How To Pick Which Type Of Electric Guitar Is Best For You
Whether you’re just starting out on guitar, or have been playing for decades,choosing a guitarto buy is a daunting choice, due to sheer numbers. There are so many guitar models out there, in every shape, made of every kind of wood, with all manner of different hardware to choose from — it’s a nice problem to have, but it can be a little overwhelming. Breaking down a guitar into its components can help you home in on the ideal guitar for you.
Of course, the first thing you have to talk about is price. Not because it’s fun, but because it determines which models you’ll be looking at more than any other of a guitar’s features. If you have a beginner budget, it does you no good to look at multi-thousand-dollar guitars, except to dream about the future. Realizing what your price ceiling is can help you get the most for your money. Now let’s talk about the guitar itself.
Body types
Without getting too much into the usual iconic guitar models, there are three major types of electric guitar:
Neck types
An electric guitar’s neck is the most critical part of the guitar from the perspective of comfort. Comfort while playing is important because a comfortable player plays longer, and thus gets better faster. There are three main types of guitar neck:
On top of the neck lies the fretboard. Your choice of fretboard wood greatly affects the brightness of your guitar’s tone. For a brighter, trebly tone, get a maple fretboard (or a maple neck with no added fretboard). For something with a little less snap to the sound, get a rosewood or ebony fretboard.
Another important aspect of your neck is coating vs no coating. Necks that are sprayed with polyurethane on the back, or painted along with the guitar’s body can be more conducive to fast playing, but there will always be purists who want to feel nothing but wood under their hands. Remember to choose your neck for comfort and playability.
Pickup types
Pickups are those squared-off quasi-microphones below the strings that make electric guitars work by converting the physical energy of vibrating strings into electricity. They are one of the most important factors in determining a guitar’s tone, and probably the most important if you have a solid-body model. There are two main types of pickup:
Single-coils have a cleaner tone and more bite. You will often see them on a country player’s Fender Telecaster for when they want that country twang in their tone. Humbuckers are pretty much made for rock, and when combined with a high-gain amplifier, produce the snarling, singing, tightly controlled sound of a good metal player. Have you ever heard Metallica? Then you’ve heard the sound of humbucking pickups.
Either type of pickup can be passive,relying on the amplifieror pre-amp to give the signal enough strength to be useful, or active, with a battery inside the guitar powering the pickups. Active pickups resist feedback better than passive pickups, and work better with high-gain amplifiers.
Bridge types
The bridge is sometimes an overlooked part of a guitar, especially by beginners. It’s sometimes only when you realize you hate the one you have that you go looking at your options. Your two main types are tremolo bridges, which allow you to apply vibrato to your sound in a way that a fretted instrument usually can’t, and fixed, or non-trem, bridges. Tremolo bars (aka whammy bars or twang bars) are used by guitarists across rock, blues, country, and big band music, mostly judiciously. These require a special tremolo bridge that allows for the strings to go back into tune accurately when the tremolo bar is released. Some of the greatest guitarists in history, such as Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and Adrian Belew, have incorporated extensive use of the tremolo bar into their respective virtuosic styles. There is even an aftermarket industry dedicated to tremolo systems for installation in non-trem guitars.
Fixed bridges have their devotees as well, though. Neither the Les Paul nor the Telecaster have tremolo, unless you install it. In fact, the Les Paul’s bridge has a name, the Tune-o-Matic bridge, which was marketed on its ability to keep the guitar in tune, in contrast to tremolo bridges, which have been known to have tuning issues.
Make sure you don’t overlook the bridge on your new guitar. Play several different types to find the one that works best for you.
Other differentiating factors
There are many parts that go into making an electric guitar. We’ve gone over the major components that make the guitar work and give each model its distinctive tone. Here are a couple of other parts that can affect your guitar’s sound and your enjoyment in playing it:
As a parting piece of advice, try as many different guitars as you can before deciding on one. Don’t let anyone in a guitar store dissuade you from trying one more model. It’s your money, and you deserve value for it, even if you’re buying your very first guitar. Best of luck!
