The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to guitars:
A guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Most guitar necks have metal frets attached (the exception is fretless bass guitars). Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Some modern 2010-era guitars are made of polycarbonate materials. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric. An acoustic guitar has a wooden top and a hollow body. An electric guitar may be a solid-body or hollow body instrument, which is made louder by using a pickup and plugging it into a guitar amplifier and speaker. Another type of guitar is the low-pitched bass guitar.
Instrument classification
A guitar can be described as all of the following:
- Musical instrument
- Chordophone
- Rhythm section instrument
Types and varieties of guitars
Standard guitar variations
- Acoustic guitar
- Acoustic-electric guitar
- Archtop guitar
- Classical guitar
- Electric guitar
- Flamenco guitar
- Flat top guitar
- Fretless guitar
- Hybrid guitar
- Parlor guitar
- Resonator guitar
- Selmer guitar (Maccaferri)
- Semi-acoustic guitar
- Silent guitar
- Steel-string acoustic guitar
- Tailed bridge guitar
Pitch-based variations
- Alto guitar
- Baritone guitar
- Bass guitars
- Niibori guitars
- Octave guitar
- Requinto
- Soprano guitar
- Tenor guitar
- Terz guitar
Steel guitars
- Lap steel guitar (aka Hawaiian guitar)
- Pedal steel guitar
Courses
- Single course
- Double course (e.g., 12-string guitar)
- Triple course (e.g. Tiple Colombiano)
- Four or more strings per course (e.g. Guitarron Chileno)
Extra strings
- Seven-string guitar – Russian guitar and electric guitar
- Eight-string guitar
- Nine-string guitar
- Ten-string guitar
- 11-string guitar
- Twelve-string guitar
- 13-string guitar
- Extended-range bass – Covers bass guitars with 5 or more strings
Fewer strings
Misc
Models
6-strings
Acoustic guitar models
Semi-acoustic models
- Gibson ES-335
- Rickenbacker 360 (Both 12-string and 6-string models)
- Gretsch White Falcon
Solid body electric models
- Fender Stratocaster
- Fender Telecaster
- Gibson Les Paul
- Gibson SG
- Gibson Flying V
- Superstrat
- Steinberger
- PRS
- Red SpecialBrian May
Bass guitars
Bass guitars are also called "electric basses".
Parts
- Body: The solid body of an electric and the hollow sound box of an acoustic
- Bridge
- Fingerboard (fretboard)
- Frets
- Wiring and electronics (including volume and tone controls)
- Headstock (peghead, head)
- Inlay
- Machine heads (tuners)
- Neck
- Neck joint: see Set-in neck, Bolt-on neck and Neck-thru
- Nut
- Pickguard
- Pickup (Electric – Single coil (including P-90), Humbucker) (Acoustic – Piezoelectric)
- Sound board (Acoustic)
- Strings
- Truss rod
Guitar accessories
Miscellaneous
- Capo
- Guitar pick
- Fingerpick
- Neck-thru-body
- Slide
- Vibrato systems for guitar ("Tremolo arm")
- Electronic tuner
- Patch cord (Electric, some acoustics)
Guitar amplifiers
- Distortion (guitar)
- Power attenuator (guitar)
- Preamplifier
- Stack: A guitar amplification setup consisting of one or more speaker cabinets and a "head" (amplifier), rather than a self-contained unit.
Guitar effects
Effects unit (also known as "Stomp Box")
- Compression (electric guitar)
- Chorus effect
- Delay (audio effect)
- Fuzz (electric guitar)
- Flange (electric guitar)
- Phaser (electric guitar)
- Reverb (Reverberation)
- Sustain
- Ebow
- Overdrive/distortion terms
- Clean/Dirty
- Wah-wah pedal
Guitar software
- Guitar Pro
- G7 (guitar software)
- Power Tab
- RiffWorks Guitar recording and online collaboration software. Free version.
- TuxGuitar Guitar free software.
- Games
- Guitar Freaks An arcade game featuring playing guitars
- Guitar Hero Like Guitar Freaks, except for home use
- Frets on Fire A cross-platform Guitar Hero clone licensed under GNU GPL.
- Rockband A multi-platform game for PlayStation 2, 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii which includes a guitar element similar to that of Guitar Hero/Freaks along with a Karaoke-like vocal element and a drum element.
Guitar use
Guitar music
- Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra
- Classical guitar music
- Instrumental guitar
- Tablature notation ("Tab")
Guitar tunings
See Guitar tunings and List of guitar tunings.
Guitar playing styles
The difference between guitar playing styles and guitar techniques (below) is that a style is a collection of techniques
- 3rd bridge
- Classical guitar techniques
- Downstrokes picking
- Extended technique
- Flamenco
- Guitar solo
- Guitar showmanship
- Jazz guitar
- Lead guitar
- Prepared guitar
- Rhythm guitar
- Shred guitar
- Slack-key guitar
- Slide guitar
Guitar technique
Main Category: Category:Guitar performance techniques
See also: Musical techniqueFretting hand technique
Bridge (Right) hand techniques
See also the following from List of musical terminology: sul porticello (plucking/strumming near the bridge), sul tasto (plucking/strumming above the fingerboard)
Strumming
Flat picking (single picking, plectrum picking)
Finger picking (multiple picking)
- Apoyando: rest stroke
- Chicken picking
- Fingerstyle guitar & fingerpicking (including Travis picking)
- Pattern picking
- Picados
- Tirando: free stroke
Percussive techniques
Head (Left) hand techniques
- Double stop
- Finger vibrato (includes string bending, and bending behind the nut)
- Left-hand muting
- Slide guitar
Legato techniques
Harmonic techniques
Extended techniques
See also: Extended techniqueHistory of guitars
Guitar makers
- Luthier (Guitar maker)
- Bailey, John
- B.C. Rich Guitars
- Bourgeois Guitars
- Caparison Guitars
- Carvin A&I
- Collings Guitars
- Cort Guitars
- Dean Guitars
- Eastwood Guitars
- Epiphone Guitars
- ESP Guitars
- Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
- Fernandes Guitars
- Flipper's Guitar
- Gibson Guitar Corporation
- Godin guitars
- Gretsch
- Heritage Guitars
- Hagstrom
- Ibanez
- Jackson Guitars
- James Tyler Guitars
- John Bailey
- Kramer Guitars
- Kilometer
- Linda Manzer
- Maton Guitars
- Martin Guitars
- MusicMan
- Ovation Guitar Company
- Peavey Guitars
- Pensa Custom Guitars
- PRS Guitars
- Rickenbacker Guitars
- Schecter Guitar Research
- Takamine Guitars
- Taylor Guitars
- Valley Arts Guitar
- Warwick (bass guitar)
- Washburn guitars
- Yamaha
- Zon guitars
Guitar magazines
- Acoustic
- Acoustic Guitar
- Classical Guitar
- Fretboard Journal
- Guitar Aficianado
- Guitar Player
- Guitar World
- Guitarist
- Premier Guitar
- Soundboard
- Total Guitar
- Vintage Guitar
- Young Guitar Magazine
Guitar music
Guitar festivals
Guitar community
- Golden Guitar Attraction in Australia
Significant guitarists
Guitar methodologies
See also
References
External links
- Instruments In Depth: The Guitar An online feature from Bloomingdale School of Music (October, 2007)
- Stalking the Oldest Six-String Guitar
- Guitar physics
- International Guitar Research Archive
- The Guitar, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring many historic guitars from the Museum's collection
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