As broad as their sounds are, there are several very distinct similarities and differences between electric and acoustic guitars. For instance, both utilize the use of a body for the neck to attach to and a neck with frets for finger placement. The strings attach to the lower end of the body and go all the way to the head, or the top of the neck. They both use strings that vary in gauge, or size, which are vital to produce sound when they are picked, hammered on, or strummed as a group. Similarly, each is tuned in the same manner to produce the proper tone desired. An acoustic guitar needs no amplifier to make its sound loud enough to be heard. An acoustic guitar uses the body of the guitar as its amplifier. Because the body is very thick and hollow it is able to project its own natural sound loudly. This makes it very portable and capable of being played virtually anywhere. An acoustic guitar doesn’t need any foot pedals, volume and tone knobs, or any other hardware like that to produce the sound it makes. An electric guitar is very hard to hear without an amplifier. An electric guitar requires the use of an amplifier to transport the sound though pickups that are secured in the body. These sounds are transferred through a cable connected to the guitar. The cable then goes to the amplifier which produces the sounds out of the speakers. Volume and tone knobs on the electric guitar can make it louder or change the sound of the strings being played. Additionally, foot pedals can be added to produce even more different sounds so that the musical capabilities of the electric guitar are almost limitless. There’s not a lot of music that I listen to that doesn’t have some sort of electric or acoustic guitar in the mix, either as the main instrument or as small as a fill in for a certain sound. The genre of the music frequently dictates which type of guitar should be used.