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The modern guitar family is a large one; the instrument,
as it has evolved, has split into several sub-groups, each of which
is suited for a particular style of music or playing. Below is a
round up of the main types of guitar.
 Acoustic
Guitar (Steel-string / folk)
Whilst the term ‘acoustic guitar’ strictly
also applies to the classical guitar, nowadays it is almost always
used to describe the steel-string guitar. It’s an extremely
versatile instrument, and can be played with a plectrum (pick) or
with the fingers. Many people enjoy the acoustic guitar simply by
learning a few chords and using it as an accompaniment instrument.
However, it is capable of performing very complex music, and is
a much ‘freer’ discipline than the classical guitar,
with a wide range of playing styles and techniques. It is traditionally
used for folk / blues music, but its use in mainstream pop and rock
music is currently booming.
Famous acoustic guitarists include:
Nick Drake, Tommy Emmanuel, Davy Graham, John Renbourne, Bert Jansch,
Gordon Giltrap
 Classical
Guitar (Nylon-string / Spanish Guitar)
The classical guitar has its own technique and its
players tend to concentrate more on music reading and interpretation
than improvisation. (Although, as ever, there are exceptions.) Classical
guitar repertoire ranges from renaissance music inherited from the
lute and vihuela to modern compositions from contemporary composers.
Classical guitars are strung with nylon strings, the bottom three
of which are wound with metal. Don’t whatever you do string
a classical guitar with acoustic guitar strings – the higher
tension may cause irreparable damage. Click here
for an article on the origins of the classical guitar.
Famous Classical guitarists include:
Julian Bream, John Williams, Andres Segovia, David Russell, Narciso
Yepes.
 Electric
Guitar
Nowadays for many people the word ‘guitar’
means ‘electric guitar’. Electric guitars come in a
wide array of shapes and sizes, and choice can sometimes be a fashion
statement rather than a musical one. Today a very good electric
guitar can be bought for very little money. Of course, at the other
end of the scale, electric guitars can be bought as investments
for thousands of pounds, especially if they have some sort of rock
pedigree.
Electric guitars rely on amplification to produce
anything but an extremely quiet tinny sound. (That said, many a
song has been written using an unamplified electric guitar.) Even
in hollow-bodied semi-acoustic electric guitars the sound is produced
by amplification.
Electric guitar playing can range from strumming a few chords as
a song accompaniment to virtuoso lead playing.
The need for a means of amplifying an acoustic guitar
arose when big band orchestras increased in size in the 1930’s,
and the guitar could no longer be heard over the rest of the instruments.
Various innovators, including Les Paul and Adolph Rickenbacher looked
into ways of achieving this, and the means of using magnetic pickups
to produce electrical current from the vibration of the strings
that was developed at the time is still in use today.
The electric guitar is usually played with a plectrum,
and its role is generally as part of an ensemble, playing either
rhythm or lead parts. (Of course, there are exceptions to this,
but it is far less frequent to see an electric guitar being played
solo than an acoustic guitar.)
Different kinds of solid-bodied electric guitars, despite their
lack of any sound chamber, produce different and distinctive sounds.
For example, the Fender Telecaster (or 'Tele') is known for producing
a more 'trebly' sound than a Fender Stratocaster ('Strat'). Gibsons
traditionally produce a warmer, thicker sound than Fenders (mainly
due to their usually being fitted with 'Humbucker' pickups.) The
design of a guitar also affects the sound that it produces because
it affects the way the guitar is played. For example Jazz guitar
necks are often very thin, to facilitate extremely fast chord changes
and soloing (often aided by having flatwound strings). This engenders
‘jazzy’ style playing. A guitar designed for heavy-rock
musicians, such as the Ibanez JEM series, would have a very low
action (the distance between the strings and the neck), allowing
for very fast playing.
Click here to
read an article on the different types of electric guitar, and the
players who use them.
Electro-acoustic
Electro-acoustic guitars are simply acoustic guitars
fitted with a pickup device that can feed the sound to an amplifier.
Dreadnought
A large kind of acoustic guitar with a deep body,
originally designed by Martin guitars. They are generally very loud,
with a powerful bass response.
Resonator Guitars
A guitar that has metal resonator cones in its body
to produce a load and distinctive sound. Mostly associated with
blues music. The most famous makers of resonator guitars were Dobro,
a brand now owned by Gibson.
Semi-acoustic
Semi-acoustic guitars are electric guitars that have
a hollow body and pickups. Examples include the Gibson ES-175.
Pedal-steel
Developed from lap-steel guitars, these instruments
are played horizontally on a stand. Notes are stopped with a metal
bar rather than against the fret wire, and a number of pedals can
change the pitch of the strings. Playing can be of a virtuoso level,
and the sound is instantly identifiable as a main constituent of
American country music.
Ukulele (Uke)
A small, four-stringed instrument with origins in
Hawaii (ukulele is roughly ‘jumping flea’ in Hawaiian).
Currently enjoying a huge boom across the world due to its handy
size and accessibility. Whether this is a cult phenomenon or not
remains to be seen.
© 2008 by guitarnet.info
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