Choosing an electric guitar

When choosing an electric guitar online you will often be faced with quite a lot of information about the guitars you are looking at. I have written this article to try and help explain a few of these details in the hope that it will make your decision an easier and more confident one. I will start by briefly describing some of the more commonly used timbers. The main body of the guitar will usually be made of agathis, alder, basswood, mahogany, or more recently paulownia. Mahogany is used for a wide variety of guitars known for its dark properties as well as its light weight both of these combining to create a warm, rounded, hugely sustainable tone. Alder is used on top quality guitars and produces a brighter tone than other woods (like mahogany) and provides a resonant, well rounded tone with excellent sustain. Agathis is a good quality timber and is used for its good resonating qualities and low price of production. In the past basswood was usually used for less expensive models but due to its better resonance at mid and high frequency, and better sustain than alder it is now more commonly in use for higher quality guitars. Paulownia is a soft, light and warp resistant wood that is commonly used as a body material in high end custom guitars, it is used for its light weight, pale appearance, and its good resonance, it is highly sought after. The neck of the guitar will usually be made of mahogany, sometimes basswood, or maple. A neck made from maple would give a harder and brighter sound than one made from mahogany, and a maple fingerboard would have a brighter sound than a rosewood one. Finger boards are normally made of rosewood, maple and in some cases ebony. Rosewood is a term that refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining and usually of good quality. Ebony is a dense black wood and is used on some of the more expensive guitars. When choosing an electric guitar online you should pay attention to the pick ups, electric guitars commonly use two type of pick up, single coil and humbucker. One problem with single coil pick ups is that they pick up not just the sounds you are playing but a bit of mains hum as well. The humbucker was developed to over come this, a humbucker is basically two single coil pick ups of opposite magnetic polarity working together, the result is doubled output and a fatter, less trebly tone. Humbucker pickups can also be wired so that they are working in parallel, this produces a significantly cleaner sound but is fairly rare. When shopping for an electric guitar online information of the pick up configuration will usually be displayed like this: S-S-H , the S referring to a single coil pick up, and the H referring to a humbucker, the order of the letters from left to right is the order that the pick ups are on the guitar from the neck to the bridge. The last (and in my opinion the most important) thing you should consider when shopping for a guitar is the style – do you like the look of it?

When choosing an electric guitar online you will often be faced with quite a lot of information about the guitars you are looking at. I have written this article to try and help explain a few of these details in the hope that it will make your decision an easier and more confident one Information about the Author: If you are interested in buying an electric guitar you may want to take a look at www.kickassguitars.co.uk We now offer personalised headstocks and more guitars Miscellaneous Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

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