Guitars

The guitar is a six-stringed instrument that is played by fingering notes on a fretboard while picking the corresponding string at the other end of the stringspan. They can be played both left and right-handed, but in this lesson we will use the right-handed version. There are many types of guitars including 12 string, bass, and double-neck models. The two main types are the acoustic and electric.

Let us start with the acoustic because it is the simplest and most important. It is extremely crucial that you master the acoustic first before graduating to the electric, because electrics are amplified and no one should have to listen to your noise until you can play better. Though some acoustics are rigged for electric amplification, we will speak of it in an acoustic sense here.

Electric

This is a more complicated instrument, capable of creating awe if played correctly. If played wrong however, it sounds twangy and grungy.
A great deal of thought and artistry must go into your playing or else irritating noise will result. There are hollow-body electrics and even acoustic-electrics, but in this lesson we will speak of this instrument in a strictly electric sense.

Amps

There are many different types of guitar amplifiers including:Combo units

• Twin reverbs
• Full and half stack amps
• Rackmountable units
• Tube amps
• Solid state amps

Amplifiers usually are housed within a speaker cabinet. This unit is called a Combo because it's a combination of amp and speaker. Some amps have built-in effects such as EQ and reverb, but outboard effects can be used with all amps. The control settings are absolutely crucial for gleaning the perfect tones out of the guitar through the amp. The key is to listen very carefully until you tweak it just right.

Effects

There are many different types of effects or signal processors such as:

• Reverb and delay
• Chorus and flanger
• Distortion and wa-wa
• Compressor/limiter
• Equalizer

These effects should be used sparingly, if at all. And they should be tweaked with the utmost care or else they'll spoil your sound. Much of the pure guitar tone is lost by looping the signal through outboard circuits already, so any miscalculations on control settings could be ruinous. The more outboard gear in your loop, the more signal loss.
So rackmountable systems with racks upon racks of effects are not necessary and may be a crutch to compensate for lack of talent.