Popular Types of Guitars

The list for popular types of guitars can be endless. Guitars come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and types. There are acoustic guitars, electric acoustic guitars, semi hollow guitars, electric guitars, twelve string guitars, four string bass guitars, five string bass guitars; the catalog goes on and on.

Acoustic guitars

Acoustic guitar is independent of any external device to be heard. The acoustic guitar is more sober than other instruments commonly found in bands and orchestras. To play within such groups the sound is often externally amplified. Acoustic guitars, which are available today, feature a variety of pickups. This enables the player to increase and adjust the raw guitar sound.

Prominent subcategories feature within the acoustic guitar group

Classical and flamenco guitars; steel string guitars, that comprise the folk or flat top guitar; arch top guitar and the twelve string guitars. There are unamplified guitars also in the acoustic guitar group.

Such types are designed to play in various registers such as the acoustic bass guitar. The tuning of the acoustic bass guitar is similar to that of the electric bass guitar.

Classical guitars
These are normally strung with nylon strings, to be played in a seated pose and are used to play a variety of musical styles together with classical music. The classical guitar is designed in such a way that it allows the execution of solo polyphonic arrangements of music

Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar is a 12 string guitar used in Portugal for the customary Fado songs.

Archtop guitars
Steel string instruments feature a violin inspired f hole design where the top (and often the back) of the instrument are engraved in a curved rather than a flat shape.

Flat top (steel string) guitars
Here the body dimension is typically considerably larger than a classical guitar and it has a narrower, resistant neck and stronger structural design

Resonator, resophonic or Dobro guitars
The hum of the resonator guitar is created by a metal resonator fitted in the middle of the top.

Tenor guitars
Some classical guitarists call the Niibori prime guitar a Tenor Guitar on the grounds that it sits in pitch between the alto and the bass.

Harp guitars
This consists of a usual guitar, with additional harp strings strung on top of the six normal strings. The instrument is generally acoustic and the harp strings are adjusted to lower notes than the guitar strings, for an added bass range.

Acoustic bass guitars
This type has steel strings or guts strings in it and often has the same tuning as an electric bass guitar.

12 string guitars
Instead of having only six strings, the 12 string guitar has six courses made up of two strings each, like a mandolin or f lute.

Electric guitars
Electric guitars are the types, which have solid, semi hollow, or hollow bodies, and generate minute sound without amplification. The electromagnetic vibrations of the strings are converted into electrical signals, which are supplied to an amplifier via a cable or radio transmitter. Sound outputted is regularly modified by other electronic instruments or the natural distortion of valves (vacuum tubes) in the amplifier.