Electric guitar
Guitar whose string vibrations pickups convert into electrical signals for an amplifier.
What it means
The electric guitar is a guitar whose string vibrations are converted by one or more pickups into electrical signals, which are then carried by cable or wirelessly to an amplifier that makes them audible. Since its body is usually solid or only partly hollow, it produces only a very quiet, barely projecting sound without amplification.
Musical use
The electric guitar developed from the 1930s onward and became, at the latest with the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s, one of the defining instruments of popular music. Through amplifiers, effects units such as distortion, reverb, or chorus, and various playing techniques, its tone can be shaped across a range far removed from the acoustic guitar.
The electric guitar should be distinguished from the acoustic guitar, whose hollow resonating body radiates sound without electrical aids, and from the electric bass, which is also electrically amplified but tuned lower and usually has four rather than six strings.
Performance practice
On electric guitar, first practise clean fretting and picking technique regardless of the amount of amplification, since distortion and effects tend to magnify technical imprecision rather than hide it. Experiment deliberately with different picking positions between the bridge and the neck, since this noticeably changes the tone.