Some Interesting Facts about the Guitar

The guitar is a popular musical instrument, which utilizes strings to produce its sound – typically it’s made with six strings but there also exist varieties that incorporate four, seven, eight, ten and twelve-string configurations to achieve different results.Guitars are considered an important instrument in many musical styles like blues, country, flamenco, rock and even pop. Playing the instrument acoustically, the guitar produces its sounds by vibrating the strings and modulating the sound through the hollow body. Electronic manipulations may also be performed on the sound through the use of an amplifier.There are various combinations of woods, with either nylon or steel strings out there, which are used in the construction of guitars. The one who makes and repairs string instruments such as guitars is called a “luthier.”The history of the guitar’s development – and that of similar string instruments in general – can be traced back at least 5,000 years ago, when synthetic materials weren’t available for the production of guitars, and the instrument was defined as “a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back instrument, usually with incurved sides.”

There are two main distinctive types of guitars:

Acoustic guitars utilize a soundboard in order to produce the sound that they’re associated with. There isn’t any need for an external arrangement or additional devices in order to produce the sound – which makes the acoustic guitar noticeably quieter than most other types of guitars and band/orchestra instruments in general, and usually an external amplifier can be used to make the guitar sound more audible, and to match the sound of other band instruments. The most recent models of acoustic guitars also come with various different pick-ups for amplifying and modifying the base sound of the instrument.

Within acoustic guitars, there are several sub-categories – classical guitars, flamenco guitars, steel string models, and various more specialized ones such as twelve-string guitars, arch-top guitars and harp guitars.

Electric guitars, on the other hand, feature solid bodies that may be either semi-hollow or completely hollow. The sound they produce is low without amplification, which is why you need to use an amplifier which forms an important part of the whole playing experience. Vibrations of steel strings converted into electric signals by electromagnetic pick-ups are fed through to an amplifier, using a cable or radio transmitter. The sound is usually modified either with electronic devices or through the use of distortion of valves naturally. The pick-ups are two types here – single line or double line, each of which can be either passive or active. Electric guitar sound is used most commonly in jazz, rock-n-roll and blues.

Construction of the guitar is based on whether you’re left- or right-handed. Typically, players use their dominant hand for plucking the strings – which would be the right hand for most people. The other hand is used on the frets for depressing and gripping the strings.

You should also consider purchasing various accessories that can make your playing a more pleasant experience, like a plectrum (also called a guitar pick, used for picking the strings) and slides.

If you want to know more about great accessories and other equipment call Glenn Sutton 619-306-3664 right now to get started.