Plugged In: Unraveling the Mystery of Electric Guitars For A Music Motivational Monday!
As Boulderites we know, and are expected to know more about music than most. Home to Caribou Ranch, and to hundreds of world class electric guitar and bass players over the decades and centuries, we are immersed in guitar players! Complete List of Performers At Caribou Ranch
The origin of the sound of the electric guitar is a vibrating string. The electronics, plus sweat, and smiles, and voila! Jimi Hendrix meet Les Paul. Mr. Hendrix, Mr. Paul, please meet my friend Mr. Marshall!
At the top of this close up of Les Paul’s Les Paul 6 strings come down. They go across the pickups. Those are the two black horizontal bars under the strings just below the end of the neck. Pickups consist of little round magnet for each string, mounted inside a coil of wire. When a magnet moves in a wire coil, it generates electricity. When the strings vibrate, the magnets vibrate. when the magnets vibrate inside the coil, electricity matching the string vibrations comes out of the coil. And happily, into a Marshall Stack.Strings To Sound! Vibrato To Volume! The Essence Of The Electric Guitar. model: Les Paul Personal
Between the coil’s tiny signal and the amplifier are the controls on the guitar for tone, volume,pickup combinations, and anything else the imagination might desire.
The Iconic Marshall Amplifier, Best Known As A Stack Consists Of Two Speaker Cabs With four 12″ Speakers Each, Amplifier On Top
Look at the bottom of the guitar picture. Short Version: The wammy bar can be used to make the guitar sound more like a slide guitar.
There’s a device the strings run through called the Bigsby tailpiece. The “Bigsby” is connected to its handle to the right. Move the handle and the strings are pulled on or pushed on, getting lower or higher. The handle, or wammy bar controls the lowering or raising of the strings, creating a recognizable effect like a steel slide guitar.
That’s all there is to it! Now go forth and strum <G>
Shared Knowledge Is Power