Does the shape of the body of an electric Guitar make a difference in the way it sounds?

Question

i was tihnking of making my own, and i know the type of wood makes a difference but does the shape?

Answer 1

Yes  and no

The shape and  material it made of ,the tension and  thickness in the strings ( the steel wire) will effect the the way  along with the experience  of the operator will effect it performances. even the rooms it's played in will affect it.  In fact; I find it amazing that anyone can play it at all. In fact when they first started making the electric guitar; it gave it's designers fits due the resonance of the non electric guitar  had when they tried to do various things  to it (like put a mirco phone in it { it s***w up the sound it made good} , or changes in the wood shape ) so it could amplified  until they figure out that only way to make it work was to do the reverse of how the made non - electric guitar they made the thing solid ,and used magnetic pickup to amplify the string vibrations and use electronics to mix and add resonace to it to make it sound more like a real guitar. in time you could add all kinds of effect to it.

However to answer this mystery. try the following  things

1) How is your guitar getting it pick up( electric signals) ?

2)  try playing it in diffrent rooms . how it sound waves bounce and are absorbed by the room will effect how  it will be heard. that it why two hour before a show the guitarist and his band will do a tuning in session to get there instruments to sound right

3) has for designing your own guitar, read up on the history of it in the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_gu...

http://www.guitarflame.com/

http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerp...

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/e...

http://www.liutaiomottola.com/instrument...

http://www.guitardomain.com/Electric-Gui...

http://inventors.about.com/library/inven...

http://www.electricguitarwebsite.com/

books:

Fender Electric Guitar Book : A Complete History of Fender Guitars

by Tony Bacon, Paul Day

ISBN-13: 9780879308971

Electric Guitars : The Illustrated Encyclopedia

by Tony Bacon, Michael Wright (Contribution by) , Paul Day (Contribution by) , Dave Burrluck (Contribution by)

ISBN-13: 9781592230532

The Electric Guitar : A History of an American Icon

by Andre Millard (Editor) , Joyce Bedi (Foreword by) , Arthur P. Modella (Foreword by)

ISBN-13: 9780801878626

Guild Guitar Book : The Company and the Instruments, 1952-1977

by Hans Moust

ISBN-13: 9780634009662

Electric Guitars

by Rob Goudy, Robert Goudy

ISBN-13: 9780764309649

Building Electric Guitars : How to Make Solid-Body, Hollow-Body and Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars

by Martin Koch

ISBN-13: 9783901314070

Make Your Own Electric Guitar & Bass

by Dennis G. Waring, David Raymond, Thomas Randall (Introduction)

ISBN-13: 9781895569704

Making a Laminated Hollowbody Electric Guitar

by Jim English

ISBN-13: 9781418451356

Make Your Own Electric Guitar

by Melvyn Hiscock, Hiscock, Brian May (Introduction)

ISBN-13: 9780953104901

Electric Guitar Construction

by Tom Hirst

ISBN-13: 9781574241259

The Guitar Resource : A Comprehensive Acoustic/Electric Guitar Manual - Music Theory, Tuning, Setup, Repair, Amplifiers, Electronic Effects, Ear Training, Tablature

by Anthony Verbic

ISBN-13: 9780967187907

I hope this helps

Answer 2

For solid body electrics the shape is pretty much immaterial.  For hollow body, the shape can affect harmonics and resonance.  But as long as the guitar is well made, any differences in sound are not quality issues but more a preference issue.