The sound of the speaker and cabinet is crucial to the sound of the electric guitar, so much so that it needs to be considered part of the instrument's tone. If the clean signal from a guitar amplifier or pre-amplifier is captured directly (i.e., before it is sent to a speaker cabinet) it will very often be rather brittle and thin, with no "resonant" depth, particularly if the guitar signal is from a string pickup (i.e., the type used in a solid-body electric guitar). Vibration pickups, or microphone pickups, as used in many hollow body electro-acoustic guitars, aren't as strongly affected. The result can sound excessively shrill, scratchy and fizzy, completely different from the smooth tones that listeners hear in recordings or live performances.