All About The Guitar - An Overview

About The Guitar - Guitar Overview The guitar is the most played instrument in the world of music and the oldest surviving acoustic guitar is believed to have been made around 1779 in Italy by Gaetano Vinaccia. However evidence of “guitar like” instruments have been dated back about 5000 years!

Electric guitars on the other hand are a reasonably new development in the world of guitars. The first patent ever registered for the electric guitar was made by George Beauchamp in 1936. George later teamed up with Adolph Rickenbacher and started a guitar manufacturing company called the “Electro String Instrument Company” which is known today as Rickenbacker.

Rickenbacker guitars are now very popular all over the world and became famous when “The Beatles” started using their guitars. There are 2 other electric guitar manufacturers that really stand out in the guitar world, they are Gibson & Fender.

Gibsons flagship guitar is probably the most popular electric guitar in the world today, the model is the Gibson Les Paul while Fenders top selling electric guitar is the Fender Stratocaster and is also a hugely popular model.

Guitar Types

Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitars are made generally out of 2 pieces of timber…the neck and the body. An acoustic guitar is hollow and is not required to be plugged in to produce sound. These guitars are probably the most popular guitars for people who wish to learn to play the guitar. Acoustic guitars can be played using an amplifier if required by using what is called a pickup. The pickup is placed underneath the stings and has a cord which is plugged into the amplifier, the pickup picks up the sound from the strings and transfers that sound to the amplifier.

Semi-Acoustic Guitar

The Semi-Acoustic or Acoustic-Electric guitar is basically the same as the standard acoustic guitar with one exception…it has a built-in pickup and input jack so that you can plug in a cord and attach the guitar to an amplifier.

The Semi-Acoustic guitar also has switches built in so you can adjust the tone/volume/bass etc.

Classical Guitar

Best guitar for learning the guitar Classical Guitars are also called “nylon-string” or “spanish” guitars and are used almost exclusively in the classical and folk genre, but can also be found on more popular music. Carlos Santana makes a lot of use of the classical guitar in his recordings.

Slightly smaller than a traditional acoustic, they feature slightly wider necks and strings that are made of nylon rather than steel, to give them a very gentle, warm sound.

Rather than using a pick, the classical guitar is traditionally played using the fingers. The classical guitar is also a great choice for learning the guitar as the strings tend not to hurt the fingers as much as the steel strings of an ordinary acoustic guitar.

Electric Guitar

Gibson Les Paul and Marshall Amplifier The Electric Guitar is generally a solid bodied guitar that is either made from 1 or 2 pieces of timber. The more expensive electric guitars are made from a single piece of handcrafted timber, these are widely considered to be the best electric guitars as the neck of the guitar tends not to warp as much as the 2 piece cheaper versions.

The electric guitar is generally plugged into an amplifier and uses pick ups to capture the sound from the strings and transfer that sound to the amplifier.

Electric guitars are used in all types of music but are probably best known to be used in the Rock music scene. The sound of an electric guitar can be changed to suit each individual guitarist by using “effects pedals” these pedals are plugged in between the guitar and the amplifier, one pedal that is popular is the “Cry Baby” pedal that was made famous by Jimi Hendrix in his song Purple Haze.

Bass Guitar

A bass guitar is a 4 stringed guitar designed for playing the lower notes in a piece of music. Instead of the standard six strings of a guitar, the bass guitar generally has four strings, these strings are very thick and make a lot deeper sound compared to that of a standard electric guitar.

The most popular types of bass guitar are the semi-acoustic and the electric bass guitars. The bass guitar is used for playing the bass line in a song.

There are many more different types of guitars available, but the ones that have been mentioned above are by far the most popular guitars used anywhere today.