The History of Amplifiers

Series Summary

An amplifier is a natural or artificial device that is used to make an audio or any type of signal stronger as it passes through the device. There are many different types of amplifiers. Some, like acoustic guitars and cellos are acoustic or natural amplifiers and others that use electricity such as electric guitars and PA systems are electric or artificial amplifiers. Of course you have much more control over tone and volume with an artificial amplifier but the quality of sound of a natural amplifier is usually preferred by picky musicians.

If you have ever wondered the difference between the types of available amplification and what is actually considered an amplifier then wonder no more. Our expert, Jim Dufresne, is here to shed some light on this subject by identifying many amplification devices that you might not even consider to be as such and explain how the work and how to use them. So lets get jamming!

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Jim Defresne. I'm here to tell you about acoustic guitar amplification. Guitar amplification has come a long way in the past seventy or eighty years. Les Paul, frustrated with the inadequate volume of the electric or of the acoustic guitar first took a phonograph pick up off the arm of a record player and stuck that on his guitar and amplified his guitar. Well, it didn't work that well obviously because he went on to invent the solid body on his guitar because he had all kinds of problems, but he was able to amplify his guitar by taking that needle out of a record player, sticking it on his guitar, and then running the record player. I remember back in the, I think it was the seventies when Barcus Barry came up with little hot dots, rather ingenious little device and the hot dots were really small. They were about an eighth of an inch in diameter and then they narrowed down to the size of a small cable. So what you did back then was you drilled a hole into your bridge someplace, two holes actually in the same hole, one to accept the wire and then a little bit bigger one to accept the head of the hot dot which was very tiny and then they came with a little plug that you put over the top of it, very inconspicuous with dubious results. That's because they use piezo electric crystals. Now that's the proper way to pronounce that word. Most Americans pronounce it "piezor", but it's actually an Italian word, piezo. Now that's how I'll refer to acoustic guitar pickups today. Here's an example of a piezo pickup in a typical steel string guitar. They reside under the saddle. You can take all the strings off, pull this saddle out, and you would see the pickup in there. If you want to see one, go to your local music store, they'll show you different makes and models of piezo electric pickups."