For all things electric – the ultimate guide to electric guitars
You can get a new electric guitar for a hundred quid and one for more than ten grand – all have a place in the world of guitars.
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Here, we highlight everything you need to know about electric guitars – whether you are a beginner or an experienced player – to help you make an informed choice about Your Next Guitar.
Like you, we could spend all day messing about with guitars and stuff to find ‘that tone’. We are not experts, but we are passionate about guitars, making music and having fun!
As with everything, jargon in the guitar world can be very confusing, particularly when you are just learning to play, so we will try and demystify it for you and help you on your journey.
Today’s choice of electric guitars is immense – we have over 130 electric guitar makers profiled on our site with more to add – and the main makers keep expanding their offerings, but we are also blessed with the little guys who custom make some fantastic guitars one at a time.
The History of the Electric Guitar
Whilst the guitar has been around since the 16th century, the electric guitar is a relative teenager having first made an impact in the 1930s. With a need for more volume in band setting, makers and innovators had to come up with a way to amplify the sound: the valve amplifier came along around this time and that ultimately led to the electric guitar.
The first electric guitar is reckoned to be the Rickenbacker ‘Frying Pan’ in 1932, with Gibson releasing their first electric in 1936.
Electric guitars are primarily an American innovation and creation, with Fender, and Gibson leading the way, which is probably why we all lust after US made guitars!
The first electric guitars were hollow bodied arch tops with a pickup fitted and it was not until the 1950s that solid body electrics came along:
- 1946 Gibson ES150
- 1949 Gibson ES175, Gretsch Electromatic
- 1950 Fender Telecaster
- 1952 Gibson Les Paul
- 1954 Fender Stratocaster
- 1958 Gibson SG, Fender Jazzmaster, Gibson ES 355, Rickenbacker Semi
- 1964 Fender Mustang
Today, the electric guitar is firmly established in the music world and your choice is immense. Check out the 130 plus makers we have profile pages on.
What is an Electric Guitar
And is it different to an acoustic guitar?
Electric guitars differ from acoustics in that they are designed differently and have pickups that transfer the vibration of the strings into an electrical signal that goes to an amplifier to produce the sound that you hear.
They don’t usually have round sound holes like acoustics and will be significantly heavier as many are made from solid wood or laminates.
If you strum an electric guitar the sound is very quiet compared to an acoustic, which are ‘sound boxes’ designed to project the sound of the strings. On an electric guitar the pickups do all the work!
You can change and enhance the tone of your guitar using features on your amplifier or by using guitar effects pedals:
How to choose an effects pedal
Effects Pedals you need on your Board
Pickups
There are essentially three types of pickup:
- Single coil
- P90
- Humbucker
Much innovation has taken place in pickup design over the last fifty years and variants of these are available to match the ‘tone’ you are seeking.
Some players prefer single coil pickups, some P90’s and some humbuckers, tending to stick with one type!
Guitars that feature single coils include the Telecaster and Stratocaster (Fender is mainly associated with single coil pickups); the Les Paul features humbuckers and P90’s (Gibson is mainly associated with humbuckers and P90’s).
Different genres of music are associated with certain guitars and pickups; as a general rule humbuckers produce a thicker, heavier sound (think rock, heavy metal) than single coils, with P90’s somewhere in between.
Whatever pickups you have in your guitar if you are not happy with the tone you can easily change them. See our guide on Aftermarket Pickups.
Top Ten Guitar Companies
As you might expect the list of the top electric makers also includes three of the oldest companies around – Gibson, Fender and Gretsch.
For more detailed information on each read our guide to the Top Ten Guitar Companies
Some of the oldest guitar companies are still around today; these are mainly American, Japanese and Spanish – no surprise there! Read our guide to the Top 10 Oldest Guitar Companies
The UK also makes some great electric guitars and we are blessed with some truly innovative companies. Best of British
Types of Electric Guitar
Whilst you can get 6, 7, 8 and 12 string guitars, in terms of body shape there are five main designs – all being iconic.
- T Style – based on the Fender Telecaster
- S Style – based on the Fender Stratocaster
- Offset – Based on the Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster
- Single Cut – based on the Gibson Les Paul
- Double Cut – based on the Gibson SG and ES355
It will come as no surprise that the iconic Fender and Gibson designs have been copied many times over the years and most makers will offer a T style, S style, LP style and double cut guitar design. Some of these have become iconic in their own right!
Solid vs Semi vs Hollow
Within this we have solid body electrics (as the name suggests made from solid wood), semi-hollow (these have air inside and a solid centre block or side) and hollow (these are empty like an acoustic).
Each has its followers and dedicated users and each may be associated with certain genres of music, depending on your preference for tone!
Hollow bodies are known to feedback more when amplified, although they have been used successfully for heavy rock by bands such as AC/DC!
Fender guitars are usually solid bodies; Gibson guitars feature solid, semi (the ES355 is a famous example) and hollow (the ES175 is a famous example). Gretsch guitars are mainly hollow and semi, Rickenbacker are mainly semi.
You pays your money and makes your choice…
Guitar Heroes
So what do the guitar heroes play?
Well most famous guitarists are associated with one style of guitar, be that a Les Paul, Strat or Tele…
- Jeff Beck – Fender Stratocaster
- Eric Clapton – Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster
- David Gilmour – Fender Stratocaster
- Jimi Hendrix – Fender Stratocaster
- Jimmy Page – Gibson Les Paul and Fender Telecaster
- Joe Satriani – Ibanez
- Steve Vai – Ibanez
- Keith Richards – Fender Telecaster
- Carlos Santana – PRS
- Billy Gibbons – Gibson Les Paul
- Tony Iommi – Gibson SG
- Slash – Gibson Les Paul
- Graham Coxon – Fender Telecaster
- Kurt Cobain – Fender Mustang
Iconic Guitars
Over the years certain guitars have reached iconic status such as the Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 360/12.
Read our guide to the Ten most iconic guitars
And some guitars will be seen as forever cool; think Fiesta Red Stratocaster, Orange Gretsch and Blue Danelectro.
We have profiled the top Cool Guitars
How to choose an electric guitar
Whether you are a beginner, a seasoned amateur, professional player or a collector there is a guitar (or guitars) out there for you from a hundred quid to a million quid!
Read our guide on how to choose a beginner guitar
Generally guitars come in three main price brackets:
- Budget – up to £500
- Mid price – £500 to £1500
- High end – £1500 to infinity
We can also add in Signature guitars which are a copy of, or one designed for or by your favourite artist; and Custom guitars where you can specify what woods, pickups, finishes, colours and add-ons you want, making the guitar totally unique to you.
If you are left-handed, you can get these too, although not all guitars come in lefty versions. Who makes lefty guitars?
You can buy new or second hand (pre-loved): see our guide to buying second hand