Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar ( acoustic guitar ) is a guitar, in which the tone and sound amplification without electronics, purely mechanically done.
In acoustic guitars, the sounds produced by plucking or striking the strings. The body of the guitar amplifies the sound. Particularly crucial to the sound quality of the material and the ceiling (the wood panel, which faces the strings ). This is made for a pearly, hard sound predominantly cedar (eg for Spanish guitar music) and for a more singing, mellow sound of spruce wood (eg for romantic music). Very inexpensive guitars are also made of laminates or plain plywood.
For some time, there are also so-called electro-acoustic guitars. It is acoustic guitar with built-in pickup. Thus, the tone as in the electric guitar are output through an amplifier.
Classical Guitar
The corpus of high-quality classical guitar is usually built from rosewood for back and sides and spruce or red cedar for the ceiling. Especially popular was for back and sides of the protected rosewood. Today, various types of mahogany, ovangkol, but also domestic woods such as maple or cherry are used for the construction of back and sides. The neck is usually made of Cedro, maple or mahogany, the fingerboard made of ebony or rosewood.
Most classical guitars are hand polished with a shellac resin mixture on alcohol base. " Shellac " as the mixture is often called simplistic, has the advantage that it can be any time polished to a high gloss and thus vanish small scratches again. But above all, it represents the thinnest surface protection for the wood, allowing the ceiling so largely unhindered swing. However, shellac requires a consistent maintenance and re-polishing in order not to look unsightly dull. Coatings with less sensitive nitrocellulose lacquers are now in high-quality instruments also common.
The classical guitar has in comparison to Western and electric guitar a wider fretboard, the normal level of the saddle is 52 mm with a standard scale of 65 cm. For smaller guitarists and guitar students as smaller designs are offered, the size of which is given in fractions of a standard guitar (eg 3/4-Gitarre with Mensurlängen 595-614 mm, with 1/2-Gitarre Mensurlängen 530-547 mm, 1/4-Gitarre with Mensurlängen 472-487 mm). Scale length and body size are reduced in scale, while the string distances not lose weight on the same scale.
The guitar strings are on the bass side ( D, A and E strings, sometimes the g -string) wound nylon silk and with copper or silver wire, on the treble side of solid nylon. More recently, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF ) is used (so-called carbon strings). The material has a higher density than nylon, the strings are therefore thinner at the same pitch and thus more "alive " and more responsive. Historic guitars are still sometimes played with gut strings, which are nowadays made from sheep intestines.
The first concert guitars of today's size and design can be found from the mid-19th century in Spain. The neck is no longer in stringed musical instruments, still common today, inserted in these instruments after the completion of the sound body. Probably the most important luthiers of that period were Antonio de Torres and Gaetano Guadagnini, a relative of the famous violin maker. In Germany the design to Torres significantly by Hermann Hauser ( I) was implemented and disseminated.
Flamenco Guitar
The flamenco guitar is very similar to the classical guitar. Differences are:
- Significantly lower string action on the fretboard, noise is a characteristic of the sound of the flamenco guitar.
- The floor and frame are usually made of cypress wood.
- Total thinner wall thicknesses of ceiling, floor and sides.
- Slightly lower amount of frames
- The equipment with Golpeador. The Golpeador consists of a transparent or white, hard plastic sheet that is above and glued onto the ceiling below the sound hole to avoid damage by the typical flamenco percussion technique Golpe.
Formerly very common wooden pegs were used instead of a tuning machine. The reason is the sound of the guitar head, which provides important heights in the sound of the guitar. At the present time, this technique is only rarely used, since the votes is more difficult.
When choosing the wood of the Flamenco guitar using the guitar plays a big role. For the dance accompaniment a percussive instrument is needed that clearly stands out from the other instruments. For solo pieces are often used as well as rosewood, these guitars are approaching then sound of the concert guitar - because of the low string action they sound but still a bit "dirty".
Overall, a sound is achieved through the construction, which is percussive and sharper than with a concert guitar. Response and volume are significantly better, but results in a more shorter sustain - Flamenco an advantage. Typical of match practice the flamenco guitar is the use of a capo. It is used to accommodate the vocal range of singers, as well as to achieve certain tones.
( used abbreviation: AH - picking hand, p = thumb i = index finger m = middle finger ring finger a = q = little finger GH - gripping hand; 1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = little finger )
Folk and Acoustic Guitar
In the acoustic guitar, the strings are at the core of steel and have a much higher string tension than nylon strings. The neck is similar to an electric guitar usually narrow and contains - as with almost all steel string guitars - often a neck tie rod to compensate for the train of the steel strings. A string guitar usually has 6 strings ( rarely 7 or 12). The body is greater today than at the classical guitar. There are different shapes: dreadnought, jumbo, grand auditorium, auditorium and Parlour. The fingerboard is usually arched. The top is usually made of spruce, rare cedar. For back and sides different woods are used, for example, rosewood, mahogany, American walnut, zebrano and Padouk. However, some manufacturers also offer instruments for which the body is wholly or partly made of high quality composite materials. The key figures in the development of this design was Charles Kaman, founder of Ovation.
The higher tensile forces on the ceiling are stabilized by a modified top and bottom bracing ( bracing ). Here the so-called X - Bracing often applies. The name stems from the form of two directly below the sound hole intersecting stabilization bars. The invention of this Beleistungssystems is the guitar maker Christian Friedrich Martin attributed, who emigrated in the 19th century in the U.S., and founded the " Martin Guitar Company ". However, it was almost simultaneously used by other luthiers German origin. According to this design, almost all steel string guitars are built to this day. To improve the response of the instrument, even the " scalloped X - bracing " is often used. Here, the bars of the guitar top be tapering at different locations to increase or decrease certain resonances of the instrument. This machining operation should be performed individually by an experienced luthier. " Scalloped bracing " is therefore to be found mainly in high-quality instruments. Among the most sought after, currently available models in the high quality sector and upper price segment include the Western Guitars from CF Martin, Gibson, Guild, Taylor (all USA), Larrivée and Boucher (both Canada ), Takamine (Japan), Furch Guitars (Czech Republic), Lakewood ( Germany ) and Maton (Australia).
The Folk-/Westerngitarre has a very bright sound, by using a plectrum ( pick engl. ) is still brilliant. To protect the roof from damage by the plectrum, usually a guard ( pickguard ) is mounted below the sound hole.
Occasionally, an acoustic guitar is played with twelve strings. This guitar is in addition to the four lowest strings (E, A, d, and g ) a second, thinner string, which is tuned an octave higher; the two treble strings ( e and h ') are duplicated. This extra strings give a fuller, bright harmonious sound, by slight detuning of the double strings against one another may also arise a chorus effect. Because of the double covering the 12 - string guitar requires significantly more force in the handhold.
Nowadays, many Western guitars are (often a built- in bridge piezo pickup ) equipped with a pickup, preamp with tone control and amplifier connection.
Resonator
The resonator guitar, often called Dobro, is a steel string guitar with a (single cone ) or three ( tri -cone ) mechanical speakers of metal inside the body. The strings give their vibrations on over the to the resonator / resonators associated with the ridge on the cone and put the system into oscillation. By this construction, it is among the loudest unamplified guitars. Often the body of this guitar is made of metal.