How Does an Acoustic Guitar Differ From an Electric Guitar?

History

Acoustic guitars have hollow bodies. Until the 1930s, all guitars were acoustic. The first electric guitars were modified versions of acoustic hollow body guitars. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, guitar innovators such as Les Paul and Leo Fender began experimenting with solid body guitars that weren't hollowed out. These first electric guitars laid the foundation for the rock and roll age that began in the 1950s.

Function

An acoustic guitar amplifies its sound based on the sound hole underneath the strings in the hollow body. A solid body electric guitar utilizes a pickup bound by electrical wire and cables plugged into the body of the guitar and connected to an amplifier to relay its sound. Most acoustic and electric guitars are made from different types of wood. Some acoustic guitars utilize plastic in their body, but a solid body electric is always made out of wood, with plastics being used only on the outside for cosmetic purposes or for a pick guard. A pick guard protects the wood on the face of electric and acoustic guitars from being scarred by the guitar pick.

Misconceptions

Acoustic guitars can also be electric as well. Most professional performers use electric pickups when they perform with an acoustic guitar. It would be difficult to perform in a modern concert hall if an acoustic guitar weren't electrically amplified by a pickup and an amplifier. It is possible for an acoustic guitar to be heard in smaller theaters and performance spaces without electricity, provided none of the other instruments or vocals in the performance are electrically amplified. Conversely, a truly electric solid body guitar could never be heard acoustically in a concert performance, because there is no hollow body and sound hole to project the sound. Electricity is needed to carry the sound vibrations from the strings to the pickups in the body of the guitar to the speakers of the amplifier or the public address system.

Types

The four major types of guitars are hollow body acoustic, acoustic/electric, hollow body (or semi-hollow body) electric and solid body electric. There are subtypes too, such as a Dobro guitar, an acoustic guitar which has a steel resonator cone in place of a sound hole to project a bluesy sound and is used by many slide guitar players. Many companies produce these different types of guitars. Some of the more prominent, respected and esteemed companies are Gibson (which makes the Dobro as well as the Les Paul electric and many acoustic models), Fender (which produces the electric Stratocaster and Telecaster as well as many acoustic models), Taylor (a smaller company that produces high-quality acoustic guitars) and Rickenbacher (a pioneering company of the solid body electric).