Epiphone

Epiphone

Epiphone is a brand with a varied selection of guitars. Models can possess different body types, materials, and other characteristics, which give them different tones. These also affect the weight and balance of the instrument.

Like other brands, Epiphone uses three different body types. The standard is the solid body. This is a compact format where the body contains wiring but has no resonating chamber. That means acoustic play is not possible. Without an amplifier, the sound does not carry far.

The opposite type is a hollow body. These are mainly acoustic guitars with added circuitry and pickups. In tone, they are most like a traditional guitar. For that reason, the type of wood used in a hollow body electric guitar is especially important.

The place in between a solid and a hollow body is a semi-hollow body. A semi-hollow has a small resonating chamber. The effect is a tone that plays like a solid body but has additional undertones and harmonics that deepen the live sound. The right one for you depends on what type of music you intend to play.

Although there are left-handed Epiphone guitars, not all types come with a left-handed version. To play lefty, there are two approaches: to restring a right-handed electric guitar and to buy a left-handed version. Most right-handed electric guitars can be flipped upside down with the strings in reverse order, but a player may find a left-handed version more suited to playing comfortably. Any set of strings will fit either a lefty or righty electric guitar, and the same goes for power cables and straps. Epiphone offers vintage instruments custom-tailored to both types of players.

The most common configuration is six strings. The basic tuning is EADGBE, although there are many alternative tunings for different songs and genres. Extreme metal and some related categories sometimes use seven strings while exotic models can have even more strings.

However, not all of these strings are the same; some are drone strings that simply reflect the strumming of the main strings. The tone can be completely different across different configurations, and the farther they get from the standard six strings, the more specialized they are. More strings can also permit a wider variety of tunings, at least for designs that do not include drone strings. For instance, a guitar with 12 strings offers a distinct and different tone from six-string archtop instruments.