All About Guitars

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Types of Guitars

There are three types of guitars that I will be discussing in this website. That is:

  • Acoustic Guitars
  • Electric Guitars
  • Bass Guitars

Acoustic Guitar  Electric Guitar  Base Guitar

Acoustic Guitars

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic means to transmit the strings' vibrational energy to the air in order to produce a sound. This typically involves the use of a sound board and a sound box to amplify the vibrations of the string.The source of sound in an acoustic guitar is the string, which is plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. The string vibrates at a fundamental frequency but also creates many harmonics at different frequencies. The frequencies produced depend on string length, mass, and tension. The string causes the soundboard and sound box to vibrate, and as these have their own resonances at certain frequencies, they amplify some string harmonics more strongly than others, hence affecting the timbre produced by the instrument. The two most common string types on an acoustic guitar is the nylon string and steel string. These two different string types produce different tones and tone lengths, also the nylon string tends to be easier for beginers to play as it is softer on the fingers. Here is a good link to nylon strings and steel strings for more information about the differences between the two.



Electric Guitars

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical impulses. The most common guitar pickup uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker. Since the output of an electric guitar is an electric signal, the signal may easily be altered using electronic circuits to add "colour" to the sound. Often the signal is modified using effects such as reverb and distortion. This type of guitar is very popular with heavy metal bands as the sound can be distorted to make it sound very different from an acoustic guitar. The electric guitar uses an amplifier or amp to prject its sounds. Based on the amplifier, the guitar will give different qualities of sound. Amplifiers come in different Watt's, this is the base of the power and quality of sound that will be produced.



Bass Guitars

The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and four, five, six, or eight strings. The four-string bass—by far the most common—is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest pitched strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the bass guitar is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances. The bass guitar is used in all kinds of music around the world as it gives a deep sound and rhythm to the song or melody.


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