The Best Electric Guitars

The electric guitar is the workhorse of rock music, but it is used in other genres such as blues, jazz and pop music. While an acoustic guitar can be played without an additional amplifier, electric guitars require one to be adequately heard. Some electric guitars are archtops, meaning that they have hollow bodies, making them have some acoustic resonance (see below). However, no electric guitar is comparable to an acoustic guitar, and electric guitars are never played unamplified in performances. Amplified electric guitars sound very different from an acoustic guitar, even when no effects or distortion are used, and the pickups and amplifier define change in the guitar's sound.

Electric guitars are not limited to the acoustical qualities of the acoustic guitar shape, and thus can be more comfortable to play. The multitude of variations amongst electric guitars allow them to have a vast variety of tones. The two most popular basic shapes of electric guitar are the Fender Stratocaster style and the Gibson Les Paul style. Typically the strings are thinner than on an acoustic, because the strings do not need to resonate as much. They are also closer to the neck, requiring less force to press them down.

Obviously, the amplifier itself also makes up the sound; in fact, it is actually a better idea to consider the amplifier as the second half of the guitar. See the buying an amplifier section for details.

There are also seven stringed electric guitars, which have another thicker B string above the thickest E string. These are most commonly used in metal.