I:  Acoustic Guitars

     If you like to play folk music, pop, country, jazz, blues, or Christian gospel, then you probably, (but not necessarily), need an acoustic guitar.  What kind of acoustic?  We hope our information pages will provide some basic knowledge to help you choose.  Following is a list of the most familiar acoustic guitars.  We do not sell every guitar on the list.  Some are only included on our list to provide basic information.  This website sells dreadnought, cutaway, and twelve-string acoustic guitars.  We do not carry classical, concert, parlor, or jumbo guitars at this time.

Acoustic guitars are made in flat-top and archtop style.  Archtop acoustic guitars without any electrical hardware can still be found, (if you go shopping for a used guitar), but the archtop style is seldom made as a purely acoustic instrument any more.  Modern archtop guitars are made to be used with an amplifier.  They are discussed at length in the Acoustic/Electric section.  All of the following are flat-top guitars.  

Classical:

    The modern classical guitar is sometimes called the "Spanish guitar"-- due to its origins.  It is called "modern" classical to distinguish it from older forms, which some people also call classical.  The origin of older forms goes back more than four centuries.  The name "classical" does not mean it is used for playing only a classical repertiore  It is often used for folk, jazz, and other styles.  It is frequently used by folk artists who want to preserve an older style of music.  Eventually, at some point, people started stringing the classical guitar with steel strings.  

Steel-String Acoustic Guitar:

     This is a modern form, descended from the classical form, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound.  They are often referred to simply as 'acoustic guitars", although strictly speaking, the nylon-strung classical guitar is acoustic as well.  The most common type can be called a "flat-top guitar" to distinguish it from the more specialized archtop guitar, (see the Acoustic/Electric section).  In general, the proportion, and overall size and shape of the soundbox of a guitar determines the tonal balance and "native sound" of a particular style.  The larger the body, the louder the volume.

Parlor Guitars:

         These guitars are usually 39" long.  They have the smallest soundbox of the classical guitars.  The smaller body produces a quieter instrument.  Designed to be played in small spaces, they were popular from the mid-19th century to the 1950s.  They are a favorite of folk and blues artists, and are commonly meant to be played in a living room.  The name also applies to a style of music known as "parlor music."  Parlor music in general is music from mid-19th to early 20th century.  It includes dance forms: (waltz, polka), arrangements for music popular in mid-19th to early 20th century, operatic arrangements, and arrangements of various European composers.  More formally, a parlor guitar is know as the "00" body style.

"00", "Double-Oh" or "Grand Concert":

     This is the major body style most directly derived from the classical guitar.  It has the thinnest soundbox, and the smallest size of all the major styles, making it comfortable to play, but also one of the quietest.  Their smaller size makes them suitable for younger, or smaller-framed players.  These guitars are commonly called "parlor steels", as they are well-suited for smaller rooms.

Grand Auditorium:

     Sometimes called a "000", or "Triple-Oh", this style is very similar in design to the Grand Concert, but slightly wider and deeper.  Many GA-style guitars also have a convex back panel to increase the volume of space in the soundbox with making the soundbox deeper at the edges, which would affect comfort and playability.  The end result is a very balanced tone, comparable to the 00, but having greater volume and dynamic range, with slightly more low-end response, without sacrificing the ergonomics of the classical style, making these body styles very popular.  Guitarist, Eric Clapton's signature Martin guitar, for example, is in this style.  Manufacturer, Taylor's, GA and x-14 series, and manufacturer, Martin's, 000-xxx series, are well-known examples of the Grand Auditorium style.

Jumbo:   

     A "Jumbo" body style is bigger than a Grand Auditorium, but similarly proportioned, and is generally designed to provide a deeper tone similar to a dreadnought.  The body style was designed by, manufacturer, Gibson, to compete with the dreadnought, but with maximum resonant space, for greater volume and sustain.  This comes at the expense of being oversized, with a very deep sounding box, and thus is somewhat more difficult to play.  The foremost example of this style would be the Gibson J-200.  Like the dreadnought, most guitar manufacturers have at least one jumbo model.     

Dreadnought:

     The Dreadnought style was first designed and manufactured by the C. F. Martin Company for the Oliver Ditson Company in 1916.  C. F. Martin Company began to manufacture this guitar, using it's own label, in1931.  Unfortunately, C. F. Martin didn't trademark the name.  Hence, Dreadnought became a generic name for any guitar of the same style, regardless of manufacturer.  It is characterized by a deeper body than the standard guitar.  The upper portion of the body is slightly smaller, giving it a somewhat wedge-shaped appearance.  These design changes made it louder, with more emphasis on the bass resonance of the instrument.  It was designed to entertain large audiences, (due to the limited amplification available back then).  The Dreadnought is a good accompaniment instrument for someone who plays in a band.  It provides good backup for a lead singer.  It is also an excellent match when the player is a man with a deep voice.

Cutaways:

     Any of these body styles can incorporate a "cutaway."  A cutaway guitar has a redesigned upper bout, (upper part of the body),  that removes a section of the soundbox on the underside of the neck, hence "cutaway."  This allows for easier access to the frets that are located at the top of the soundbox, past the heel of the neck.  The tradeoff is a reduced soundbox volume, and often a change in interior bracing, which can change the resonant qualities, and tone of the instrument.  However, any reduction in the quality of volume, resonance, and tone is so minor that most players disregard it because they like the convenience of a cutaway. 

Twelve-String:

     Twelve-String guitars have richer, more ringing tones than the traditional six-string guitar.  There is a natural chorus effect due to the subtle differene in frequencies produced by each of the two strings in each course.  If you are interested in learning to play this fascinating instrument, your guitar instructor will explain how to une it.

II.     Acoustic/Electric:

     These are also known as electric acoustic, depending on who is talking.  This hybrid between acoustic and electric is an acoustic guitar, with electronic components mounted on the soundbox.  It has volume, bass, mid-range, and treble controls, piezoelectric pickups,(see Definitions) and a preamp, (see Definitions).  It can optionally be played in acoustic mode, without amplification, (an advantage for the beginning player who does not yet have an amplifier).  When practicing at home, it can be plugged into a stereo system, to allow the player to hear it in its amplified state.  When public performance is desired, an amplifier is always used.  Amplification provides the benefit of making the guitar louder, but it does not provide the same variation in sound produced by an electric guitar.  It is available in both flat-top, and archtop style.  Both styles are made with or without a cutaway.

     These guitars are usually fitted with piezoelectric pickups, a microphone or transducers, (see Definitions), and a preamplifier, (see Definitions).  Preamps come with tone controls, but usually, equalizers, (see Definitions), with up to six frequency bands, (see Definitions), are used.  They are referred to as a "plug-in acoustic guitar", due to their ability to "plug-in" to a speaker system without the need for microphones.  They are commonly used for folk, country, and sometimes classical music, as they possess the sound of an acoustic guitar, but have more volume when plugged into a speaker system.  They are also commonly found in Christian gospel music.  The term "electric acoustic", (or acoustic electric) is not synonymous with "semi-acoustic", (which is discussed in the Electric section)

Thin-Body Cutaway:

    These acoustic/electric instruments have a body depth that is thinner than other guitars.  Guitar players like them because they are light-weight, easy to handle, and easy to do a lot of fast picking.  However, there is a trade-off.  The thinner body makes a quieter instrument.  

Archtop: 

     These are steel-string instruments in which the top (and often the back) of the instrument is carved from a solid billet in a curved rather than a flat shape.  This violin-like construction is usually credited to American designer, Orville Gibson (1856-1918).  Lloyd Loar, of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. introduced the violin-inspired f-hole design, now usually associated with archtop guitars, after designing a style of mandolin (1898 patent) of the same type.  The typical archtop guitar has a deep, hollow body, whose form is much like that of a mandolin or violin-family instrument.  Most modern archtops are equipped with piezoelectric pickups, (see Definitions), and are a hybrid of both acoustic and electric.  These are classified as acoustic/electric guitars.  If the electronics consist of pickups other than piezoelectric pickups, they are classified as hollow-body guitars, and belong on the "How to Choose an Electric Guitar" page.  F-hole archtop guitars were immediately adopted upon their release.  They have remained popular with jazz and country musicians, and with big bands and swing bands, (long after big bands and swing bands have gone out of fashion).  While purely acoustic archtop guitars are still manufactured sometimes, they are the exception.  Most archtop guitars manufactured today are intended to be used with an amplifier.  Most of the accessories on archtop guitars, (pickguard, bridge, tuner buttons, knobs, etc.), are made of wood,  (ebony or rosewood) instead of metal, and have a clean acoustic look.

Archtop Construction:

     The top, (and often the back) is either carved from a block of solid wood, or heat-pressed using laminated wood.  The belly, (top), usually has two f-holes.  The lower of these will be partly covered by a scratch-plate raised above the belly so as not to dampen its vibration.  The arching of the top and the two f-holes are similar to the violin family, on which they were originally based.  Archtops are sometimes fitted with thicker strings than conventional acoustic guitars, and have extra strength to allow for this.  Although any true archtop has a rich tone when unamplified, most archtop guitars have some sort of pickup/microphone system.  Most are intended primarily for this purpose.  In that case, they are classified as hollow-body (semi-acoustic) electric guitars.  Refer to the "How to Choose an Electric Guitar" page for more information.  

Various Uses of the Term "Archtop":

     Although "archtop" normally refers to a "hollow-bodied" instrument, some makers of solid-bodied guitars with curved bellies also refer to these as "archtop" to distinguish them from flat-top electric guitars.  For example, Gibson refers to the Gibson Les Paul as an "archtop" to distinguish it from flat-top models, such as Gibson's Les Paul Junior, and Melody Maker.

     A continuum exists from solid-body, purely electrical instruments, to purely acoustic instruments, (similar to the original Orville Gibson design), including:

     *     Solid-body instruments, such as Les Paul Standard, with a carved, but non-sounding belly.

     *     Instruments with a solid core but hollow wings.  In these, the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sounding board, and belly vibration is minimized, much as in a solid-body instrument.

     *     Thin-bodied semi-acoustic instruments.  These possess a sounding board and a sound box, but the functionof these is purely to modify the sound transmitted to the pickups.  Such guitars are still intended as electric instruments.  While they do make some sound when the pickups are not used, the tone is weak, and not normally considered musically useful.

     *     Full hollow-body semi-acoustic instruments.  These have a full-size soundbox, but are still intended to be played through an amplifier.

     *  Acoustic/Electric archtops, (and thin-body cutaway acoustic/electric), although fitted with one or more pickups, and amplified, also retain a full-size body and a powerful acoustic tone, suitable for chords and melody work.

    All of these types may be loosely described as "archtop," but only the last has the characteristics most often associated with the type.

     Archtop guitars are prone to disagreeable acoustic feedback in certain performance situations.  Some archtop guitars have a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, or other tremolo arm systems.  Most tremolo arm systems can't be fitted to an archtop, because of the need to cut large holes in the belly to accomodate the mechanism, but the Bigsby, and the long tailpiece versions of the Gibson Vibrola can both be fitted.      

Piezoelectric Pickups:

     These pickups are primaily used on acoustic/electric guitars, but are also sometimes used on semi-acoustic guitars, and other electric guitars, in combintion with humbucker pickups.  A piezoelectric pickup is composed of a thin sandwich of quartz crystal.  When compressed, the crystal produces a small electrical current.  When placed under the bridge saddle, the vibrations of the strings through the saddle and body of the instrument, are converted into a weak electrical signal.  The signal is often sent to a preamplifier, which increases the signal strength, and incorporates an equalizer.  The output of the preamplifier then goes to a seperate amplifier system, similar to, (but not the same as), an amplifier for an electric guitar. 

     They have a very different sound, (which some prefer), and also have the advantage of not picking up any other magnetic fields.  The advantge of such systems allows for switching between magnetic pickup and piezo sounds, or simultaneously blending the output.  Some are fit into the bridge, where the strongest vibration is present, and some are fit into the side.  Ideally, there would be several transducers, (see Definitions), in various places to capture a more well-rounded sound that is closer to the acoustic, (unamplified), tone of the instrument.  Many are mounted under the bridge, and sometimes form part of the bridge assembly itself.  The piezo pickup gives a very wide frequency range output compared to the magnetic types, and can give large amplitude signals from the strings. 

Definitions:

Piezoelectric crystal:  Converts solid-state electrical modulations into an electrical signal, (vibration-to-signal).

Transducer:  A device that converts energy, or one physical property, to another for various purposes, including measurement or information transfer.  There are two kinds:  sensors and actuators.  A sensor detects a parameter in one form, and reports it in another form, (usually as an electrical or digital signal).  An actuator is for the transformation of energy.  In other words, an actuator is the thing that gets actuated, or stands responsible for the output action.  It converts an electrical signal into nonelectrical energy.  An example of an actuator is; a loudspeaker, which converts an electrical signal into a variable magnetic field and, subsequently, into acoustic waves, (sound).