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Acoustic GuitarsDec 23 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line I personally prefer an acoustic guitar over an electric
Although it's pretty well agreed the guitar originated in Spain, its difficiult to trace its roots back further than the 15th Century.It is thought to have been invented by the people of Malaga. This early instrument was a "four course" guitar, from which the ukulele is derived. The first guitars were very small, and were originally strung with four pair of strings. Each pair was called a course. It was at the end of the Baroque period, that two sugnificant changes were made: the double strings were replaced by single strings and instead of four pairs, there were six single strings. This is how we know the guitar today. A guitar, more specifically, an acoustic guitar, is a hollow bodied wooden instrument strung with 6 strings. The acoustic guitar is made up of three essential components. 1. A hollow wooden body 2. The Neck (which containd frets) 3. The Head (which holds the tuning pegs) The most important piece of the body is the soundboard, which is a wooden piece mounted to the front of the body. This is the part that is responsible for allowing us to hear the instrument. A sound hole issut in the around the center of the soundboard. Although usually circular, some guitars have an "f" like shape hole on either side of the soundboard. A few inches below the soundhole spans a bridge. This serves the purpose of holding the strings in place. Embedded in the sadlle is a thin, hard piece called the saddle. This is the part the strings rest against. The vibration of the strings travels from teh saddle to the bridge to the soundboard. The body of the guitar amplifies the sound. The narrowing between the upper and lower bouts of the body allow for resting it on the knee. The two widenings are called bouts. The size of these bouts, along with the size of the and shape of the body define the tone on the guitar. Th lower bout accentuates lower tones while the upper bout accentuates higher tones. The face of the neck, called the fingerboard holds the frets. The frets are the metal strips running across the board. By pressing down on a fret, you change the size of string, therefore you change the tone it produses. Between the head and the neck, the nut is found. This serves the same purpose as the sadlle, holding the strings into place. The distance between these two points is called the scale length. Passing over the nut, the strings attach to the tuning pegs, which allow the player to change the guitar's tuning. In almost all tuning heads, a tuning knob turns a worm gear that turns a string post. Standard tuning consists of the guitar being strung EADGBE. The string closest to your face when holding it is the large, low E string and ascend sup to the smallest string being high E. Most commonly an acoustic guitar will have 72 fret positions, but only 37 unique notes. That is because the same note can often be played in 3 different places. The difference lies in the timbre produced. So how does the guitar generate these frequencies? The frequency of the vibrating string is dependant on these things: 1. The length of the string 2. The amount of tension on the string 3. The weight of the string 4. The "springiness" of the string's material How does the acoustic guitar get its distinct sound? 1. harmonics:half notes 2. envelope:vibrations continuing after a string is plucked 3. tonal modifications: The body of a guitar favors some frequencies (amplifies them better) and discriminates against others (does not amplify them as well).  |
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