Electric guitars can be divided into 3 groups, by the way their body is made: Solid body electric guitars, hollow electric guitars, and semi-hollow electric guitars.
Traditionally, string instruments were built with a hollow body, so that their body served as a sound box, having the sound resonate from inside. Once electric guitars were introduced, the method had changed: The electric guitar uses pickups, which convert the vibration of its steel or nickel cored strings into an electric current which is made louder with an amplifier. This means the electric guitar is not dependant on its sound box.
The early electric guitars were built as acoustic guitars, with a hollow body, using pickups and amplifiers. Solid body guitars were invented only later. The first, or at least one of the first solid body guitars was invented by Les Paul, though the first commercially successful solid body guitar was the Fender Esquire guitar.
Today, all 3 types of electric guitars are used. There is no difference in the way you play the different types, though the sound is different. Also, the size, weight and body profile of the guitar will be different and some people may suffer from this. On general, a solid body guitar will be the heaviest of the 3 types, and the hollow body guitar will be the lightest. Obviously this is due to the amount of wood that is used in the construction of the body of the guitar. Another difference will be the size: The hollow and semi-hollow instruments are usually a bit larger than their counterparts, solid body guitars. That is due both to their use of the sound box, and to the lighter weight which allows for this bigger size.
The hollow and semi-hollow guitars are often referred to collectively as semi-acoustic guitars. This is in contrast to the acoustic-electric guitars, which are actually acoustic guitars with steel-strings which are fitted with pickups purely as an alternative to using a separate microphone. Sometimes they will also be fitted with a piezo-electric pickup under the bridge or a low mass microphone inside the guitar body. With electric acoustic guitars the pickups do not produce a signal directly from the strings vibrations, but rather from the vibrations of the guitar top of body.
Semi-acoustic guitars are said to have a much richer, deep and warm sound than the solid body guitar due to the increased mid-range that is captured. This gives the guitar a more acoustic sound.
Solid body instruments have particularly influenced heavy rock and surf music. Without solid-body guitars, neither of these genres could have developed as they did.
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