Explanation about Pickups Electric Guitar and Acoustic Guitar

As you would probably know, there are many types of musical instruments in today's market. We could say the exact same thing for the multitude type of guitar styles and variations. From their shape and color, to their pickup configuration, to the thickness of its strings and body materials. Their variety can be somewhat overwhelming and intimidating to the naked eye.

One of the easiest indicators to differentiate an electric guitar from an acoustic guitar has to do with the type of amplification used in each system.

Electric guitars use a magnetic pickup that acts as a transducer, by capturing the vibrations of the string, to later convert it into an electrical signal that can be amplified and recorded into tape and digital.

Magnetic pickups requires a permanent magnet to function. This magnet should be wrapped with a fine coil of enameled copper wire. The secret resides in the few thousand turns of enameled copper wire that would later allow the string to vibrate in front of pickup thus producing the sound notes for an electric guitar we all know and recognized.

There are several ways for recording an electric guitar. The most commonly used one is done by micing the guitar's amplifier directly into a pre-amp or recording station. Some other techniques include the simulation of electric amplifier by computer software.

The original acoustic guitar did not include its own pickup system, but throughout the years, many brands and manufacturers have included amplification inside their acoustic guitars. As its name implies, acoustic guitars utilize acoustics to amplify sound. You might notice that this type of guitars have a much bigger sound box than their younger electric sibling, since they base their volume on pure acoustics instead of electricity. The sound you hear out of an acoustic guitar is amplified by the displaced air produced by the vibrations of its string. This vibrations drive the soundboard through the bridge making it vibrate producing a much louder sound that the strings alone.

The pickup system principle for acoustic guitars is similar to its electric counterpart, although its application is unique from company to company.

It's pretty standard to amplify an acoustic guitar by placing the acoustic guitar pickup inside or around its Soundhole. The Soundhole resonance and tone makes it the better choice in the guitar's body.

There are of course some acoustic guitars that do not posses any type of amplification system what so ever. A lot of musicians prefer not to use a single type of magnetic pickup on their instrument since they do not want to compromise the sound of their guitar to a single amplification solution.

A lot of audio engineers believe that the best way to capture the sound of an acoustic guitar has should be done with external microphones, since they not only will capture the tone and resonance of the instrument, but will also makes justices to musician's playing behavior and personality.

It's also true, that by recording a performance away from the instrument, will help capture and incorporate part of its environment without using any audio effects to simulate room's sound. This point is extremely important in order to get a natural sound out of an acoustic guitar.

Even when you play without amplification, you are hearing the guitar and the room around you.