Electric guitar. History of the first electric guitar Electric guitar what

Tips for choosing a good electric guitar

If you decide to become a virtuoso musician whose skill will be admired by hundreds of thousands of fans, then you cannot do without a good electronic guitar. As practice shows, most beginners experience big problems with a choice of quality tools. Today there are a huge number of different models on the market, which are very easy for even experienced musicians to get confused about. Let's try to figure out what you should pay attention to when choosing an electric guitar so that your money is not thrown away.

Electronic guitar design Electronic guitar design

At first glance it may seem that appearance the instrument has absolutely no meaning, however, this is absolutely not the case. If you are planning to perform on a professional stage in front of a large audience, then this is one of the key criteria as you need to look stylish in front of your fans. Therefore, buy an electric guitar that you like in appearance. You should want to constantly pick it up so that it doesn't needlessly gather dust in the closet.

What to look for when choosing a tool? What to look for when choosing a tool?

When buying an electric guitar, it is very important to make sure of its quality, since the prices are quite high. Therefore, when you have already decided on a specific model, carefully inspect it and make sure that the tool is not defective and does not have any defects. The case should be free of scratches, chips and visible signs of use. In addition, carefully inspect all electronic components, controls and interfaces. All toggle switches should rotate smoothly in both directions without any squeaks or backlash. If something dangles or rattles, and extraneous sounds are heard from the body, then this is a sign of a manufacturing defect: it is better not to buy such an electric guitar.

It is also very important to decide how much an electric guitar will cost. Professional-grade tools are expensive and may not be affordable for everyone. Therefore, you should not chase models from world famous brands. Realistically assess your financial capabilities and settle on what you can afford.

Buying an electric guitar in a regular store Buying an electric guitar in a regular store

Most people prefer to purchase electric guitars the old fashioned way at retail stores. However, many do not even suspect that they will actually find interesting models pretty hard. The assortment is updated very rarely, and when new electronic guitars appear on sale, they are already outdated both from a moral point of view and from a technical point of view. In addition, regular stores are forced to pay for the rental of large retail and warehouse space, as well as take on other expenses, so the cost of tools is very high.

Why is it worth buying an electric guitar in our online store? Why is it worth buying an electric guitar in our online store?

If you want to buy an electric guitar at a good price, then in Moscow you can do this in the Gitaraist online store. We work directly with manufacturers, so all new products appear on sale almost immediately after they enter the market. In addition, all products are original and are accompanied by quality certificates, so you can be completely confident that you will receive a quality product. Ordering electronic guitar in our online market, you get:

  • a large assortment;
  • one of the most low prices On the market;
  • fast delivery to any region of Russia;
  • a gift case for each instrument.

You can find out how much an electric guitar costs and place an order on the official Gitaraist website. If you need help choosing a tool, our specialists will be happy to provide you with professional advice.

Buy electric guitar It's quite difficult these days. If you decide to choose an electric guitar rather than an acoustic or bass guitar, then you need to take into account a lot of different factors.

The first thing you need to do is decide on a price range. A good electric guitar can also be found in budget options up to 15 thousand rubles. Next, you need to decide what style (or styles) you want to play: there are no universal solutions (there are only what is more suitable for a particular genre and less suitable for another), and a lot depends on the structure and components of the guitar: the wood itself, the pickups (humbucker or single coil), strings, etc. Therefore, when you decide what exactly you will play on the guitar, the range of models and/or manufacturers will also be determined. Of course, you need to choose the type of body: Stratocaster, Telecaster, wood floor, v-style and others. For beginners, the Stratocaster and other superstrats are best. If the guitar has a so-called tremolo lever, and if you need it, also pay attention to it, it should hold tightly.

Next, evaluate the sound of the selected guitar, live or in demo samples. If you are satisfied with it, proceed to purchase, and when you receive the electric guitar in your hands, be sure to check its tuning (the guitar must stay in tune), fret (number of frets), evaluate the quality of workmanship, check the neck (put the body of the guitar on your shoulder and look along neck: the neck should be straight and the strings should be at the same level).

Once you've chosen your instrument, think about accessories: an electric guitar won't make any sound on its own. To fully play the electric guitar you will need at least,

The advent of the electric guitar played a very important role big role in the history of music, because without it there are many musical styles they simply would not have arisen. And it all started small. The history of the creation of the electric guitar dates back to the 1920-30s, when it was used by numerous American blues and jazz big bands. acoustic guitar, but since she was practically inaudible, she was assigned the position of only a rhythm instrument.

In 1923, the first experiments began to be carried out in which they tried to amplify the guitar sound using electricity. Then Lloyd Lohr, a little-known engineer-inventor in those years, managed to come up with an electrostatic pickup string instruments, which recorded the vibrations of the resonator box. However, his invention was a complete failure on the market.

One of important dates The history of the creation of the electric guitar dates back to 1931, when the electromagnetic pickup was invented by Georges Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker. An electric pulse in it ran through the magnet winding, while an electric field was created and the signal was amplified from the vibrating string. As soon as their instrument appeared, it was immediately called a “frying pan.” And all because its body was all-metal, and in its shape it really was very reminiscent of a frying pan, to which a disproportionately long “handle” was attached - the neck. However, this first electric guitar turned out to be the most viable.

Numerous experimenters in the late 1930s tried to build pickups into Spanish guitars, which had a more traditional look and had hollow bodies. But this is not without troubles such as resonant feedback, distortion, and the appearance of other extraneous noise. By using a double opposing winding, capable of “quenching” an extra signal, we managed to cope with all the shortcomings.

Leo Fender founded a company that by 1950 was churning out copies of guitars called “Esquire” (translated as squire or squire), followed by “Broadcaster” and “Telecaster”. The first instrument called "Stratocaster" was released in 1954. Since that time, this model of guitar has not undergone any special changes.

Since the shape of the body did not particularly affect the sound of the guitar, the designers tried to express their fantasies as best they could. For example, the ABBA guitarist's instrument resembled a star in its shape. The dovetail guitar belongs to the Scorpions guitarist. If we talk about manufacturing companies, then perhaps the most famous of them are B.C. Rich and Gibson, the outlines of the instruments, which had a perversely extreme character. It was the Gibson designers who came up with that same “dovetail”. Some call it the "V Factor" while others call it the "Flying V".

Electric guitar– a musical instrument with a solid body and built-in pickups. The sound of the strings is converted into vibrations electric current and output to the combo amplifier.

Origin

Electric guitars appeared in the first half of the 20th century. Market production first established in the 1930s by Gibson and Rickenbacker. They were followed by Fender, Ibanez, Yamaha, etc. Active growth in production began in the second half of the twentieth century, and new technologies and design solutions began to be introduced.

  • Before purchasing, decide on the price, as well as the genre of music you prefer. The price tag starts from 5000 rubles. The average cost is 10-20 thousand rubles.
  • Remember that one instrument is not enough to play; the minimum set consists of the following elements: the instrument itself, a cable and a combo amplifier.
  • Call a knowledgeable friend to check or contact professional consultants. You can trust the Dream Guitars online store - we carry out mandatory pre-sale preparation each instrument.
  • You can cheat and do without purchasing a combo. Here's a budget life hack for beginners: connect an electric guitar to a computer - for this you will need a working sound card, computer speakers and a mini-Jack adapter.
  • We advise beginners to purchase a ready-made guitar set with all components.
  • Detailed information on selection is available in

This article will talk about how to choose the right electric guitar, what you need to know before going to a music shop and not seem like a complete “teapot” when choosing a good instrument. The task for a beginner is no less difficult than the choice that we talked about earlier.

It’s great if you finally decided to buy your first “balalaika” and before that you thought about how to choose it correctly! First of all, you need to decide how much money you want to spend, because in many stores the price range is very wide. But besides this, the following very important points need to be taken into account.

Playing style

So what are you going to play? If you prefer heavy styles of rock music, then you definitely need to choose an electric guitar with humbuckers (for example, ESP LTD M 50), if you play something more melodic, take a guitar with single coils (Fender Squier Affinity Fat Stratocaster RW). Well, if you are still undecided, you can try guitars with two humbuckers and one single-coil (Ibanez GRG170DX) or with one humbucker and two single-coils (Cort G254).

On inexpensive guitars under $250, the single-coils are mostly simple and will most likely cause fouling. This can be heard without special skill in recognizing extraneous noise if the store is not very noisy. Try playing electric guitars with different pickup combinations and choose the one that suits you best.

Guitar design

An equally significant factor when choosing an electric guitar. Many people do not pay much attention to this factor (they say, what difference does it make, the most important thing is how the guitar sounds and how you can play it). It is not right!

Just keep in mind that the more a guitar pleases the eye, the more often you want to play it and pick it up, so you don’t regret spending money and, most importantly, improve your skills. Therefore, even shape and color are important indicators and do not neglect this when you choose an electric guitar for yourself.

But you shouldn’t buy a guitar solely because of its appearance. It would be stupid, just like not really paying attention to appearance. Find something that suits you best and that will meet your aesthetic and technical needs.

Quality checking

So, we will assume that you have already decided at what price and what kind of guitar you want to buy. Ask the seller to show you several tools that fit your needs. First, inspect the electric guitar offered to you from all sides for scratches or chips.

Then turn the volume and tone controls, click the sensor switch, lightly tap the screwed elements with your finger, and inspect the cable connection socket. Ideally, everything should be installed clearly, tightly, without rattling, dangling, creaking or “scratching”. Another thing worth paying attention to is this:

  • we check for its straightness, looking at it from top to bottom, holding the guitar in the “working” position. A skewed neck in a new guitar already tells us a lot, after that it’s better to turn your attention to other instruments;
  • We check the strings for bounce, while tugging on the bass. Ideally, the strings should be as close to the fingerboard as possible to provide the least amount of finger force. But at the same time they must be high enough above it so that the strings do not touch the frets during playing and do not create unpleasant rattling;
  • checking the progress is quite simple. To do this, twist them in different directions, it’s okay if the guitar gets out of tune, but then you will make sure that there are no extraneous squeaks;
  • We look at the quality of installation on the fretboard, while extracting sounds on each fret and on each string. A normally pressed string should in no case touch the adjacent fret, much less the pickup. There should be no rattling noise at all. Try also holding each string in turn on the 1st fret and running your finger from top to bottom along the fretboard, and then from bottom to top. Your finger should move freely along the string without catching the frets.

Connecting a guitar

Having carried out all the above checks, you can immediately start playing the electric guitar by connecting it to a combo or amplifier. First, play with a clean sound, you still have time to turn on the overdrive, listen to the sound of the instrument itself with different variations of pickups.

To understand whether this particular guitar is right for you, try playing different melodies or at least sets of sounds on it and at the same time make sure how comfortable it is for you to press the strings for high-quality sound production.

Even if you have already decided to choose this particular electric guitar, then try at least one more, or better yet, several guitars for comparison.

How to choose the right electric guitar?

There are also some parameters that you should not forget about:

  1. Weight of the guitar (if the guitar is too heavy, you will get tired when playing standing for a long time; light weight means cheap).
  2. Convenience of shape (for example, the upper horn of a guitar should not fit under the ribs).
  3. Comfort of the neck (the guitar should “sit” in your hand and you will understand this when you try several instruments with different neck profiles, but this is purely individual, because everyone has their own anatomy and structure of the hand).
  4. Convenient location of the regulators (they should be located at such a distance that when active game you didn’t touch them with your hand).

As a result, you will spend at least 10 minutes checking each model of the guitars provided. Accordingly, after spending about an hour and a half in the store, you will either find your guitar or realize that it’s worth going to another store.

Related Accessories

In addition to the cost of the electric guitar itself, you will most likely need additional accessories, which will cost about $300-400. A popular list of the necessary arsenal of a guitarist:

  • combo(if it doesn’t exist yet, with a power of 10-15 W);
  • cable(preferably ready-made and at least 3 meters);
  • belt(if possible, take a wide one, it is more comfortable);
  • set of strings(it’s better to take set 10 - 46 to start with);
  • mediators(take several pieces of different thicknesses, for me best option– plastic 1.0 mm);
  • guitar stand or hanging on the wall (so that the instrument does not lie anywhere);
  • case or a case (will protect your electric guitar during transfer or transportation).

All these related accessories, in addition to the cost of the guitar itself, will additionally cost you about $300-400.

Online shopping

And in conclusion, a few words about buying a guitar “blindly” through an online store. Knowing now how to choose the right one good electric guitar, you are unlikely to want to do this, because the guitar needs to be seen, touched, listened to. And the fact that you can buy a “pig in a poke” is not even worth talking about.

From personal experience we can say that on the Internet you can find out preliminary information about a particular instrument, or even compare several, and only then come to the store musical instruments and ask the seller about the model you have chosen and then test it, so to speak, in practice.

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