Guitar Body Construction

How to teach yourself guitar includes how to select guitars.

A good start is to know about different types of guitar constructions.

Your electric guitar construction falls into four categories.

  1. Electric Acoustic Guitar
  2. Hollow body electric guitars
  3. Semi-hollow body guitars
  4. Solid body guitars

Electric Acoustic Guitar – The magic here is not in the construction but in the pickup that allows you to transmit the sound through an amplifier. These guitars do not have many of the bells and whistles that make an electric guitar, well, an electric guitar.

Hollow body guitars – These guitar constructions share a warm quality sound with acoustic guitars because they are hollow inside. However, these electrical guitars do not have sound hole. Their warm, rich mid-range sound is used in playing jazz. These guitars work well with low volume amps.

Semi-hollow body – The Rickenbacker and the Gibson ES are examples of semi-hollow body electric guitars. Their cut-out design and small hollow portion of the body creates a hybrid between a hollow body guitar and a solid body guitar. Country music and folk-rock is venues for this guitar.

Solid body guitars – These are the heavy weights in three ways.

First, they actually weigh more because they are made of a single piece of wood.

Second, they cost more since they are the top of the line electrical guitars.

Third, they are played by heavy weights of talent and fame in the music world including rock ‘n roll, punk, and metal music. When you think of Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul, you are thinking of Solid body guitars.