An Acoustic-electric guitar is an acoustic guitar fitted with pickups, a microphone or transducers. In acoustic-electric guitars, the transducers and microphones are always used because conventional pickups are not capable of picking up vibrations of non-magnetic materials. The design is distinct from a semi-acoustic guitar, which is an electric guitar but with the addition of sound chambers within the guitar body. Usually, acoustic-electric guitars are fitted with piezoelectric pickups, and hence require a preamplifier incorporated into the guitar body to amplify the signal before it travels to the main guitar amplifier. These preamps may also come with tone controls of varying types, but usually equalizers with up to six frequency bands are used. They are also referred to as a "plug-in acoustic guitar", due to their ability to simply "plug in" to a speaker system without the need for microphones.
They are commonly used in folk and sometimes classical music as they possess the sound of an acoustic guitar but more volume if plugged into a speaker system.
The first acoustic-electric guitar was the Ovation Roundback developed by Charles H. Kaman in 1966, built from fiberglass and based on his research as an aerospace engineer into the vibration of helicopter rotor blades. He added electrical pickups to provide the option of amplification. The Kaman Music Corporation, built on the success of the Roundback, became one of the largest music instrument manufacturers in the United States.[1] They can be small.
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