How to Choose Guitar Strings

When choosing guitar strings for your electric guitar, the decision is ultimately up to personal preference. Your guitar strings will effect the sound quality and the comfort of your playing. You need to find a balance between the two that works for you.

As far as the sound goes, certain strings produce different types of sound. Some strings produce a more metallic sound and others produce a more warm, blended sound. Regardless, certain strings will sound different on individual guitars because every guitar's pickups are different.

I personally like my top three strings to be a thin gauge, and my bottom three strings to be a thicker gauge. My range is usually 11-50, where 11 is the gauge of the high E string, and 50 is the gauge of the low E string. This is a good setup for heavier music, such as death metal.

There are hundreds of makes out there, but I stick with DR strings. Go to your local guitar shop and start experimenting to find out what works for you. Strings are cheap, so your best bet is to stick with trial and error.

History of the Electric Guitar

I've decided to start off this electric guitar blog with a brief history of the electric guitar. I've always found it interesting to know the origin of the things I take for granted today. Since I love the electric guitar I figured why the hell not list the history on my electric guitar blog. Enjoy:

The concept of the electric solid body guitar developed from the popularity of Hawaiian music in the 1920s and 1930s. The electric Hawaiian guitars were the first instruments to produce sound electrically. And thus begun the history of the electric guitar.

The first electric guitar was created in the 1930s by a man named Adolph Rickenbacker. The first electric guitars had small soundholes in the body. This type of guitar is called a semi-hollow body electric guitar. This type of guitar is still popular today.

Further along in the history of the electric guitar comes the pickups. The first pickups used on the original electric guitars were called tungsten pickups. These electric guitar pickups made it possible to create guitars without the small soundholes. These were named solid body electric guitars or hard body electric guitars.

The electric guitar began to get more popular during the 30s and 40s. During this time of the history of the electric guitar, bands were starting to incorporate its sound in their music. They needed to have

louder guitars to be overheard by sections of their bands such as the brass sections. The acoustic guitars could not produce the necessary volume.

In the 1950s Gibson introduced Les Paul's unique guitar known as the Gibson Les Paul. This guitar is still around today and used by many excellent guitarists.

Then came Leo Fender. He designed the Fender Broadcaster which later became known as the Fender Stratocaster. This guitar is known as the Strat for short. The Fender Strat became an extremely popular guitar.

There you have it, a brief history of the electric guitar. Nothing intense, just a little something to help you appreciate the this great toy that we all take for granted! Keep checking back to my electric guitar blog for daily updates on the electric guitar.