A guitar exists out of three main components; the head, neck and body. Sound can be produced in two different ways depending if it’s an acoustic or electric guitar. With a normal acoustic guitar the hollow body of the guitar is producing sound. Sound can only be transferred by air. That’s why an acoustic guitar has a hollow body. When the string vibrates the air molecules in the hollow body also vibrates and that’s how sound is produced. The various strings can produce various sounds.

With an electric guitar it’s slightly different. An electric guitar also contains three main components; the head, neck and body. The only difference is that special devices named the pick-ups produce the sound and not the body, like in the case of an acoustic guitar. Pick-ups are in fact magnets with magnetic fields around them. Nylon strings can never be used on an electric guitar, because a magnet can’t attract plastic. That’s why steel strings are always used on an electric guitar. When the string vibrates, it disturbs the magnetic field around the pick-up. This creates an electric current in the coils of the magnet. The current is being transferred to the volume and tone controls. From there it’s being transferred through a cable to an amplifier. Electric signals turn into sound.