Notes on the Guitar as a System

The acoustic guitar is a context unto itself, thus it's appeal for solo work. A small universe of sounds is available to the careful player and listener.

The electric guitar requires an amp to complete a system. Without amplification, a solid or semi-hollow body electric guitar has minimum, barely audible resonance. Amplification brings out the resonances and overtones that are the magical qualities associated with electric guitars. The guitar must be played and amplified loudly to make the electric guitar sound vibrate to its potential. electric guitar = electric guitar + amplifier.

Also, for me, the electric guitar requires the context of an ensemble, as its harmonic/resonant capabilities (particularly at solo volume levels) are smaller than those available to an acoustic guitar in a solo context.

The reason acoustic guitars sound mostly bad amplified is because the piezo and sound hole pick-ups don't "pick up" the qualities of the resonating body (guitar top) that is the acoustic transducer, nor do they pick up the bi-tones that result from a stopping a string with a finger on the fretboard.

The acoustic guitar is about maximum vibration before amplification while the electric guitar is the inverse.

It all about resonating bodies.

Topic of the Day: MICROTONES

Microtones focus your attention to qualities of distance not available in equal temperament.

On an electric guitar, a slide can act as a quasi-third bridge allowing normally inaudible bi-tones to be amplified by pickups.

A slide can also trigger bi-tone multiphonics due to changing the proportions of the strings on the left side of the third bridge. Bi-tones are sometimes called ghost notes/tones in popular parlance, but this name only serves to obscure this well-documented aspect of string vibration.

On an acoustic guitar, bi-tones are normally audible and add to the complexity of the acoustic sound.