There are many benefits of using electric guitars as opposed to acoustic guitars.

The acoustic guitar has a limited volume, where as the electric guitar can be amplified to be as loud as possible. Acoustic guitars can be amplified as well but that increases the volume of the unwanted noise. Usually, the louder the amplification is on an acoustic guitar, the more chance there is of feedback, which comes across as a loud annoying wail. The signal the electric guitar sends isn't a direct translation of the sound the string makes, but rather is based on the actual mechanical vibration of the string. This eliminates amplifying any random sounds the string or guitar might make.

Electric guitars can also be easilly modified to make sounds never available to the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar has its own rich sound, but the range of sounds the electric guitar produces is infinite. Altering the electric signal the guitar sends to the amplifier is easilly done. The sound the pickup produces can also be changed by simply adjusting the position of the pickup underneath the strings. This is why most guitars have more than one pickup, not because more than one is needed to pickup the vibration, but because it allows the guitar player to adjust which pickups are used. A pickup close to the bridge of the guitar produces a much more bright and high pitched metallic sound as opposed to closer to the neck which produces a more bassy and powerful sound. By simply adjusting which pickups are used, a more diverse range of sounds can be created.

diagram of different positions of pickups

Many guitar produced today have a combination of 2 or 3 pickups along with a switch that lets the player control which ones are being used. Most Gibson guitars have 2 pickups, one near the neck and one near the bridge. They each have their own tone and volume adjustment knobs and there is a switch that turns either both or each one on seperately. Fenders on the other hand have 3 pickups with a 5 position switch, with bridge pickup, bridge and center, all three, center and neck, and just neck pickups. Each position has a different tone and sound.

The actual amount of wire coiled around each bobbin also has an effect on the sound that is produced. The actual resistance in the wire can also change and change the amound of amplification needed for each guitar.

The number of things that can alter the sound the pickup produces is uncountable, allowing a vast range of sounds that the electric guitar can produce. Without it, modern music wouldn't be the way it is today.