The electric guitar is perhaps the most famous and recognized instrument in the world. Since its first prototypes in the 1930s, the electric guitar has achieved immense success, not only for its innovation but also for its style and design.
From Woodstock onwards, thanks to some of the greatest musicians in history, it has become the absolute icon of rock music.

From an organological perspective, the electric guitar belongs to the chordophone family, which includes instruments that produce sound through the vibration of one or more strings. Although electronics are an integral component of this instrument, it is not considered an electrophone since the sound is not generated electrically. What do we mean when we say that the electronic component is not auxiliary? It means that it is an intrinsic part of the electric guitar, playing an essential role in sound production. Specifically, what we hear when someone plays an electric guitar is not the acoustic sound but the electromagnetic field generated by the vibrating strings, which is converted into an electrical signal and then amplified.

The neck and the headstock

The electric guitar consists of the following components: First, there is the headstock, also known as the peghead, which houses the tuning pegs or machine heads, essential for tuning the instrument by adjusting the string tension. Some guitars lack a headstock and instead use bridge-based tuning systems, though these are more unconventional and deviate from standard models.

Next is the neck, which holds the fingerboard, where players press one or more strings against specific frets to play different notes. There are also guitars without frets.
Following the neck is the body or soundboard. Depending on the presence and role of tone chambers, there are three main types: solid body, semi-hollow, and hollow-body guitars.

The body

The most common and widespread are solid body guitars, named because they lack a resonating chamber, featuring a solid wooden body.
On the other hand, hollow-body or semi-acoustic guitars feature a partially or entirely hollow body with one or two traditional resonance holes on either side of the strings, similar to violins.
The semi-hollow design seeks a compromise between semi-acoustic and solid body guitars. These guitars have a thinner body with two smaller chambers on either side, while the central part remains solid, as in solid-body guitars. Due to this unique structure, they often consist of two or three pieces glued together.

The bridge

Continuing with the guitar’s physical description, after the body comes the bridge, a critical component that anchors and supports the strings, allowing them to vibrate and produce sound. Bridges on electric guitars can be fixed or tremolo, the latter allowing players to temporarily alter string tension using a mechanical lever, creating a vibrato effect.

The Pickups

Finally, the guitar is equipped with one or more magnetic pickups, typically either single-coil or humbucker. Some guitars even feature both types of pickups.

Magnetic pickups are essential to the function of an electric guitar: while the vibrations of the strings excite the soundboard in an acoustic guitar, in an electric guitar, it’s the pickups that create a magnetic field near the strings. The oscillations of this field induce a flux variation through the coils—single or double—around the pickup. This generates an induced current within these coils. The resulting electrical signal contains the characteristics of the string’s vibration in terms of frequency and amplitude but is too weak to be heard through ordinary speakers. It is then sent to an amplifier, and only after amplification is it transformed into an audible sound by speakers. When referring to an amplifier transmitting the amplified electrical signal to a speaker, it doesn’t necessarily imply two separate devices but rather two phases in the sound processing.

In common usage, a single device handling both these functions is simply called the amplifier. Many amplifiers also allow users to alter the electrical signal with various effects, thus modifying the resulting sound.
Given this functionality, an electric guitar does not require a resonating chamber. Some models include one, but as mentioned, it is not essential to its operation.

Materials and woods

The choice of materials and woods is crucial in electric guitar manufacturing, whether for the body, fingerboard, or neck. High-quality, knot-free wood enhances the instrument’s overall quality. For modern electric guitars, the three most commonly used woods for fingerboards are rosewood, ebony, and maple, while alder and mahogany are typically preferred for the body. Mahogany is also often used for the neck. Research and innovation are also exploring new materials, such as plexiglass.
Equally important are additional technical components, including the bridge, locking nuts, tremolo systems, and magnetic pickups.

Two other significant factors are balance, which refers to the instrument’s comfort when “worn” by the guitarist, and the finish. Style, aesthetics, and design are major pillars of the electric guitar’s commercial and popular success. One of the most iconic finishes is the sunburst, characterized by a vibrant outer edge that gradually fades towards the center. This visually striking finish is more expensive than standard single-color finishes.