sound without having to fiddle with the amp. A Cable Connector allows you to connect a cable from your electric guitar to your amplifier or effects pedal. Acoustic Guitar Parts<<<Previous Next>>>Acoustic or Electric Guitar
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Additional pages about Electric Guitar Amps
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