PEDIASPOT.web.id - In this first guitar lesson, I will explain the key elements of a guitar and also 4 different types of guitars available...
PEDIASPOT.web.id - In this first guitar lesson, I will explain the key elements of a guitar and also 4 different types of guitars available today.
What Are The Key Elements Of A Guitar?
Parts of an Electric Guitar
The following diagram illustrates the parts of an electric guitar. These are important to know, as I will be referring to each and every one of them throughout this blog.
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| Parts of an Electric Guitar |
Tips: Pickups are the key features of an electric guitar. They are located on the body of the guitar and detect vibrating strings. This signal is then transmitted to an amplifier. Therefore, only steel strings can be detected, but not nylon strings.
Parts of an Acoustic Guitar
The following diagram illustrates a steel string acoustic guitar.
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| Parts of an Acoustic Guitar |
Tips: The parts of an acoustic and electric guitar are very similar. However the key differences to keep in mind are the shape and sound. An acoustic guitar relies on its hollowness to produce the sound whereas an electric guitar relies on the pickups to transmit the sound to an amplifier.
What Are The Different Types Of Guitars Available Today?
There is no such thing as THE BEST GUITAR AVAILABLE. What may suit one person may not suit another. It all depends on you. What type of guitar are you looking for & what features are you after?
There are 4 main types of guitars available today. They are as follows:
Hard Bodied Electric Guitar
Going into a guitar shop, you will find many different shapes, sizes and colors of electric guitars. However they all have 3 main features in common. They are as follows:
- Steel Strings
- Pickups
- Volume/tone controls
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| Hard Bodied Electric Guitar |
One point to keep in mind is that electric guitars are made of 2 types of wood: Plywood and Pure solid wood. Both woods affect the price, weight and the sound of the overall guitar.
The first type of electric guitar is purely made of plywood. What they do is get a few layers of plywood and join them one on top of another. These guitars are lighter and inexpensive. They usually make copies of expensive original guitars using this method. Therefore these are recommended for beginners who are interested in buying an electric guitar.
Pure Solid Wood is the second type. There is no plywood involved in this guitar, and therefore it is a lot heavier. The sound is far superior to using plywood and these guitars usually come with quality pickups as well. These guitars are made by big brand name companies and usually cost around the thousand-dollar mark. The guitar in the picture featured is an example of a Pure Solid Wood Guitar. It is made by Gibson (A highly respected Brand) and costs somewhere in the thousands.
Spanish Classic Acoustic Guitar
Spanish Classic Acoustic Guitars are a great guitar for beginners. They have 3 nylon strings and 3 steel strings, which are very gentle on your fingers. They are also cheaper to purchase and require less maintenance. The neck is a lot broader on Spanish Style Acoustics than a standard acoustic guitar and they don't usually come with pickups either. That means this guitar has only the bare minimum requirements. This is what makes it great for a first guitar.
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| Spanish Classic Acoustic Guitar |
Semi-Acoustic Steel String
The third type of guitar is the Semi-Acoustic Steel String. It has the option to be played as either an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Either way, it is built and designed to have a quality sound. This guitar usually costs a lot more in price and therefore is not recommended for a first guitar. There are many different shapes the Semi-Acoustic guitar comes in. But in the end, it depends on what you like the best. What are you looking for in a guitar? What sort of music are you thinking of playing?
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| Semi-Acoustic Steel String |
Steel String Acoustic
The last type of guitar is the Steel String Acoustic guitar.
This type of guitar varies in shapes and sizes, but it's very similar to nylon string acoustic.
The key difference between the Steel String Acoustic and the Spanish Classic Acoustic is that the Spanish guitar has nylon strings whereas the Steel string does not.
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| Steel String Acoustic |
Having steel strings are also harder on your fingers as opposed to nylon strings.
You can get 12 stringed acoustic guitars as well. These have an absolutely beautiful chorus sound. So, instead of playing 6 single strings, you have 12. They are just like a duplicate of each string. One string is tuned to a standard note and the other is tuned slightly different. 12 stringed acoustic guitars are not recommended for playing leads, but are more for rhythm. They are a little hard to get used to when you first play them but have a really nice sound when you are strumming them as a rhythm guitarist.
Some acoustic guitars don't actually come with pickups in them either. But what you can do is get a basic acoustic for cheap and then buy a single set of pickups that you can then attach to your acoustic guitar and then plug it into an amplifier.
Or else you can get acoustic guitars with a volumes, tone, treble and bass controls built in as in the diagram above. These are a little more expensive, but are all set up for you. All you need to do is plug in your guitar lead and start playing.
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