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Types of Guitars:
Classical, Acoustic and Electric

A guitar is a stringed instrument that produces sounds through the string's vibration resonating within the guitar's body.

Guitars can be classified into 3 types: the classical guitar, the acoustic guitar and the electric guitar.

The classical guitar (also referred to as the Spanish guitar) is the most common of the three guitar types. This kind of guitar has a hollow body with a hole that acts as a resonator of the sound produced by plucking and strumming the strings and normally has six strings made of nylon.

These nylon strings have less tension compared to steel strings, making this type of guitar easy to pluck or strum. It's assumed a classical guitar should be played with a player's fingers and not with a pick.

It's also not played through an amplifier, though classical guitar players can equip one or just play in front of a microphone. This type of guitar is used mainly for classical, Latin and Flamenco music.

The acoustic guitar looks like a classical guitar in terms of shape and appearance. Like a classical guitar, an acoustic doesn't normally use an amplifier. Similarities stop here, howeve, since an acoustic guitar uses steel strings to produce a louder and brighter sound.

Heavier woods (such as spruce, maple and mahogany) are used for the body and neck of the guitar which helps to withstand the tension brought on by the steel strings. This kind of guitar caters to blues, country and folk music. It can also be used in different genres of rock.

The electric guitar uses electronic pickups to convert the sound of vibrating the strings into electric current. These signals will then be electrically altered to produce the desired sound before being fed to the amplifiers.

Since the electric guitar uses pickups, there's no need for the body to be shaped in a way that would act as a resonator. This type of guitar is used for different kinds of music such as rock, country, pop, jazz and heavy metal.

Classical and acoustic guitars are normally used by one person or in the accompaniment of other guitars because, unlike electric guitars, classical and acoustic guitars aren't loud instruments and they won't be able to compete with other instruments, such as percussion and wind instruments.

Acoustic guitars, though, may have built-in electronics to allow amplification of the sound.