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Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that produces sound acoustically by
transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air—as opposed to relying on
electronic amplification (see electric guitar). The sound waves from the strings
of an acoustic guitar resonate through the guitar's body, creating sound. This
typically involves the use of a sound board and a sound box to strengthen the
vibrations of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned
(low to high) E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4.

The main source of sound in an acoustic guitar is the string, which is plucked
or strummed with the finger or with a pick. The string vibrates at a necessary
frequency and also creates many harmonics at various different frequencies.
The frequencies produced can depend on string length, mass, and tension. The
string causes the soundboard and sound box to vibrate, and as these have their
own resonances at certain frequencies, they amplify some string harmonics
more strongly than others, hence affecting the timbre produced by the
instrument.

Contents
History Example of a concert-shaped
Acoustic properties guitar by C.F. Martin
Amplification
Types
Body shape
Gallery
References
Further reading
External links

History
The guitar is an ancient instrument, whose history can be traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been
advanced about the instrument's ancestry, but the modern acoustic guitar comes from a long evolution of stringed
musical instruments. It has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the medieval instrument Vihuela as
evolution of ancient Lute.

Gitterns, (small, plucked guitars) were the first small, guitar-like instruments created during the Spanish Middle Ages
with a round back, like that of the lute.[1] Modern guitar-shaped instruments were not seen until the Renaissance era,
when the body and size began to take a guitar-like shape.

The earliest string instruments that related to the guitar and its structure where broadly known as the vihuelas within
Spanish musical culture. Vihuelas were string instruments that were commonly seen in the 16th century during the
Renaissance. Later, Spanish writers distinguished these instruments into two categories of vihuelas. The vihuela de
arco was an instrument that mimicked the violin, and the vihuela de penola was played with a plectrum or by hand.

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When it was played by hand it was known as the vihuela de mano. Vihuela de mano shared extreme similarities with
the Renaissance guitar as it used hand movement at the sound hole or sound chamber of the instrument to create
music.[2]

By 1790 only six-course vihuela guitars (six unison-tuned pairs of strings) were being created and had become the
main type and model of guitar used in Spain. Most of the older 5-course guitars were still in use but were also being
modified to a six-coursed acoustical guitar. Fernando Ferandiere's[3] book Arte de tocar la guitarra espanola por
musica (Madrid, 1799) describes the standard Spanish guitar from his time as an instrument with seventeen frets and
six courses with the first two 'gut' strings tuned in unison called the terceras and the tuning named to 'G' of the two
strings. The acoustic guitar at this time began to take the shape familiar in the modern acoustic guitar. The coursed
pairs of strings eventually became less common in favor of single strings.[4]

Finally, circa 1850, the form and structure of the modern Guitar is credited to Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres
Jurado, who increased the size of the guitar body, altered its proportions, and invented the breakthrough fan-braced
pattern. Bracing, which refers to the internal pattern of wood reinforcements used to secure the guitar's top and back
to prevent the instrument from collapsing under tension, is an important factor in how the guitar sounds. Torres'
design greatly improved the volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has remained essentially
unchanged since.

Acoustic properties
The acoustic guitar's soundboard, or top, also has a strong effect on the
loudness of the guitar. Woods that actually are good at transmitting sound,
like spruce, are commonly used for the soundboard.[5] No amplification
actually occurs in this process, because musician add no external energy to
increase the loudness of the sound (as would be the case with an electronic
amplifier). All the energy is provided by the plucking of the string. Without
a soundboard, however, the string would just "cut" through the air without
actually moving it much. The soundboard increases the surface of the
vibrating area in a process called mechanical impedance matching. The
Basic anatomy of an acoustic guitar
soundboard can move the air much more easily than the string alone,
because it is large and flat. This increases the entire system's energy
transfer efficiency, and musicians emit a much louder sound.

In addition, the acoustic guitar has a hollow body, and an additional coupling and resonance effect increases the
efficiency of energy transmission in lower frequencies. The air in a guitar's cavity resonates with the vibrational modes
of the string and soundboard. At low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a
Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound again depending on whether the air in the box
moves in phase or out of phase with the strings. When in phase, the sound increases by about 3 decibels. In opposing
phase, it decreases about 3 decibels.[6] As a Helmholtz resonator, the air at the opening is vibrating in or out of phase
with the air in the box and in or out of phase with the strings. These resonance interactions attenuate or amplify the
sound at different frequencies, boosting or damping various harmonic tones. Ultimately, the cavity air vibrations
couple to the outside air through the sound hole,[7] though some variants of the acoustic guitar omit this hole, or have
holes, like a violin family instrument (a trait found in some electric guitars such as the ES-335 and ES-175 models
from Gibson). This coupling is most efficient because here the impedance matching is perfect: it is air pushing air.

A guitar has several sound coupling modes: string to soundboard, soundboard to cavity air, and both soundboard and
cavity air to outside air. The back of the guitar also vibrates to some degree, driven by air in the cavity and mechanical
coupling to the rest of the guitar. The guitar—as an acoustic system—colors the sound by the way it generates and
emphasizes harmonics, and how it couples this energy to the surrounding air (which ultimately is what we perceive as

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loudness). Improved coupling, however, comes costing decay time, since the string's energy is more efficiently
transmitted. Solid body electric guitars (with no soundboard at all) produce very low volume, but tend to have long
sustain.

All these complex air coupling interactions, and the resonant properties of the panels themselves, are a key reason that
different guitars have different tonal qualities. The sound is a complex mixture of harmonics that give the guitar its
distinctive sound.

Amplification
Classical gut-string guitars had little projection, and so were unable to displace banjos until
innovations increased their volume.

An acoustic guitar can be amplified by using various

types of pickups or microphones. However,
amplification of acoustic guitars had many problems
with audio feedback. In the 1960s, Ovation's parabolic
bowls dramatically reduced feedback, allowing greater
amplification of acoustic guitars.[9] In the 1970s,
Ovation developed thinner sound-boards with carbon-
Many acoustic guitars based composites laminating a thin layer of birch, in its
incorporate rosettes around Adamas model, which has been viewed as one of the
the sound hole. most radical designs in the history of acoustic guitars.
The Adamas model dissipated the sound-hole of the
traditional soundboard among 22 small sound-holes in
the upper chamber of the guitar, yielding greater volume and further reducing feedback An Ovation
during amplification.[9] Another method for reducing feedback is to fit a rubber or plastic Adamas,[8] whose
disc into the sound hole. parabolic shape
reduces feedback
The most common type of pickups used for acoustic guitar amplification are piezo and and increases
magnetic pickups. Piezo pickups are generally mounted under the bridge saddle of the volume
acoustic guitar and can be plugged into a mixer or amplifier. A Piezo pickup made by
Baldwin was incorporated in the body of Ovation guitars, rather than attached by drilling
through the body;[10] the combination of the Piezo pickup and parabolic ("roundback") body helped Ovation succeed
in the market during the 1970s.[9]

Magnetic pickups on acoustic guitars are generally mounted in the sound hole, and are similar to those in electric
guitars. An acoustic guitar with pickups for electrical amplification is called an acoustic-electric guitar.

In the 2000s, manufacturers introduced new types of pickups to try to amplify the full sound of these instruments.
This includes body sensors, and systems that include an internal microphone along with body sensors or under-the-
saddle pickups.

Types
Historical and modern acoustic guitars are extremely varied in their design and construction, far more so than electric
guitars. Some of the most important varieties are the classical guitar (Spanish Guitar/Nylon-stringed), steel-string
acoustic guitar and lap steel guitar.

Nylon/gut stringed guitars:

Vihuela
Gittern
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Baroque guitar
Romantic guitar
Classical guitar, the modern version of the original guitar, including additional
strings models

Russian/Gypsy guitar
Flamenco guitar
Lute
Steel stringed guitars:

Steel-string acoustic guitar, also known as western, folk or country guitar

Twelve string guitar
Resonator guitar (such as the Dobro)
Archtop guitar
Selmer/Maccaferri (Manouche) guitar Baroque guitar, c. 1630
Battente guitar
Lap steel guitar
Lap slide guitar
Parlor guitar
Lyre-guitar
Other variants:

Harp guitar
Pikasso guitar (a variant of harp guitar)
Contraguitar (Viennese variant of harp guitar)
Acoustic bass guitar
Banjo guitar

Gibson L-3 archtop

Body shape
Common body shapes for modern acoustic guitars, from smallest to
largest:

Range – The smallest common body shape, sometimes called a mini

jumbo, is three-quarters the size of a jumbo-shaped guitar. A range shape
typically has a rounded back to improve projection for the smaller body.[11]
The smaller body and scale length make the range guitar an option for Common guitar body shapes: A.
players who struggle with larger body guitars. Range B. Parlor C. Grand Concert
D. Auditorium E. Dreadnought F.
Parlor – Parlor guitars have small compact bodies and have been Jumbo
described as “punchy” sounding with a delicate tone.[12] The smaller body
makes the parlor a more comfortable option for players who find large
body guitars uncomfortable.

Grand Concert – This mid-sized body shape is not as deep as other full-size guitars, but has a full waist. Because of
the smaller body, grand concert guitars have a more controlled overtone[13] and are often used for its sound projection
when recording.

Auditorium – Similar in dimensions to the dreadnought body shape,[14] but with a much more pronounced waist.
The shifting of the waist provides different tones to stand out. The auditorium body shape is a newer body when
compared to the other shapes such as dreadnought.

Dreadnought – This is the classic guitar body shape. The style was designed by Martin Guitars[15] to produce a
deeper sound than "classic"-style guitars, with very resonant bass. Used for over 100 years, it is still the most popular
body style for acoustic guitars. The body is large and the waist of the guitar is not as pronounced as the auditorium and

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grand concert bodies. This allows mid-range frequencies to stand out, helping the guitar cut through an ensemble of
instruments.

Jumbo – The largest standard guitar body shape found on acoustic guitars. The large body provides more punch and
volume, while accenting the “boomy” low end of the guitar. Jumbo is bigger than a Grand Auditorium but similarly
proportioned, and is generally designed to provide a deep tone similar to a dreadnought's. It was designed by Gibson
to compete with the dreadnought,[15] but with maximum resonant space for greater volume and sustain. These come
at the expense of being oversized, with a very deep sounding box, and thus somewhat more difficult to play. The
foremost example of the style is the Gibson J-200, but like the dreadnought, most guitar manufacturers have at least
one jumbo model.

Gallery

Gittern (1450) Baroque (17th century) Lute (17th century) Romantic (c. 1830)

Classical/Spanish Ten-string Folk/country Resonator

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Battente Lyre-guitar Pikasso Hawaiian (c. 1920)

Harp guitar Mexican vihuela

References
1. "Gittern" (http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/gittern.htm). www.medieval-life-and-times.info.
Retrieved October 7, 2015.
2. Grunfeld, Frederic (1971). The Art and Times of the Guitar. New York City: Macmillan Company. pp. 61–63.
3. "Ferandiere, Fernando Archives - Tecla Editions" (http://www.tecla.com/authors/ferandiere.htm). Tecla Editions.
4. Tyler, James (2002). The Guitar and its Music. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 229–231. ISBN 978
0 19 921477 8.
5. "The Physics of the Acoustic Guitar - Body" (http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211.web.stuff/billington/body.html).
Retrieved September 27, 2017.
6. "Helmholtz Resonance" (http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/Helmholtz.html). newt.phys.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved
August 31, 2015.
7. "How does a guitar work?" (http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/guitar/guitarintro.html). newt.phys.unsw.edu.au.
Retrieved August 11, 2015.
8. Carter (1996, p. 127)
9. Denyer (1992, p. 48)
10. Carter (1996, pp. 48–52)
11. "Teton Range Guitars Demo - Home on the Range - Teton® Guitars" (https://tetonguitars.com/teton-range-guitars-
demo-home-on-the-range/). November 20, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
12. "Parlor Pickin': The 2015 Guide to Buying a Parlor Guitar" (http://acousticguitar.com/parlor-pickin-the-2015-guide-t
o-buying-a-parlor-guitar/). Acoustic Guitar. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
13. "Grand Concert" (https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/features/shapes/grand-concert). Taylor Guitars.
Retrieved February 16, 2016.
14. "Auditorium Body Shape Overview" (http://breedlovemusic.com/guitars/shapes/auditorium). breedlovemusic.com.
Retrieved February 16, 2016.
15. "Acoustic Guitar Buying Guide" (http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/acoustic-guitar-buying-guide/).
www.sweetwater.com. Retrieved August 11, 2015.

Further reading
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Carter, Walter (1996). Eiche, Jon, ed. The history of the Ovation guitar. Musical Instruments Series (first ed.).
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 1–128. HL00330187; ISBN 978-0-7935-5876-6; ISBN 0-
7935-5876-X (softcover); ISBN 0-7935-5948-0 (hardcover).
Denyer, Ralph (1992). The guitar handbook. Special contributors Isaac Guillory and Alastair M. Crawford;
Foreword by Robert Fripp (Fully revised and updated ed.). London and Sydney: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-32750-
X.

External links
Media related to Acoustic guitars at Wikimedia Commons

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