Acoustic Guitar

The acoustic guitar is the descendant of the classical guitar, and has steel strings. The term 'acoustic' guitar came around when musicians wanted to differentiate between the electric guitar and other non-electric guitars which included the steel-stringed guitar, the classical guitar and the folk guitar. There are different types and styles of acoustic guitars and different types of wood may be used. Guitars that have solid wood tops usually made of spruce, with rosewood or maple sides and backs are relatively more expensive. To make them a little less expensive, they may have laminated sides or backs. Guitars that are used by beginners are usually made completely of laminated wood. The neck of the guitar, in most cases, is made of mahogany and the finger board is made of tropical hardwoods like rosewood. Depending on how the guitar is made, the 'timbre' or the 'tone' is also affected. The string tension of a steel-string guitar is far more than that of a nylon string guitar, therefore requiring a heavier and stronger construction. Steel-string guitars are made with a different bracing system, like the 'x' bracing, unlike the classical guitars that use the fan bracing system. Another common acoustic guitar is the archtop or the 'f-cut' guitar that has an arch like that on a violin and have two 'f' shaped sound-holes rather than the circular one on the regular guitars. Acoustic guitars can be tuned in a number of ways, but the most common tuning is, beginning from the 1st string (high tone), E, B, G, D, A, E. Other alternate tunings are the 'Drop D', where the low E is tuned down to a D, and the 'Open D', where tuning goes D,A,F#,D,A,D.