An electric guitar has pickups. They’re mounted between the end of the neck (where the frets get really really small) and the bridge, (where the strings are stretched from at the base of your guitar).

These pickups are actually electro-magnets that produce a magnetic field around your strings. (Remember, the strings are metal, right?)

So, when you pluck the string, and it vibrates up and down really fast, the metal string is creating “vibrations” in the magnetic field. It’s these vibrations that are transmitted through your pickups as a signal that goes to your amp.

This signal is very weak, but it’s there. Your amp takes that signal and force feeds it a Red Bull, Monster, And Double Shot Espresso all at the same time, and gets it full of energy, therefore making it louder.

Then that louder signal gets passed to your speaker (which is a big magnet attached to a cone), and the speaker vibrates that SAME signal from your string, only now it’s loud enough to annoy your mom, or your neighbors.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox