An acoustic guitar is one not dependent on an external device to be heard. The acoustic guitar is quieter than other instruments commonly found in bands and orchestras so when playing within such groups it is often externally amplified. Many acoustic guitars available today feature a variety of pickups which enable the player to amplify and modify the raw guitar sound.
There are several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group: classical and flamenco guitars; steel string guitars, which include the flat top or "folk" guitar; twelve string guitars and the arch top guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers such as the acoustic bass guitar which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar.
Renaissance and Baroque guitars
These are the gracile ancestors of the modern classical guitar. They
are substantially smaller and more delicate than the classical guitar, and
generate a much quieter sound. The strings are paired in courses as in a modern 12 string guitar, but they only have four or five courses of strings rather than six. They were more often used as rhythm instruments in ensembles than as solo instruments, and can often be seen in that role in early music performances.
(Gaspar Sanz' Instrucción de Música sobre la Guitarra Española of 1674 constitutes
the majority of the surviving solo corpus for the era.) Renaissance and Baroque
guitars are easily distinguished because the Renaissance guitar is very plain
and the Baroque guitar is very ornate, with inlays all over the neck and body,
and a paper-cutout inverted "wedding cake" inside the hole.
Classical guitars
These are typically strung with nylon strings, played in a seated position and
are used to play a diversity of musical styles including classical
music. The classical guitar is designed to allow for the execution of solo
polyphonic arrangements of music in much the same manner as the pianoforte
can. This is the major point of difference in design intent between the
classical instrument and other designs of guitar. Flamenco guitars are
very similar in construction, but are associated with a more percussive tone. In
Mexico, the popular mariachi band includes a range of guitars, from the tiny requinto to the guitarron, a guitar larger than a cello, which is tuned in the bass register. In Colombia, the traditional quartet includes a range of instruments too, from the small
bandola (sometimes known as the Deleuze-Guattari, for use when travelling or in
confined rooms or spaces), to the slightly larger tiple, to the full sized
classical guitar. The requinto also appears in other Latin-American countries as
a complemental member of the guitar family, with its smaller size and scale,
permitting more projection for the playing of single-lined melodies. Modern
dimensions of the classical instrument were established by Antonio Torres
Jurado (1817-1892). Classical guitars are sometimes referred to as classic guitars.
Portuguese guitar
Is a 12 string guitar used in Portugal for the traditional Fado song. Its true
origins are somewhat uncertain but there is a general agreement that it goes
back to the medieval period. It is often mistakenly thought of to be based on
the so-called "English guitar" - a common error as there is no such thing. For
some time the best instruments of this and other types were made in England,
hence the confusion. "English guitar" refers to a quality standard, not really
an instrument type. This particular instrument is most likely a merge of
medieval "cistre" or "citar" and the Arabic lute.
Flat-top (steel-string) guitars
Similar to the classical guitar,
however, within the varied sizes of the steel-stringed guitar the body size is
usually significantly larger than a classical guitar and it has a narrower,
reinforced neck and stronger structural design, to sustain the extra tension of
steel strings which produce a brighter tone, and according to many players, a
louder sound. The acoustic guitar is present in all genres to include folk,
country, bluegrass,pop, jazz and blues.
Archtop guitars
These are steel string instruments which feature a violin-inspired f-hole design
in which the top (and often the back) of the instrument are carved in a curved
rather than a flat shape. Lloyd Loar of the Gibson Guitar Corporation invented this variation of guitar after designing a style of mandolin of the same type. The typical Archtop is a deep,hollow body guitar whose form is much like that of a mandolin or violin family instrument and may be acoustic or electric. Some solid body electric guitars are also considered archtop guitars although usually 'Archtop guitar' refers to the hollow body form. Archtop guitars were immediately adopted upon their release by both jazz and country musicians and have remained particularly popular in jazz music, usually with flatwound strings The electric semi-hollow body archtop guitar has a distinct sound among electric guitars and is consequently appropriate for many styles of pop music. Many electric archtop guitars intended for use in rock and roll even have a Tremolo Arm.
Resonator, resophonic or Dobro guitars
Similar to the flat top guitar in appearance, but with sound produced by a metal
resonator mounted in the middle of the top rather than an open sound hole, so
that the physical principle of the guitar is actually more similar to the banjo. The purpose of the resonator is to amplify the sound of the guitar; this purpose has been
largely superseded by electrical amplification, but the resonator is still
played by those desiring its distinctive sound. Resonator guitars may have
either one resonator cone or three resonator cones. Three cone resonators have
two cones on the left above one another and one cone immediately to the right.
The method of transmitting sound resonance to the cone is either a "biscuit"
bridge, made of a small piece of hardwood, or a "spider" bridge, made of metal
and larger in size. Three cone resonators always use a specialised metal spider
bridge.The type of resonator guitar with a neck with a square cross-section
-- called "square neck" -- is usually played face up, on the lap of the seated
player, and often with a metal or glass slide. The round neck
resonator guitars are normally played in the same fashion as other guitars,
although slides are also often used, especially in blues.
12 string guitars
These usually have steel strings and are widely used in folk music, blues and rock and roll. Rather than having only six strings, the 12-string guitar has pairs, like a mandolin. Each pair of strings is tuned either in unison (the two highest) or an octave apart (the others). They are made both in acoustic and electric forms.
Russian guitars
These are seven string acoustic guitars which were the norm for Russian
guitarists throughout the 19th and well into the 20th centuries. The guitar is
traditionally tuned to an open G major tuning.
Acoustic bass guitars
Have steel strings or gut strings and often the same tuning as an electric bass
guitar.
Tenor guitars
There is very sketchy background information about tenor guitars on the
Internet. A number of classical guitarists call the Niibori prime guitar a
"Tenor Guitar" on the grounds that it sits in pitch between the alto and the
bass. Elsewhere [citation needed]the name is taken for a 4-string guitar with a scale length of 23" (585 mm) - about the same as a Terz Guitar. The tenor guitar is tuned in fifths, C G D A, as is the tenor banjo and the cello. It is generally accepted [citation needed] that the tenor guitar was created to allow a tenor banjo player to
follow the fashion as it evolved from Dixieland Jazz towards the more
progressive Jazz that featured guitar. It allows a tenor banjo player to provide
a guitar-based rhythm section with little to learn. A small minority of players
close tuned the instrument to D G B E to produce a deep instrument that could be
played with the 4-note chord shapes found on the top 4 strings of the guitar or
ukulele. The deep pitch warrants the wide-spaced chords that the banjo tuning
permits, and the close tuned tenor does not have the same full, clear sound.
Harp guitars
Harp Guitars are difficult to classify as there are many variations within this
type of guitar. They are typically rare and uncommon in the popular music scene.
Most consist of a regular guitar, plus additional 'harp' strings strung above
the six normal strings. The instrument is usually acoustic and the harp strings
are usually tuned to lower notes than the guitar strings, for an added bass
range. Normally there is neither fingerboard nor frets behind the harp strings.
Some harp guitars also feature much higher pitch strings strung below the
traditional guitar strings. The number of harp strings varies greatly, depending
on the type of guitar and also the player's personal preference (as they have
often been made to the player's specification). The Pikasso guitar; 4 necks, 2 sound holes, 42 strings] and also the Oracle Harp Sympitar; 24 strings (with 12 sympathetic strings protruding through the neck) are modern examples.
Extended-range guitars
For well over a century guitars featuring seven, eight, nine, ten or more strings have been used by a minority of guitarists as a means of increasing the range of pitch available to the player. Usually this entails the addition of extra bass strings.
Guitar battente
The battente is smaller than a classical guitar, usually played with four or
five metal strings. It is mainly used in Calabria (a region in southern
Italy) to accompany the voice.