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A solid body electric instrument is a string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 such as a guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
, bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
 or violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
 built without its normal sound box
Sound box

A sound box or sounding box is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which alters the instrument's tone quality by modifying the way the instrument resonates....
 and relying on its electric pickup
Pickup (music)

A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be instrument amplifier and sound recording....
 system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings.

Solid body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem, and are inherently both cheaper to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.

d body instruments



Solid body instruments do not include:



Electric lap steel guitar
Lap steel guitar

The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, from which other types developed.There are three main types of lap steel guitar:* Lap slide guitars, the first developed, which use a similar sound box to a Spanish guitar....
s without sounding boards are considered to be solid body instruments by some authorities, and not by others.






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Encyclopedia


A solid body electric instrument is a string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 such as a guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
, bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
 or violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
 built without its normal sound box
Sound box

A sound box or sounding box is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which alters the instrument's tone quality by modifying the way the instrument resonates....
 and relying on its electric pickup
Pickup (music)

A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be instrument amplifier and sound recording....
 system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings.

Solid body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem, and are inherently both cheaper to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.

Instruments

Solid body instruments

  • Some electric guitar
    Electric guitar

    An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
    s.
  • Most bass guitar
    Bass guitar

    The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
    s.
  • Electric upright bass
    Electric upright bass

    The electric upright bass is an electronically amplified version of the double bass that has a minimal or 'skeleton' body, which greatly reduces the size and weight of the instrument....
    .
  • A few electric mandolin
    Electric mandolin

    The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar.As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms:...
    s.
  • Most electric violin
    Electric violin

    An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body....
    s.
  • Most electric sitar
    Electric sitar

    An electric sitar is in fact a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar....
    s
  • Electric cello
    Electric cello

    The electric cello is a type of cello that relies on electronic amplification to produce sound. Many electric cellos have bodies modeled after acoustic cellos, while others abandon the design completely, opting for a totally new body shape, or having little or no body at all....
    .


Solid body instruments do not include:

  • Semi-acoustic instruments.
  • Electric piano
    Electric piano

    An electric piano is an electric musical instrument. The popularity of the electric piano began to grow in the late 1960s, reaching its greatest height during the 1970s....
    s, even those with strings such as the electric grand piano
    Electric grand piano

    An electric grand piano is a particular type of piano manufactured and marketed by Yamaha Corporation, Kawai and Helpinstill during the 1970s and 1980s, although experimental instruments of similar type were made as early as the late 1920s....
    .
  • Pedal steel guitar
    Pedal steel guitar

    The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar....
    .


Electric lap steel guitar
Lap steel guitar

The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, from which other types developed.There are three main types of lap steel guitar:* Lap slide guitars, the first developed, which use a similar sound box to a Spanish guitar....
s without sounding boards are considered to be solid body instruments by some authorities, and not by others. This has a major effect on some claims of historical priority, as they predate the first models of solid body electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
, which may otherwise be claimed to be the first commercially successful solid body instruments. While noting this, it will be assumed that electric lap steels without sounding boards are solid body instruments for the purposes of this article.

History


Early prototypes


A solid body electric violin
Electric violin

An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body....
 was proposed by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb....
.

Commercial models


The first commercially successful solid body instrument was the Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker

Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker ), is an electric guitar manufacturer, notable for putting the world's first electric guitars into general production in 1932....
 frying pan lap steel guitar
Lap steel guitar

The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, from which other types developed.There are three main types of lap steel guitar:* Lap slide guitars, the first developed, which use a similar sound box to a Spanish guitar....
, produced from from 1931 to 1939.

The first commercially successful solid body electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 was the Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-Pick up , solid-body electric guitar made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation....
 (The early Telecaster models had no model name on the head stock and are now referred to as 'No Casters") in 1950. It was followed by the Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s. The Les Paul was originally designed by Ted McCarty and endorsed, named and used by then popular jazz/Pop music guitarist Les Paul....
 in 1952.

Impact on musical styles


Solid body instruments have particularly influenced heavy rock and surf music
Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly Orange County, California and other areas of Southern California....
. Without solid body guitars, neither of these genres could have developed as they did.

See also


  • Semi-acoustic guitar
    Semi-acoustic guitar

    A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickup . This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickup or other means of amplification, either added by the manufacturer or the player....
    .
  • 3rd bridge guitar
    3rd Bridge

    The 3rd bridge is an extended technique used on mainly electric guitars such as the Fender Jazzmaster that has the Strings continue through to the tremolo piece....


External links


  • .
  • at the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center site.
  • at the Gibson Guitar Corporation
    Gibson Guitar Corporation

    The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of Steel-string guitar and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer Guitars, Valley Arts Guitar, Tobias , Steinberger, and Gibson Kalamazoo Electric Guitar....
     site.