Different Types of Guitars

The guitar is a beautiful musical instrument. It is portable and it produces a unique sound that everyone can identify. It's no wonder that it's one of the most commonly played musical instruments. Because of the popularity of the guitar, the guitar world has produced several variations. Let's look at a few of these common variants:


Acoustic Guitar

This probably the most basic form of guitar, in which other variations have come from. An acoustic guitar composes of a body, the neck and 6 strings. The defining feature of an acoustic guitar is the body. The body is a bigger and thicker as it acts like a sound chamber, an amplifier that comes out from the strings. Because of this, you can play an acoustic guitar on its own.

Electric Guitar

An electric guitar has the basic components of an acoustic guitar. The big difference is that it has no sound chamber, and the only way you can hear enough of the sound is through the help of an amplifier. The body of an electric guitar is also thinner compared to an acoustic guitar. Electric guitars are the most common type of guitars rock bands use.

Acoustic-electric Guitar

An acoustic-electric guitar is a cross between an acoustic and an electric guitar. Most of the time, you can play this kind of guitar without the help of an amplifier as the design already incorporates a sound chamber. However, if you want to amplify the sound even more, you can plug it into an amplifier as it comes with a sound pick-up. Keep in mind that acoustic-electric guitars don't sound like an electric guitar, and this is mostly because of the sound chamber.

Bass Guitar

A bass guitar looks like an acoustic guitar. The big difference is the number and thickness of the strings. An acoustic guitar has 6 strings, while the bass guitar has only 4. Also, the strings are much thicker. This is because bass guitars are designed to play low frequency sounds that an acoustic guitar cannot produce.

Nylon String Guitar

A nylon string guitar is pretty much like an acoustic guitar. Mostly, it has the same form. The biggest difference with nylon string guitar is the string. An acoustic guitar usually makes use of steel strings, while a nylon string guitar uses nylon string. Some nylon string guitar also comes with a wider neck and the spaces between the frets are also wider. This kind of guitar is popularly used for the classical style.

These are some of the different types of guitars available that will help you enjoy your music. Hopefully, you now have a good understanding when it comes the difference between an electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, acoustic-electric guitar and nylon string guitar. Keep in mind that these are just major categories, and each category has even finer categories.