The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also relatively popular, and bass guitars with even more strings or courses have been built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the inclusion of frets in most models, and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification. This is also due to the fact that the double bass is acoustically compromised for its range in that it's scaled down from the optimal size that would be appropriate for those low notes.
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy-metal guitar-playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range of electric guitars and basses.
A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in dynamic microphones to cancel electromagnetic hum. Humbuckers are one of two main types of guitar pickups. The other is single coil.
A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most popular designs, along with dual-coil or "humbucking" pickups.
Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars or simply PRS, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer located in Stevensville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith. Products manufactured by PRS include electric and acoustic guitars, basses, and amplifiers.
A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure. The signal from a pickup can also be recorded directly.
Hagström is a musical instrument manufacturer in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, Sweden. Their original products were accordions that they initially imported from Germany and then Italy before opening their own facility in 1932. During the late 1950s, the company started making electric guitars and later amplifiers. The early guitars were heavily influenced by the accordion production and had a special look and feel. Hagström were the first company to mass-produce 8 string bass guitars as well as the first to build a guitar/synthesizer hybrid. The company ceased production in 1983. In 2004 the brand was resurrected and has since been building guitars both in Europe and in Asia. Throughout the years Hagström has expanded their line of products since the restart of the brand and re-introduced such Hagstrom classics as their famous Hagström H8, an 8 string bass. Hagstrom has also introduced new models and designs, where the firm still operates out of Sweden.
The Fender Esquire was a solid-body electric guitar manufactured by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation of Los Angeles. It was the first solid-bodied guitar marketed by the company, and made its debut in 1950.
The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson Guitar Corporation since 1946, as well as other vendors. Compared to other single coil designs, such as the ubiquitous Fender single coil, the bobbin for a P-90 is wider but shorter. The Fender style single coil is wound in a taller bobbin, but the wires are closer to the individual poles. This makes the P-90 produce a different type of tone, somewhat warmer with less edge and brightness. As with other single-coil pickups, the P-90 is subject to mains hum unless some form of hum cancellation is used.
A P.A.F., or simply PAF, is an early model of the humbucker guitar pickup invented by Seth Lover in 1955, so named for the "Patent Applied For" decal placed on the baseplate of each pickup. Gibson used the PAF on guitars from late 1956 until late 1962, long after the patent was granted. They were replaced by the Patent Number pickup, essentially a refined version of the PAF. These were in turn replaced by "T-Top" humbuckers in 1967, and production ended in 1975. Though it was not the first humbucking pickup ever, it was the first to gain widespread use, as the PAF's hum-free signal, tonal clarity, and touch sensitivity when paired with higher-gain amplifiers made the pickups popular with rock and blues guitarists. The PAF is an essential tonal characteristic of the now-famous 1957–1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitars, and pickups of this type have gained a large following.
The Michael Kelly Guitar Company is a US musical instrument company founded in 1999 and based in Clearwater, Florida. Michael Kelly imports high quality instruments manufactured to their specifications. The company has recently gained popularity, particularly due to the release of their new Mod Shop Guitars, where they take some of their standard designs and swap out the pickups using Lindy Fralin, Seymour Duncan, TV Jones, Bare Knuckle and Fishman.
Lakland Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric bass guitars based in Chicago, Illinois. The company's first bass combined elements of the Fender Jazz Bass and the Music Man StingRay. The company's current line-up includes basses inspired by classics like the Fender Precision Bass and Jazz Bass as well as Lakland's own original designs. Lakland's line of signature models includes basses designed in collaboration with well-known bassists Joe Osborn, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Jerry Scheff, Darryl Jones and Bob Glaub. Lakland basses are manufactured in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia.
The Lace Sensor is a guitar pickup designed by Don Lace and manufactured by AGI since 1985. Lace Sensors are true single coil pickups; however, internally they are different from classic single coils. The chief difference is that, like the pickups used on the Fender Jaguar, the coil is surrounded by metal barriers which are designed to reduce electromagnetic interference such as power line hum. According to the manufacturer, these barriers also help concentrate the magnetic field, allowing weaker magnets to be used, which results in less string pull. This line of electric guitar pickups was used exclusively by Fender from 1985 to 1996.
The Harmony Company is a former guitar manufacturing company that is currently a brand owned by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. Harmony was, in its heyday, the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the United States. It made many types of string instruments, including ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars and violins.
The Ibanez JEM is an electric guitar manufactured by Ibanez and first produced in 1987. The guitar's most notable user is its co-designer, Steve Vai. As of 2010, there have been five sub-models of the JEM: the JEM7, JEM77, JEM777, JEM555, JEM333, and JEM70V. Although the Ibanez JEM series is a signature series guitar, Ibanez mass-produces several of the guitar's sub-models.
Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.
James Tyler Guitars is a manufacturer of electric guitars. The company was located near Van Nuys, California and established in 1972. consequently reaching the public eye through studio musicians like Dann Huff, Michael Landau, and Neil Stubenhaus. The company is known for creating custom high end guitars, with an unusual headstock, and guitar body finishes with names like "psychedelic vomit", "burning water", and "caramel cappuccino shmear".
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Telecaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Bruce Springsteen, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Keith Richards and George Harrison.
Guitar pickup potting is a process whereby the fine wire coils of a guitar pickup are encapsulated in a substance that inhibits movement of the coil. Guitar pickups are generally made from bobbins wrapped in many thousands of turns of fine wire. If the wire is left unpotted it is possible for unwanted microphonics or oscillations to occur, causing the pickup to "howl". This is often apparent when using overdriven amplifiers and distortion pedals. Potting also protects the delicate winding from damage.
