Guitars



NameImageTraditionDescription
Acoustic Bass Guitar United States The acoustic bass guitar (also called ABG or acoustic bass) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar.
The first modern acoustic bass guitar was developed in the early 1960s by Ernie Ball of San Luis Obispo, California. Ball's aim was to provide bass guitarists with a more acoustic-sounding instrument that would match better with the sound of acoustic guitars.
Bajo sexto Mexico A bajo sexto is a type of 12 string guitar, fused with a bass, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northeastern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex," "conjunto," or "música mexicana-tejana". The bajo sexto sound provides a strong rhythm in the lower pitched end of a Tejano band and also provides a strong projection of chord changes across songs.
Baritone Guitar United States The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. The Danelectro Company was the first to introduce the baritone guitar in the late 1950s. The baritone guitar was not originally popular with players or listeners. However, the instrument began to appear in surf music, as well as background music for many movie soundtracks, especially spaghetti westerns. It also has the ability to be used as a bass guitar if strung correctly.
The image shows Clifton Hyde with a Mustapick acoustic baritone guitar; Brooklyn, NY 2007.
Baroque Guitar Europe The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the baroque era (c1600-1750), an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style.
The instrument was smaller than a modern guitar, of lighter construction, and had gut strings. The frets were also usually made of gut, and tied to the neck. A typical instrument had five courses , of which either four or five were double-strung making a total of nine or ten strings.
The conversion of all courses to single strings and the addition of a bass E-string occurred during the era of the early romantic guitar.
The image shows a guitar player (c. 1672) by Johannes Vermeer.
Chapey Dang Veng Cambodia The chapei dong veng is a two-string guitar with long neck from Cambodia. It is a plucked guitar with frets.
Cigar Box Guitar United States The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is a discarded cigar box. Because the instrument is homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques. Many early cigar box guitars consisted only of one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into the cigar box.
The earliest proof of a cigar box instrument found so far is an etching of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle.
Classical Guitar Spain A classical guitar, sometimes also called a Spanish guitar (referring to its origin, not repertoire), is a musical instrument from the family of musical instruments called chordophones. The classical guitar is characterized by nylon strings (the bass strings usually being of nylon wound with a thin metallic "thread") which are plucked by the guitarists fingers. The name classical guitar does not mean that only classical repertoire is performed on it (although classical music is a part of the instrument's core repertoire) - instead all kinds of music (classical, jazz, folk, etc.) can and are performed on it.
Colombian Tiple Colombia The Colombian tiple is an instrument of the guitar family, similar in appearance although slightly smaller than an acoustic guitar.
The tiple is associated mainly with the Andean region of Colombia, and is considered the national instrument. Tiple virtuoso David Pelham has this to say about the Colombian Tiple: "The tiple is a Colombian adaptation of the Renaissance Spanish vihuela brought to the New World in the 16th century by the Spanish conquistadors. At the end of the 19th century, it evolved to its present shape. Its twelve strings are arranged in four groups of three: the first group consists of three steel strings tuned to E, the second, third and fourth groups have a copper string in the middle of two steel strings. The central ones are tuned one octave lower than the surrounding strings of the group. This arrangement produces the set of harmonics that gives the instrument its unique voice."
Dobro United States Dobro is a trade name now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. A resonator guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard. Gibson now uses the name "Dobro" only for models with the inverted-cone design used originally by the Dobro Manufacturing Company.
Electric Bass Guitar United States The electric bass guitar is a bass stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. The bass is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and usually four strings tuned one octave lower in pitch than the four lower strings of a guitar.
In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed the first guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally.
Electric Guitar United States An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier, which produces the final sound.
The electric guitar was first used in jazz and is also long been used in many other popular styles of music, including almost all genres of rock and roll, country music, jazz, blues, ambient (or "new-age"), and even contemporary classical music.
Escopetarra Colombia An escopetarra is a guitar made from a modified rifle, used as a peace symbol. The name is a portmanteau of the Spanish words escopeta (shotgun/rifle) and guitarra (guitar).
Escopetarras were invented by Colombian peace activist César López in 2003 at a gathering after the El Nogal Club bombing in Bogotá, when he noticed a soldier holding a gun like a guitar. The first escopetarra in 2003 was made from a Winchester rifle and a Stratocaster electric guitar.
The image shows an escopetarra on display at the United Nations Headquarters.
Flamenco Guitar Spain A flamenco guitar is a Spanish guitar built for the purpose of playing Flamenco music.
The traditional flamenco guitar is made of Spanish cypress and spruce, and is lighter in weight and a bit smaller than a classical guitar, to give the sound a "brighter" and percussive quality. The flamenco guitar, in contrast to the classical, is also equipped with a tap plate, called a golpeador.
Guitarro Spain The Guitarro is a small, five-stringed guitar from Aragon, an autonomous community in the centre of north-eastern Spain. It is slightly larger than the requinto or cavaquinho. The instrument is also found in other regions of Spain, such as Andalusia, La Mancha, and Murcia.
Guitarrón Mexico The guitarrón (literally "large guitar" in Spanish) is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi bands. Although obviously similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña. It achieves audibility by its great size, and does not require electric amplification for performances in small venues. The guitarrón is fretless, the strings are heavy gauge, and the action is high, so that quite a bit of left hand strength is required.
Kabosy Madagascar The kabosy is a box-shaped wooden guitar commonly played in music of Madagascar. It has four to six strings and is commonly thought to be a direct descendant of the Arabic lute. Known to locals as a "mandoliny," the kabosy has staggered frets, many of which do not even cross the entire fretboard.
Lap Steel Guitar Hawaii The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar. There are three main types of lap steel guitar: lap slide guitars, resonator guitars and electric lap steel guitars.
The lap steel probably began in La'ie, Hawai'i in the late 1800s. Various people have been credited with the innovation. The instrument was hugely popular in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.
Mexican Vihuela Mexico Vihuela is the name of two different guitar-like string instruments: the historical vihuela (proper) of 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the modern Mexican vihuela from 20th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi groups.
While the Mexican vihuela shares the same name as an ancient Spanish plucked string instrument, the two have little to do with each other, and they are not related. The Mexican vihuela has more in common with the Timple Canario due to both having five strings and both having vaulted (convex) backs. The Mexican vihuela is a small, deep-bodied rhythm guitar built along the same lines as the guitarrón. Its five nylon strings are tuned like the first five of a guitar, but with the fourth and fifth tuned up an octave, ukulele-style.
Mohan Veena India The Mohan veena is a stringed musical instrument used in Indian classical music.
It is actually a modified Archtop guitar with 20 strings: three melody strings, five drone strings strung to the peghead, and twelve sympathetic strings strung to the tuners mounted on the side of the neck. A tumba or gourd is screwed into the backside of the neck for improved sound quality and vibration. It is played by placing it in one's lap like a slide guitar.
Moonlander United States The Moonlander is a bi-headed electric guitar with 18 strings: 6 normal strings and 12 sympathetic strings. The guitar is a custom-made instrument, built in 2007 by Yuri Landman for Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth ( an American alternative rock band formed in New York City in 1981.) Although it closely resembles an electric version of a harp guitar it is actually an electric sympathetic string guitar, because the droning strings are not meant to be plucked, but resonate on the played tones from the six normal strings.
Ngoni Mali The ngoni is a popular traditional musical instrument which comes from West Africa. It looks like a guitar, its body is of hollowed-out wood with dried animal skin stretched over it like a drum. The ngoni is known to have existed since 1352, when Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller reported seeing one in the court of Mansa Musa.
In the hands of a skilled ngoni instrumentalist, the ngoni can produce fast rapid melodies. In recent years some great young instrumentalists have developed the ngonis technical range.
Ovation Guitar United States Ovation guitars are guitars manufactured by the Ovation Guitar Company, a company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, USA.
Ovation guitars are differentiated by their composite synthetic bowl, rather than the traditional wooden back and sides of the modern acoustic guitar as produced by luthiers starting in the late 18th century.
The image shows musician Tsutomu Kobori performing with an Ovation guitar.
Pencilina United States The pencilina is a custom-made string instrument invented in the 1980s by Bradford Reed. The instrument is a double neck 3rd bridge guitar.
The pencilina's two "necks" each have a bridge, tuning pegs, and a set of strings; six strings on one neck are tuned like a guitar and four strings on the other are tuned like a bass guitar.
There are four built-in pickups: two are contact mics mounted in the bridges at one end of each neck, and two are guitar-style electromagnetic pickups which are placed under the strings toward the opposite end.
In addition, there are four bells – a fire bell, a door bell, and two brass telephone ringer bells – mounted at the end of one of the necks. The contact mics pick up the ringing of the bells through the wood of the instrument. They also pick up percussion anywhere else on the wooden necks, so any spot that happens to produce a nice sound is available for drumming. The pencilina is played by striking its strings and bells with sticks. The strings may also be plucked or bowed.
Pikasso Guitar Canada The Pikasso Guitar, or Pikasso I, is a custom-made instrument created by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer. This 42-string guitar with three necks has been popularized by jazz artist Pat Metheny (see image) and can be heard on his song "Into the Dream" and on the albums Quartet, Imaginary Day, Jim Hall & Pat Metheny, Trio->Live, and Metheny Mehldau Quartet (The Sound of Water), his 2007 second collaboration with pianist Brad Mehldau.
The guitar can also be seen on the Speaking of Now Live and Imaginary Day DVDs. Metheny has also used the guitar in his guest appearances on other artist's albums and on a Jazz TV show, Legends of Jazz, where he reffered to it simply as 42-string guitar. When he was asked if wasn't that guitar called Pikasso, he said: "No, that's the name of the woman that made it."
Portuguese Guitar Portugal The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra (Portuguese: guitarra portuguesa) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses comprising of two strings each. It is most notably associated with fado, a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal.
Requinto Guitar Mexico The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument.
The requinto guitar is a six-string nylon guitar with a scale length of 530 to 540 mm, which is about 18% smaller than a standard guitar scale.
Requintos made in Mexico have a deeper body than a standard classical guitar (110 mm as opposed to 105 mm). Requintos made in Spain tend to be of the same depth as the standard classical. Requinto guitars are also used throughout Latin America.
Russian Guitar Russia The Russian guitar, a seven-string acoustic guitar tuned to the Open G tuning, arrived in the end of the 18th century-beginning of the 19th century in Russia, most probably as a development of the cittern, kobza and torban. It is known in Russia as the semistrunnaya gitara (семиструнная гитара), which translates to seven string guitar or affectionately as the semistrunka (семиструнка).
Its invention is attributed to Andrei Sychra, who also wrote a method for the guitar, as well as over one thousand compositions. The Russian guitar is traditionally played without a pick, using fingers for either strumming or picking.
Slide Guitar United States Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide is in reference to the sliding motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides, which were the necks of glass bottles. Instead of altering the pitch of the strings in the normal manner (by pressing the string against frets), a slide is placed upon the string to vary its vibrating length, and pitch. This slide can then be moved along the string without lifting, creating continuous transitions in pitch.
Slides may be used on any guitar, but slides generally and steels in particular are often used on instruments specifically made to be played in this manner.
Steel-string Acoustic Guitar England A steel-string acoustic guitar, is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound.
There are many different variations on the construction of, and materials used in, steel-string guitars. More expensive guitars feature solid tonewood tops (often spruce), sides and backs (often rosewood, maple, or mahogany).



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