Electric guitar - A blank canvas for timbre and tone

Abstract

The electric guitar is a complex mechanical, electrical, and acoustic system, invented less than a century ago. While more traditional instruments such as voices and violins, trumpets and tympani, piano and piccolo might possess innate traits that most listeners easily identify, the electric guitar is a sound synthesizer capable of a vast range of sounds. The guitar, the amp, and the recording techniques used enable the performer and the engineer to define and refine elements of tone, almost without limit. Electric guitar has no single reference tone quality, but instead invites, and even inspires performers and recordists to create new sounds and explore alternative timbres as desired. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.