How Acoustic Guitars Are Different From Other Guitars?

By Author: Guitars 4U
Total Articles: 7
Comment this article

The guitar is one of the most popular instruments played around the world. There are several reasons for this including the fact that’s it’s relatively easy to learn a few simple melodies on one. The huge variety of different styles of music that can be played and the fact they are easily transported.

The most popular type of guitar is the acoustic guitar, these are different from other guitars such as an electric guitar because:

Acoustic Guitar

- The acoustic guitar uses its design to amplify the sound
- They have large hollow bodies, use a sound hole situated just below the strings and a sound board that’s made of thin wood placed on the front of the guitar
- When the guitar is played, the vibrations from the strings as they are strummed are picked up by the bridge and saddle and transmitted to the soundboard.

This causes the energy from the strings to move to the air inside the guitar, which is then naturally amplified because of the guitars shape and design.

The sound is then projected through the sound hole from inside the guitar.

The volume is ...
... directly related to how hard the guitar is played

Electric Guitar

Electric guitars instead of relying on the body of the guitar to produce the sounds, use transducers or electrical pickups to convert the string’s vibrations into an electrical signal that is the amplified so you can hear it.

- When an electric guitar is turned off while being strummed there is very little sound produced
- Electric guitars do not have a sound board and are not hollow
- Normally an electric guitar is smaller and heavier than an acoustic guitar because of the electrical components

Electric Acoustic Guitar

An electric acoustic guitar is an acoustic guitar that has an electrical pickup attached to help amplify the sound and produces its own particular sound through the uses of electronics

Classical Guitar

There are also different types of acoustic guitars such as classical guitars and 12 string guitars

The differences are:

The Fretboard

On a classical guitar these are wider and usually do not have the same markings

The Shape

Normally an acoustic guitar has a larger body and more of a dreadnought shape.

Classical guitars tend not to have the same cutaways to provide for higher frets

Price

Classical guitars tend to be cheaper than acoustic guitars which make them popular for beginners

Strings

An acoustic guitar uses steal strings while a classical guitar has nylon strings, this produces very different sounds. As you would expect a 12 string guitar has an additional 6 strings to produce its own unique sound

Sound

A steel string guitar produces a bright twangy sound that normally lasts longer (resonates) than would happen with a classical guitar

The difference in the size and shape as well as they type of strings plays a large part in the sound differences between classical and steel stringed acoustic guitars.

The type of sound you wish to make is the main factor when choosing which type of guitar is best for you. Normally beginners tend to choose a classical guitar and then move on to an acoustic guitar or electric once they have mastered the basics.