h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Electric Guitar - A3913238
Author: Red Fox- A Creature of the Night (You did WHAT?!?) - U179935

This is essentially a Re-Write of the Existing "Electric Guitars" Edited entry. I poked around and found that no one had done a complete entry on em', so I did.

It certainly looks like a good update!

I don't have time to go through it properly now, but firstly, I'd suggest reducing the number of footnotes. If it doesn't have to be in one, put it in the main body of the text.

Secondly, you may need to take out the picture. If the eds want a picture, they'll usually put one in themselves. However, it may be different as this is an update and the existing entry has a picture.

Wait for someone who knows before you take it out.

Great job! I dare say someone will be along soon to point out typos and so on.

The existing entry is A189443 and is certainly in dire need of an update!

Yes. I've had a quick glance through your proposed update. Good work! It will become the new Entry on Electric Guitars.

But we're going to have do a bit of tidying first, and you're going to have to be patient with me. Because updates are not passed onto a sub-editor for polishing. You're going to have to do the polishing yourself. But don't worry. We'll take it slow and get this thing into the Guide.

I'll start suggesting stuff tomorrow.

*holds breath*

Red Fox, you can't begin to get away with this statement: "They make it the only instrument in the world that tries to create an electronic sound rather than exactly reproduce an amplified signal of the original instrument"

Most of the early Buchla and Moog synthesizers were designed to produce unique sounds. BBC Radio had (and perhaps still has) an amazingly high tech and futuristic foley department. John Cage spends a lot of time modifying instruments to produce weird sounds, and Pierre Schaeffer created the first tape distortions with his musique concrete.

Ah, I should have been more specific: That the AMPLIFIER is like that, and it is the ONLY instrument that has an amplifier that is designed to modify the sound.

after all, w/ a moog, you just want it loud. not changed. or feedbacky.

Will change it so it makes more sense!

made that one, I'll look at the footnotes and see how many I can change when I get the chance.

2 things:
1. the picture was in the original entry, and
2. Far the most part, this is a direct text dump from a research paper I did about 2 years ago (which is why I dove into this w/o any hesitation). That might help explain the amount of footnotes.

Thanks for the help and editing!

Like Gnomon, I shall have to come back to this one too, but on a first quick read-through I noticed this:

"The first step toward a louder guitar was the introduction of steel strings instead of nylon, in about 1850"

Nylon wasn't invented until 1935. Perhaps you meant 1950?

gut strings it is then.

Thanks!

Reduced the number of footnotes as much I as I could, the rest are impossible to fit in without screwing up the flow of the language.

what's next?

OK. Here is a long list of changes. Some of them are because of mis-spellings, some because our House Style insists on things slightly different from what you might expect and some because we use British spelling.

The Electric Guitar is a very loud --> The electric guitar is a very loud (no need for capitals)
The Electric guitar is unique --> The electric guitar is unique
among it's modern peers --> among its modern peers
Hooligans and Counter-Culture musicians --> hooligans and counter-culture musicians
"extended solo" --> 'extended solo'
(In the 1980's, of course,) --> (in the 1980s, of course)
almost all of the Guitars I mention --> almost all of the guitars mentioned here (you're not supposed to mention yourself in entries)
Located at the Smithsonian ( ! ) --> located at the Smithsonian Institution.
early 1920’s --> early 1920s
for one purpose: Volume --> for one purpose: volume
Now known as "Classical Style" Acoustics --> now known as 'classical style' acoustics
began to emerge -- insert a space before began.
Spanish (Vertically held) Style guitars --> Spanish-style (vertically held) guitars

The steel was brighter and louder, however, it also put far more tension on the neck -->
The steel was brighter and louder, but it also put far more tension on the neck

“X bracing” --> 'X bracing'
named for its shape --> named after its shape
Instrument Co. strictly --> Instrument Co strictly
aluminum resonator cones --> aluminium resonator cones
The first “electric”, Spanish Style guitar --> The first 'electric' Spanish-style guitar
the true creator of the Electric guitar --> the true creator of the electric guitar
“The Frying Pan” --> 'The Frying Pan'
a Hollow body F-hole4 Arch top --> a hollow body F-hole4 arch top
Kalamazoo Michigan --> Kalamazoo, Michigan
May 10, 1936 --> 10 May, 1936
the mid 1940’s --> the mid 1940s

I've checked as far as the heading "The First Solid Body".

changed all of the above, also made changes according to some of the things i saw above.

most issues now are going from American to British spellings.

I hope

I haven't time to look at any more of this, but I'll certainly get to eventually. I hope you're not in a hurry because things don't move quickly in the Update Forum.

Who is INCORRECTLY...->who is incorrectly ...

Paul made->Paul made himself

Jazz guitar->jazz guitar



I've seen vintage electric guitars which are just ugly logs with strings on them, no body at all. Are these Les Paul desgins, too?



Far from ...California, Leo Fender, -> Far from ...California, lived Leo Fender. He was a...

Jazz musicians->jazz musicians

Telecaster, produced->Telecaster. It was produced [or] This special timbre was produced...



"very small central core" I have no idea what this means, based on what I know and reading the rest of your article.



1800s Gibson->are you sure you mean this here? Your early history is a little sketchy as written, and I don't know about stuff this early, so I don't know if you might mean 1900s here, instead.



Tremolo Bridge-> if this is a brand name, you need to capitalize it everywhere in your article. If it is not, you need to remove the capitalizations here.

what's a humbucker?

Electric Guitar-> Electric guitar (Gnomon mentioned something like this earlier, so you may want to check over your article again for similar)

bassier tone, while...-> bassier tone. Plastics...

Low Pass Filter->I've seen these on original Moogs, so I know this isn't a special name or a brand name. It should be low pass filter.

strings tension-> strings' tension



I'm sure there's more, but I only looked at the section Gnomon didn't, and stopped at string tension, so there might be more. (And Gnomon's better at this than I am, so he will likely find stuff I missed)

first off, 1800's is right. Gibson was a Luthier company, and they've been making acoustic guitars forever, before electrics. My history is very good, actually, and it's the body shape i'm referring to.

second, while you are kind of right, it was the name of the guitar Les Paul actually built. also, are you sure that those guitars weren't hawaiian style, which have no frets and are always solid, played w/ slides on the lap.

corrected the errors... thanks!

Hey, do you think that a visual timeline would help?

The reason I was confused by 1800s was:

"The creation of the electric guitar began somewhere in the early 1920’s..."

and the line about the Gibson Luthiers in the Spanish electric guitar section which mentions 1935. So your history may very well be complete (my knowledge starts with synthesizers) but this line and your verb tenses made it look to me like there was something missing during those 120-ish years.

HAY GUYZ

Let me know about more typos!