An electric musical instrument is one in which the use of electric devices determines or affects the sound produced by an instrument. It is also known as an amplified musical instrument due to the common utilization of an electronic instrument amplifier

Instrument amplifier

An instrument amplifier is an electronic amplifier that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal from musical instruments such as an electric guitar, an electric bass, or an electric keyboard into an electronic signal capable of driving a loudspeaker that can be heard by the...

 to project the intended sound as determined by electronic signals from the mechanical instrument. This is not the same as an electronic musical instrument

Electronic musical instrument

An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....

, which uses entirely electronic means to both create and control sound.

As of 2008, most electric or amplified musical instruments are electric versions of chordophone

Chordophone

A chordophone is any musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....

s (including pianos, guitars and violins); an exception is the varitone

Varitone

The Varitone is an amplified saxophone that the Selmer Company introduced in 1965. The Varitone included a small microphone mounted on the saxophone neck, a set of controls attached to the saxophone's body, and an amplifier and loudspeaker mounted inside a cabinet. The Varitone's effects included...

, an amplified saxophone (part of the aerophone

Aerophone

An aerophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound...

 family) that was first introduced by The Selmer Company

The Selmer Company

Henri Selmer Paris company is a French family-owned enterprise, manufacturer of musical instruments based in Paris, France in 1885. It is known for its high-quality woodwind and brass instruments, especially saxophones, clarinets and trumpets...

 in 1965.

List of electric instruments

• Chapman Stick
  Chapman Stick
  The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures...
  
  
• Clavinet
  Clavinet
  A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
  
  
• Console steel guitar
• Daxophone
  Daxophone
  The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category. It consists of a thin wooden blade fixed in a wooden block , which holds one or more contact microphones...
  
  
• Electric banjo
• Electric bass
  Electric Bass
  Electric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
  
  
• Electric cello
  Electric cello
  The electric cello is a type of cello that relies on electronic amplification to produce sound. An acoustic cello can be fitted with a bridge or body mounted contact pickup providing an electric signal, or a built-in pickup can be installed...
  
  
• Electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Electric harp
  Electric harp
  Like electric guitars, electric harps are based on their acoustic originals. There are both solid-body and hollow body electro-acoustic models available...
  
  
• Electric mandolin
  Electric mandolin
  The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar.As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms:...
  
  
• Electric organ
  Electronic organ
  An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
  
  
• Electric piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
  
• Electric saxophone
• Electric sitar
  Electric sitar
  An electric sitar is a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar...
  
  
• Electric thumb piano
• Electric trumpet
• Electric trombone
• Electric upright bass
  Electric upright bass
  The electric upright bass is an electronically amplified version of the double bass that has a minimal or 'skeleton' body, which greatly reduces the size and weight of the instrument. The EUB retains enough of the features of the double bass so that double bass players are comfortable performing...
  
  
• Electric violin
  Electric violin
  An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body...
  
  
• Gittler guitar
  Gittler guitar
  A Gittler Guitar is an experimental designed guitar created by Allan Gittler . Gittler felt that sentimental design references to acoustic guitars are unnecessary in an electronically amplified guitar, and designed his instrument with the objective of reducing the electric guitar to the most...
  
  
• Gravikord
  Gravikord
  The gravikord is an electric double bridge-harp invented by Robert Grawi in 1986.- Description :The gravikord is a new instrument developed on the basis of the West African kora. It is made of welded stainless steel tubing, with 24 nylon strings but no resonating gourd or skin. The bridge is made...
  
  
• Guitar amplifier
  Guitar amplifier
  A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Harpejji
  Harpejji
  The harpejji is an electric stringed musical instrument developed in 2007 by Tim Meeks, founder of Marcodi Musical Products, and is a descendant of the StarrBoard. The instrument aims to bridge the gap in sound and technique between the guitar and the piano...
  
  
• Kiboe
  Kiboe
  The kiboé is a triangular twelve stringed electric instrument, invented by the Berlin-based musician Anuvida, who uses it to create music intended to accompany the practice of reiki.-External references:*...
  
  
• Moodswinger
  Moodswinger
  The Moodswinger is a twelve string electric zither with an additional third bridge designed by Yuri Landman. The rod which functions as the third bridge divides the strings into two sections to cause an overtone multiphonic sound...
  
  
• Pedal steel guitar
  Pedal steel guitar
  The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
  
  
• Pencilina
• Piano Bass
  Keyboard bass
  The keyboard bass is the use of a low-pitched keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the bass guitar or double bass in popular music.-1960s:The earliest keyboard bass instrument was the 1960 Fender Rhodes piano bass, pictured above...
  
  
• Prepared piano
  Prepared piano
  A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers....
  
  
• Prepared guitar
  Prepared guitar
  A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
  
  
• Rhodes piano
  Rhodes piano
  The Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS....
  
  
• Semi-acoustic guitar
  Semi-acoustic guitar
  A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...
  
  
• Subcontrabass guitar
• Tailed bridge guitar
  Tailed bridge guitar
  Some electric guitars have an extended bridge for their tremolo system, named a tailed bridge guitar because of its shape. Most of these tailed bridge guitars were designed in the sixties and used in surf music....
  
  
• Tapboard
  Tapboard
  The term Tapboard is used to describe two separate guitar-based instruments designed to employ variations of the tapping technique.-Origins:The first recorded Tapboard instrument was devised by former It Bites guitarist Francis Dunnery between 1988 and 1989...
  
  
• Third bridge guitar
  3rd Bridge
  The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on some string instruments , that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two bridges...