Electric Guitars and Required Stuff

Beginner's Guide to buy an Electric Guitar and the required stuff.

YO!

Thinking of buying your first Electric Guitar and don't know what and where to start? This is your guide to gear up and become a shredder. This guide is for the very beginners who are new to electric guitars and are looking forward to buy their first one. Everything is kept simple.

The Guitar

Okay the most important and main thing is your guitar. The first thing in mind when buying an electric guitar is the type of music you're into. I've seen many young teens ordering their electric guitars without knowing the required things about them through websites just because they look cool(well electric guitars do look pretty cool). Unless you know what you're doing and what type of music and genre you're into do not purchase your weapon online. It's a common mistake people make, first they purchase Superstrats (superstrats are designed guitars that somewhat look like the Fender Stratocaster but with sharper and larger cutaway styling) and then they end up playing country style or sad type songs. It's not that superstrats are just made for the Heavy Metal,Punk Rock and similar genres but it looks kinda awkward unless you're really good at guitars. Imagine dressing up as a 1980's-1990's rockstar (yeah with those flying hair and "used to be cool stuff" get up) for a wedding party in this century, it'll be really funny, right? The point is that the type of guitar you're about to purchase should define you and the type of music you're into (in other words the guitar should match your style).

Let's talk about the things you'll find on your electric guitar

The Pickups

The pickups are your friends. It is the pickups which amplify and convert the sound of the plucked string into an electrical signal for the amplifiers to produce the sound.

                                         Pickups

The pickup in the middle is a single coil pickup. This pickup will produce a crispy, bright and clear tone much like an acoustic guitar.

The pickups on either sides are Humbuckers (two single coils wired out). When guitarists turned up the volume on their amplifiers, buzz and static grew louder too. To solve this problem Humbuckers were introduced. Humbuckers produce a thicker sound and are generally preferred for Metal and related genres.

You can switch between the coils using the selector (the slit) below.

The selector provides different combination of coils to choose. For an example you can combine the tone of humbucker and the single coil to make a new kind of sound which will somewhat sound clear but a little bit warmer.

The Tremolo and the metal arm

The metal thing behind the pickups is the tremolo. The strings of the electric guitar pass through the tremolo and then to the headstock.

Tremolo

Tremolos are generally used for the vibrato effect while playing. Now you must be wondering what's a vibrato effect? In simple words the metal arm hanging out from the tremolo (also known as tremolo bar/tremolo arm/whammy bar) is used to bend the tremolo up or down which in turn bends the strings and raises the tension acting on them. As the tension raises the pitch of the vibrating string changes and a vibrato effect is produced. If you're still wondering how the metal arm and vibrato effect works then check YouTube, just search whammy bar anywhere and get ready to see some cool stuff.

  

Mind the "tension". Though the bending of the tremolo is ice, it is also responsible for string breaks. Bend the tremolo a bit, it works, bend the tremolo too much and you'll end up with a broken string. Be careful. When buying an electric guitar you'll generally get an option to choose between Floyd Rose and a Fixed bridge(or simply no tremolo). The floyd rose one gives you an option to bend as well as raise the tremolo in upward direction. Some people prefer floating trems (because the fixed bridges have a better sustain and are inexpensive), others hate them(another reason why you shouldn't buy a guitar online without knowing what suits you). Choose your guitar wisely.

The Knobs

Knobs

Well knobs do the same things they do in other stuff. They give you control. Generally electric guitars come with 2 knobs on them. One of them turns up/down the volume while the other adjusts the tone. The second knob(which changes the tone) adjusts the crisp of the sound. Turn up this knob for a sharper sound and turn down this knob for a warmer sound. It's just that simple.

The Required Stuff

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1. Amplifier - Electric Guitars need amplifiers. You might be thinking you can play your electric guitar the same way you play an acoustic, well yeah you can play it in a similar way but it wont sound as loud as an acoustic one(it'll be inaudible to someone like 3-4 feet away from you). The body of acoustic guitars are made such that they amplify the sound of the vibrating strings. But in electric guitars you don't need an amplifying type body, you already have pickups for the purpose. So the amplifier is necessary thing to purchase with an electric guitar.

Talking about amplifiers, they produce sound, but some amplifiers have inbuilt tone and different effects as well. Effects may include Overdrive, Distortion, delay etc.. Buying the right amplifier is also an important thing. Let's go with an example, a guy who is interested in Heavy Metal genre is gonna buy an amplifier that provides clean sounds as well as a distortion effect. There is no Metal without distortion (eeh this is what I think). Similarly, you gotta find a nice amplifier for yourself which gives you the right tone.





If you still can't figure out what amplifier to buy then just buy a simple amplifier with no effects and at least 2 input channels. You can later buy effect pedals which give you different sound effects (generally one pedal provides a single type of effect but with a number of settings like effect intensity control, treble, bass etc.) but this way your pocket will drain a little bit more because pedals are somewhat costly. Some brands like Fender,Marshall, Line6, Laney etc. make good amplifiers.


2. Instrument Cable - Your electric guitar needs an instrument cable for it to send electrical signals to the amplifier. An instrument cable directly connects your electric guitar to an input channel on your amplifier if you are not using an effect pedal in between. For beginners a cable 3m long should be enough for practicing.

3. Pick/Plectrum - The last and one of the important things you need, a pick makes it easier to pluck the strings quickly. There are a lot of picks of different sizes, shapes and thickness to suit your playing style. For a beginner I recommend using a thick pick of about 1mm thickness. Now if you go to your music store and hold a 1mm thick pick the first thing that'll come in your mind is "this thing is going to break the strings, should keep it back where I picked it from", well its completely fine to use a pick of that thickness unless you're using light gauge strings and not regular electric guitar strings. The reason I suggest using a pick of such thickness is that a thick pick will help you play your guitar much faster by improving your right and left hand coordination. Let's make it more simple, we're all familiar with Newton's 3rd Law, right? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction or Force always comes in pairs - equal and opposite, similarly when you hit the string with a thin plectrum you exert some force on the string and in turn the string also exerts some force on the pick. This will cause the pick to bend in the opposite direction a little bit and it'll take time to get back to the straight position which with time will simply destroy your right and left hand coordination. A thick pick wont bend as much, will stay straight and will allow you to play faster.

Well, I guess this is all the stuff you need to start with. Good luck with your guitar. Hope this guide helps.

Some additional Info and stuff

Guitars

Different electric guitars come with different bodies, with different neck thickness and other features. Take the example of the most popular guitar in the market - the Fender Squier stratocaster. Stratocaster is a versatile electric guitar with solid body. Now there are 3 different kinds of Electric guitar bodies out there

1. Solid Body (most common one)

2. Hollow Body

3. Semi Hollow Body

First talking about the solid body electric guitar, this is the most common body type you'll find in the market or on the websites with a huge number of designs. The Fender Stratocaster, Ibanez RG series, ESP-LTD Explorer and much much more, all of them have a solid body type. These type of guitars are most suited for Heavy Metal and Rock genres.

Hollow Bodies were the original electric guitars first introduced by Gibson in late 1930s. Hollow body guitars give out somewhat louder sound of strings while playing due to the fact that sound that resonates within the space inside their bodies. They're most suited for Blues and Jazz music.

Semi Hollow Bodies as the name suggests are a hybrid of solid and hollow body electric guitars, they sound pretty good and are suited for almost all purposes.

Capos

Capos are devices used on the fretboard of the electric/acoustic guitars. What they do is clamp on one of the frets and raise the pitch of the strings. You're gonna buy them at some point.

Some suggestions - Electric Guitars are like computers, costlier ones will get you better features and finish. About the guitar which suits your style you must be very clear about the type of music you're going to play. If you're not able to decide what kind and which guitar to buy then just buy a solid body. Since you might be a beginner it'll suit you(also, hollow/semi-hollow bodies are a little bit costlier than solid body). Look every guitar sounds a bit different even when you are playing the same rhythm with fingers on the same position on the fretboard, some guitars sound sharper while others sound warmer. This is the reason I asked you not to buy your guitar online. Also, purchasing a metronome helps, with the correct practice and guidance you'll be able to learn faster and become a shredding beast. A tip - Get a metronome app on the App Store/Play Store/Windows Store, a metronome really helps. I hope you now know about the things that are present on the guitar. Choose wisely, Good Luck

\m/ Rog' \m/

LEXUS HOVERBOARD

LEXUS HOVERBOARD

"IT'S JUST A MATTER OF 

FIGURE OUT HOW"

Getting the glimpses from an American Science Friction adventure comedy film "Back to Future 2", LEXUX indulged in making a flying hoverboard a reality.

In 2014, California company Arx Pax tried to do the same by building "Hendo Hoverboard". But there all attempts went worthless.Hendo Hoverboard.

Now as concern about the specifications of the LEXUS Hoverboard, Its weight is 11.5 kg (including the magnets and liquid nitrogen). It has 32 superconductors with 50oz liquid nitrogen and its upper surface is made up of natural Bamboo, which gives the Hoverboard a classic look.

It has extremely strong magnets in the hoverboard and on the surface which helps it in levitation.

LEXUS revealed its invention, how it works and much more. It also has launched a You-Tube video for the same.

HOW THE HOVERBOARD ACTUALLY WORKS

Hoverboard is consists of metal alloy superconducting material which is cooled at 197 degree celsius using liquid nitrogen.

The track below the hoverboard have three magnets helping in inducing the current in the material. It leads to Meissner Effect in action.

MEISSNER EFFECT

It is the pushing away or expulsion of magnetic field from a surface conductor when it transists as superconductor from metal.

Meissner effect comes into play; take the hold; expel the magnetic field back towards the tracks in mirror image. On the same time, the magnetic force in opposite side oppose each other or repel each other. And the material or board gets lifted above the track.

The LEXUS Hoverboard actually works on this effect and makes the hoverboard to fly over the magnetic track.

When we put some weight on the hoverboard or someone put his leg on it, magnetic forces becomes so significant as to balance it and keep levitating the track. Hoverboard does not deviate horizontally or vertically but remain stable over the track.