Guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar also vary, producing a variety of sounds. The three main types of guitars are the electric guitar, the classical guitar, and the acoustic guitar where tone is produces by vibration of the strings and modulated by the whole body.

Before, guitar was defines as being the instrument having a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back most often with incurved sides.

Types of Guitars

Acoustic Guitars – not dependent on external device to be heard but uses a soundboard which is a wooden piece mounted on the front of the guitar’s body. It is quieter than other instruments commonly found in bands or orchestras so when playing within such group it is often externally amplified.

Classical Guitars – typically strung with nylon strings, played in a seated position and are use to play a diversity of musical styles including classical music. The classical guitar’s wide and flat neck allows the musician to play scales, arpeggios and certain chord forms more easily and with adjacent string interference than on other styles of guitar.

Renaissance and Baroque Guitars – substantially smaller and more delicate than the classical guitar and generate a much quieter sound. They have 4 or 5 strings and often used as rhythm instruments in ensembles than as solo instrument.

Modern 10-string Guitar – adds 4 string tunes in such a way that they can resonate in unison with any of the 12 chromatic notes that can occur on the higher strings.

Electric Guitars – have solid, semi-hollow or hollow bodies and produce little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups convert the vibration of the steel strings into electrical signals which are fed to an amplifier through a cable or radio transmitter.

Guitar Parts

Headstock – located at the end of the guitar neck furthest from the body, fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings, which in turn affects the pitch.

Nut – small strip of bone, plastic, brass, corian, graphite, stainless steel or other medium hard material, at the joint where the headstock meets the fretboard.

Fretboard – also called fingerboard, is a piece of wood embedded with metal frets that comprises the top of the neck.

Frets – are metal strips embedded along the fretboard and located at the exact points that divide the scale length in accordance with a specific mathematical formula.

Truss Rod – a metal rod that runs along the inside of the neck. It is used to correct changes to the neck’s curvature caused by the neck timbers aging, changes in humidity or to compensate for changes in the tension of strings.

Inlays – visual elements set into the exterior surface of the guitar.

Neck – a wooden extension where guitar’s frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock and truss rod all attached.

Heel – point at which the neck is either bolted or glued to the body of the guitar.

String – made of metal, polymers or animal or plant product materials.

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