Solidbody

Solid Body ( German: " solid-body " ) is an English term for those types of stringed electric guitar and electric bass, the body as opposed to acoustic guitar does not sound box, but consisting mostly of solid wood or other materials. An advantage of this construction is the suppression of acoustic feedback as a massive body to a much lesser extent on sound vibrations reacts as a hollow body. Other advantages of solid construction are clear electrically amplified sound and a longer Ausschwingdauer of being played guitar strings (English: Sustain). A disadvantage of the solid body construction is the extensive loss of the acoustic sound of the instruments. In addition, solid-body guitars usually have a higher weight than guitars with a sound box.

History

The solid body design was developed after created by increased performance of guitar amps and so higher volume achievable problems with acoustic feedback. The first electrically amplified guitars that came in the 1930s on the market that are acoustic instruments, which are additionally equipped with electromagnetic pickups. These instruments collected from a certain volume of the sound waves from the amplifier on what causes unwanted feedback.

The first guitar produced in massive construction were electric lap steel guitars in the U.S. musical-instrument companies Rickenbacker and Gibson, who came in trade from the year 1932. In the 1940s, several manufacturers began to transfer the design platform to other types of guitars. One of the first electric guitars with partially solid body was in 1948 presented Bigsby / Travis guitar Paul Bigsby who developed this in collaboration with the country musician Merle Travis. Shortly afterwards, the Fender Telecaster (1950) and the Gibson Les Paul ( 1952). One of the first electric bass guitar models with solidbody was introduced in 1951 Fender Precision bass.

The introduction of solidbody construction enabled advances in guitar design since this construction, the design possibilities of the instrument body substantially increased. Because the outline of the body has only a minor influence on the sound of the instrument is theoretically possible any form that is stable and can be recorded reasonably comfortable.

Construction and materials

To produce a solid body different types of wood are used. Commonly used are ash and alder ( a major musical instrument manufacturer is the U.S. firm Fender ) as well as mahogany and koa ( an important manufacturer: Gibson ). Often, combinations of different woods can be found - for example, a mahogany body with a maple top wood for e- guitar model Gibson Les Paul or multi-lane Hals-/Korpuskonstruktion of maple, walnut and other woods, such as the E -Bass model Alembic Series I. Depending on which type of wood and weight or shape of the body will be affected more or less on the sound of the instruments.

Rare attempts have been made to construct solid Bodies made ​​of other materials than wood. The different approaches ranged from plastic ( National), Plexiglas ( Dan Armstrong ) on carbon fibers to aluminum ( Travis Bean). Cost- electric guitars often have inferior plywood as body material. However, none of these materials was able to prevail over the traditional wood construction.