electric guitar

American  

noun

1. a guitar equipped with electric or magnetic pickups that permit its sound to be amplified and fed to a loudspeaker.

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electric guitar British  

noun

1. an electronically amplified guitar, used mainly in pop music Compare acoustic guitar

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Etymology

Origin of electric guitar

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

In 1951, Leo Fender, a California designer and manufacturer of musical instruments, built and sold the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar, the Telecaster.

From The Wall Street Journal

We hear a Fender Rhodes piano, strummed electric guitar and a spare trumpet, conjuring images of a late night in a smoky club.

From The Wall Street Journal

She’s 16, and by now she knows how to issue perfect sound bites: “I think every citizen should be given an electric guitar on her sixteenth birthday.”

From Salon

“People think I’m on drugs because of my appearance,” says Joe H., a lanky, long-haired brunette holding an electric guitar on his lap.

From The Wall Street Journal

He extended the bell idea with the jangly celeste, also known as a bell piano, and he augmented those bells with a small string ensemble, a choir and, at one point, even an electric guitar.

From Los Angeles Times