Acoustic or Electric Guitar?

Customers often ask what is the difference between an acoustic and electric guitar, before making their purchase. Our guide is here to help to answer any questions. Each guitar has many variations, with there being three different types to choose from you should know what sets them apart from one another.

So, what do they have in common?

The most obvious one is that they are stringed instruments, and in most cases, they are made up of 6 strings of metal.  In order to create a sound, these strings are plucked individually to make a melody or strummed together to make a chord. In order to change the pitch of each of these strings, the fingers, on the other hand, must be placed behind the metal strips known as frets and pressed down onto the string. To make sure the guitar stays in tune, each string has a machine head or tuning peg to fine-tune the pitch on the string. These act by tightening the tension on the string to tune the pitch higher, or slackening the tension to pitch the string lower. So essentially, the way you produce sound is almost the same.

But what makes them different?

Now we will look at some of the differences between electric and acoustic guitars. Acoustic guitars have a larger body than electrics but are hollow inside. This body is made up of a back, sides and a top or soundboard which has a hole in the middle. When the strings on an acoustic guitar are plucked and strummed, the tiny sound vibrations resonate through the top or soundboard. These vibrations then jump and bounce around inside the body of the guitar and are then amplified much louder as they come back out of the hole. This means that an acoustic guitar can be played more or less anywhere and still be heard clearly when played.

On an electric guitar, the body is very different from an acoustic as instead of being made of different pieces, it is one solid piece of wood which also smaller than an acoustic guitar’s body. Whilst noise can be heard when played like an acoustic, it isn’t very loud and is practically inaudible from the other side of a room. In order to be heard, an electric guitar normally has two or three pickups attached to the body underneath the strings. A pickup is made of 6 magnets wrapped in thin copper wire which “picks up” the vibrations from the metal strings once they are struck because they are in the pickups magnetic field, hence their name. This is the turned into an electrical signal which using a lead, this electrical signal is sent to an amplifier which processes the signal and sends it to a speaker, making the sound louder or amplifying it.

Additional differences

Whilst both types of the guitar have a body, neck and 6 strings, there are further differences still with these. To help an acoustic sound louder, they usually have thicker strings than an electric guitar which increases its volume using the amp. Because of this, acoustic guitars are generally viewed as harder for an absolute beginner to learn on than an electric, because more finger strength is needed to press the strings down on an acoustic. Also, because the strings are thinner on an electric, the neck and body are too. This also means that an electric guitar is easier for a child to start learning on than an acoustic. However, the extra knobs and switches on an electric guitar as well as the amplifier it needs can make learning more complicated and daunting to an absolute beginner when compared to an electric.

If you need more help making your important decision, get in touch with us and we will be happy to help! Or visit one of our stores, local to you and our friendly help will be on hand to offer expert advice.