How Do Guitar Amplifiers Work

Guitar amplifiers amplify the sound fed into it from the guitar and drive the guitar loudspeaker. The sound waves generated by the guitar strings are converted into minute electrical signal with the help of the guitar pick up and then fed into the guitar amplifier (or simply guitar amp). Depending on whether or not the input of the guitar amp can work with the minute signal coming from the guitar, the guitarist may need to feed the guitar signal first into a pre-amplifier and then take the output from the pre-amplifier to feed the guitar amp.

The working of a guitar amp typically has four stages – input, signal modulation, signal amplification and then finally the output stage.

Input Stage

The input stage of the guitar amp accepts the input signal either from the guitar pre-amp or directly from the guitar itself. Normally, there are input female jacks installed onto the amplifier where you attach the input signal cable. If the guitar signal is too weak to be fed into the guitar amp, the signal should first pass through a guitar pre-amp. It is very important that there is proper impedance matching between the available input signal impedance and specified guitar amplifier’s input signal impedance. More often than not, signal impedance mismatch is the cause of deterioration of the final guitar sound on the loudspeaker.

Nowadays, there are many guitar amps, which have a pre-amplification stage incorporated into them. For such amps, you do not need to pass the guitar signal into a separate pre-amp. You can directly feed the signal into the amp itself.

Signal Modulation Stage

Plain in and plain out is not exactly the way normal electric guitarist likes it. He wants the guitar sound to be jazzed up, twangy, funky, heavily distorted etc. etc. For such sounds, the input signal has to under go modulation before they can be amplified. Say suppose the guitarist wants a heavy distortion akin to heavy metal rock sound. To get this type of sound, the input signal is fed into the signal modulation stage where the signal undergoes the required (but controlled) distortion. The same applies to other sound effects like wah-wah sound, reverb etc. Many guitar amps have equalizers and other tone control knobs, which also come under the signal modulation stage.

Signal Amplification Stage

The signal amplification stage is the ‘business’ stage of any guitar amp. It is here where the guitar sound is actually amplified. Good guitar amps will faithfully magnify the signal coming from the Signal Modulation Stage, i.e. the incoming signal will be the exact replica of this stage’s outgoing signal, only that it will be of much greater amplitude. It is the ‘business’ of any amplifier (be it voice or guitar amp) to faithfully amplify the incoming signal.

Output Stage

This is the final stage of all guitar amps. Some guitar amps have the output driver stage as a part of the output stage, while some of them do not. In some cheap guitar amps, the outgoing signal from the signal amplification stage is directly fed into the loudspeaker. However, good guitar amps have proper signal conditioning output stage where it is ensured that output signal is properly matched to the input specifications of the loudspeaker.

Every good guitarist should have good knowledge about guitar amps. Getting a good guitar amp is very important if you wish to have a reliable and predictable output musical sound whilst playing your guitar.

For more information and reviews on guitars, guitar amplifiers and equipment visit GuitarHeadz.com, the complete guide for anything you want to know about guitars and related gear.

An Inroduction to the Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic guitar usually involve the following musical instruments:

Nylon and gut stringed guitars: • Renaissance guitar • Romantic guitar • Classical guitar

Steel stringed guitars: • Twelve string guitar • Steel-string acoustic guitar • Archtop guitar • Battente guitar

Acoustic bass guitar Russian guitar

Other instruments: • Harp guitar • Banjo guitar • Guitar lute

Guitar can be divided into two categories, acoustic and electric

An acoustic guitar is not dependant on any external device for amplification. The shape and resonance itself has the ability to create acoustic amplification. Today there are many acoustic guitars available with built-in electronics and power to enable amplification.

Acoustic electric guitars

Some steel-string acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups as an alternative to using a different microphone. These are called electric acoustic guitars and are regarded as acoustic guitar rather then electric guitars. It should not be confused with hollow body electric guitars, which are more of electric guitars fitted with hollow sound chambers.

Free acoustic guitar lessons

There several free acoustic guitar lessons available online for beginners. The free guitar lessons are designed for guitarists of all playing abilities.

Acoustic guitar magazine

The acoustic guitar magazine is for acoustic guitar players, from beginners to performing as a professional. The magazine usually contains free acoustic and electric guitar lessons, tutorials and videos for both beginner and professional. Some of the great magazine includes Flatpicking guitar magazine and Acoustic guitar.

Vintage acoustic guitars

Veteran musicians know firsthand that vintage acoustic guitars simply sound and feel better than their contemporary counterparts.

Vintage acoustic guitar body shape:

Steel-stringed vintage acoustic guitars come in two general body shapes.

Flattop vintage acoustic guitars - As the name suggests, flattop vintage acoustic guitars feature a flattop body. If you play blues, folk, bluegrass, or rock, flattops, which were pioneered by Martin, will suit you best.

Archtop vintage acoustic guitars - In contrast, archtop vintage acoustic guitars have a curved top and a hollow body. If you’re a jazz or country player, then look for archtops, which were invented by Gibson. (The most sought-after Gibson archtops are the larger models dating from the early 1930s to 1959.)

Acoustic guitar notes

A musical note is a tone. However, a musical-note tone comes from a small collection of tones that are pleasing to the human brain when used together. For example, you might pick a set of tones at the following frequencies:

• 264 Hz • 297 Hz • 330 Hz • 352 Hz

Acoustic guitar reviews

Yamaha LLX-500C Acoustic/Electric Guitar

Price ranges from $2,399 or higher.

The Yamaha LLX-500C is hand built in Yamaha’s Japan factory. Features include a solid spruce top, mahogany neck, and solid rosewood back and sides. The headstock and neck of the guitar are attractive trim in ivoroid binding, and the Yamaha name on the headstock just look great. Unlike many acoustic electric, the Yamaha LLX-500C sides are solid instead of laminated. Guild F50R Jumbo Acoustic Guitar

Price ranges from $2,499 or higher.

The F50R is based on the original F50 specification from 1960s to 1980s. The Guild F50R features an ebony fretboard and a rosewood bridge. Neck dimensions include a 25.6-inch scale and a slightly narrower-than-normal width of 1.69 inches. The F50R does not lack for fine details - the fret board has eye-catching abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays and two racing stripes that run from nut to sound-hole.

Acoustic Guitar Tabs

Tablature is a form of musical notation, which tells players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument rather than which pitches to play. Tablature is mostly seen for fretted stringed instruments, in which context it is usually called tab for short. It is frequently used for the guitar, bass and lute. But in principle it can be used for any fretted instrument includes banjo and viola da gamba.

Acoustic Guitar Strings

Guitar strings are strung parallel to the neck, whose surface is covered by the fingerboard. By depressing a string against the fingerboard, the effective length of the string can be changed, which in turn changes the frequency at which the string will vibrate when plucked. Guitarists typically use one hand to pluck the strings and the other to depress the strings against the fretboard.

The strings may be plucked using either fingers or a plectrum. The sound of guitar is either mechanically or electronically, forming two category of guitar: acoustic or electric.

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An Inroduction to the Electric Guitar

Electric Guitar

Electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses electronic pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cord strings into electrical current. The signal may be electrically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier, which produces the final sound which can be either an electrical sound or an acoustic sound. Distortion, equalization, or other pedals can change the sound that is emitted from the amplifier.

The electric guitar is used extensively in many popular styles of music, including almost all genres of rock and roll, country music, pop music and also in some classic music.

Custom electric guitars

Onyx Forge custom electric guitars based in California, USA is the one stop for all the custom electric guitars. Their ideal custom guitar includes 6, 7 and 12 string standards guitars. Also specializes in exotic woods and custom switching for active, passive or piezo pickups.

Acoustic electric guitars

Some steel-string acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups purely as an alternative to using a separate microphone. These are called electric acoustic guitars, and are regarded as acoustic guitars rather than electric guitars. These should not be confused with hollo body electric guitars, which are more of electric guitars fitted with hollow sound chambers.

History of the electric guitar

Adolph Rickenbacker invented the electric guitar.

Electric guitars were originally designed by an assortment of luthias, electronics enthusiasts, and instrument manufacturers, in varying combinations. In 1935, a Soviet scientist working separately from his western colleagues was known to have produced an electric Russian guitar called Kuznetsov electromagnetic guitar.

The first recording of an electric guitar was by jazz guitarist Beddie Durham in 1937.

Electric guitar strings

Guitar strings are strung parallel to the neck, whose surface is covered by the fingerboard. By depressing a string against the fingerboard, the effective length of the string can be changed, which in turn changes the frequency at which the string will vibrate when plucked. Guitarists typically use one hand to pluck the strings and the other to depress the strings against the fretboard. Traditionally, the dominant hand is assigned the task of plucking or strumming the strings.

In electric guitars, transducers known as pickups convert string vibration to an electronic signal, which in turn is amplified and fed to speakers, which vibrate the air to produce the sound we hear.

Electric guitar cases

Case is where the guitar is kept to protect the guitar as well to carry it from one place to another in order to protect it some of the cases available for guitar can be listed as follows:

• The AME-30 is designed to fit Archtop guitars. Featuring the revolutionary Ameritage Humidity Control System, which protects instruments against climatic effects which cause swelling?

• Calton Electric Guitar Cases will accommodate most electric, acoustic electric and electric hollow body guitars. Due to the shaped nature of a Calton case, the instrument's horn length and headstock offset are critical measurements that may be requested for your case to be made.

Electric bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is an electrically-amplified fingered string instrument. The bass is similar in appearance to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and, usually, four strings tuned an octave lower in pitch, in the bass range.

The bass is typically used to provide the low-pitched bassline and bass runs in popular music and jazz. The electric bass is also used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, and latin.

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