Electric guitars feature pickups and electronics that turn the vibration of the strings into an electrical signal that is then sent to an amplifier. They can be solidbody, semi-hollowbody, or hollowbody guitars. Electric guitars are used in many styles of music including rock, blues, country, jazz, funk, and more.

Electric Body Types

This is where the choices really expand. There are three basic categories: hollowbody, semi-hollowbody and solid body. Within those categories are buried a huge range of choices. Each of these guitars can be non-cutaway, single-cutaway or double-cutaway. If you're mostly playing rhythm, you might not want or need a cutaway guitar. If you're soloing a lot, upper fret access will be more important. 

Hollowbody guitars can be full-depth or thin-line. Thinline hollowbodies have been popular in blues and soul/R&B music. Some hollowbody guitars are simply reduced body sizes from the original acoustic versions, since the pickups eliminate the need for size to obtain volume. Semi-hollowbody designs have long been a standard for blues and jazz players, combining the warmth of a "jazz box" with the feedback resistance of a pure solid-body guitar. 

Since solid-body guitars rely primarily on the pickups for sound, the range of shapes and sizes is truly mind boggling. From traditional forms like the Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul, through the jet-age streamlining of the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jaguar, to the ultra-modern (and sometimes ahead of their time) character of the Gibson Explore and Flying V, guitars became fashion statements as much as purely musical instruments.