Woods are the primary components in the construction & sound of any guitar and so it should be considered as an important element. Another important aspect is the use of double tops/ backs which helps to create more projection. An electric guitar should use a solid wood instead of laminated to form a particular sound.
Similarly Rosewood is chosen because of its comfort towards the human touch. The major disadvantage of the “factory” approach in construction of a guitar is that it is constructed keeping in mind pre set specifications. The construction and components of a guitar should be known as it plays a vital role in deciding which guitar should be purchased. A guitarist can play any type of music regardless of which type of guitar he is playing. The body shape of a guitar has negligible impact over the quality of sound it can produce.
Different Guitars Have Different Construction
Market offers different types of guitars depending upon how they are actually constructed. Acoustic guitars are very popular and made up of large wood that are hollow & have a round-hole (also known as sound hole) in its body besides the strings. Acoustic guitars are non-electric guitars. Generally electric guitars are characterized by an amplifier or headphones which are required to play it.
Electric Guitars Are Of 2 Types.
1. Solid Body Guitars-
They are very solid. Solid body guitars are very popular as they can be used for all types of rock and roll music. Some popular solid guitars are the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson SG. Fender Stratocaster are one of the most popular guitars. While Gibson SG are very attractive but quite expensive.
2. Hollow Body Guitars-
They are hollow deep inside and are popular among jazz and blue artists.
Components Of A Guitar
There Are 3 Main Components Of Any Guitar.
1. The Body–
Acoustic guitars have basic body while electric guitars have a bit more over it. They need pickups to ‘pick-up’ the vibrations formed by the string to send them through the ‘electronics’ and then to the amplifier/head phones. The bridge of an electric guitar is a hardware piece attached to its body which is further attached by the strings. The bridge is somewhat similar; some have floating bridge. Floating is preferred by blues and jazz artists.
2. The Neck-
The neck connects the body & the head. The metal strips covering the neck divides the notes called frets. There are 2 types of necks. Most guitars have a neck apart from its body while some have a straight neck or you may say that the entire guitar is a single piece itself. This is considered to be a good quality as there are fewer chances that the neck losses or disjoint in any case if not taken proper care.
3. The Head-
The head is the topmost part of a guitar where the entire tuning pins are set. Head has all the setting to set up strip. Guitarist can use those keys to lose or stretch the metal strips.
Author Bio
Rachel is a music lover who also loves to blog. She has started learning guitar which made her write this article. She is referring to spytunes.com to get some tips on learning guitar.