28 articles
Acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar: a hollow-body plucked string instrument whose soundboard radiates string vibration acoustically. Covers steel-string and nylon-string classical types, tensions, Martin X-bracing history, sizes, woods, and pickups.
Baritone guitar
Baritone guitar: a six-string guitar with a 27-30 inch scale length, tuned a fourth or fifth below standard (typically B-E-A-D-F#-B), between guitar and bass; pioneered by Danelectro in 1956, used in country, metal, surf, and film scoring.
Bass guitar
Bass guitar: low-pitched stringed instrument, usually four strings, played horizontally with pickups and amplification. Invented in solidbody form by Paul Tutmarc in the 1930s; commercialized by the Fender Precision Bass of 1951.
Chapman Stick
Chapman Stick: fretboard tapping instrument invented by Emmett Chapman in 1969-1974, sold by Stick Enterprises since 1974; 8-, 10-, 12-string models played two-handed, bass and melody at once.
Classical guitar
Classical guitar, also called Spanish or nylon-string guitar: a six-string plucked instrument with nylon trebles and wound basses, built on Antonio de Torres's fan-braced design, played fingerstyle for art music from the Renaissance onward.
Distortion (music)
Distortion (music): deliberate waveform clipping that adds harmonics to audio, central to rock, metal, and punk. Covers overdrive, distortion, and fuzz, its accidental history from Rocket 88 to Dave Davies, and neural modeling.
Dreadnought (guitar type)
Dreadnought guitar: large steel-string acoustic body created by C.F. Martin in 1916, named for HMS Dreadnought; 14-fret square-shoulder form from 1934; the most copied flat-top design, standard for bluegrass and flatpicking.
Drop D tuning
Drop D tuning (DADGBE) is a guitar tuning lowering only the low E string a whole step to D, enabling one-finger power chords and a deeper low range; used by Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Beatles, and Jimmy Page.
Eight-string guitar
Eight-string guitar: extended-range guitar tuned F#-B-E-A-D-G-B-E, adding low B and F# strings; first mass-produced by Ibanez (RG2228, 2007), popularized by Meshuggah and Tosin Abasi, used in djent, jazz, and classical music.
Fender Mustang
Fender Mustang: solid-body electric guitar introduced by Fender in August 1964 as a short-scale student model with offset body and Dynamic Vibrato tailpiece. Distinguished from the Ford Mustang car and Fender's Mustang amplifiers; became an alternative-rock classic via Kurt Cobain.
Fingerstyle guitar
Fingerstyle guitar, also called fingerpicking, is playing guitar with fingers, nails, or fingerpicks instead of a pick. Developed in the USA around 1900 imitating ragtime; thumb plays bass, fingers play melody; includes Travis picking and percussive fingerstyle.
Guitar
Guitar (Spanish guitarra): fretted, plucked six-string instrument with a waisted, flat-backed body; standardized by Antonio de Torres in 19th-century Spain, amplified via the 1934 Rickenbacker Frying Pan, and central to popular music.
Guitar chord
Guitar chord: simultaneous notes fretted and strummed on a guitar's six standard-tuned strings (E-A-D-G-B-E). Covers open, barre, and power chords, voicings and inversions, alfabeto history, and the chord's role in accompaniment.
Guitar solo
Guitar solo: an instrumental passage where the guitar leads melodically; techniques include bending, tapping, and harmonics. Stairway to Heaven tops consensus rankings; solos declined in pop after grunge.
Guitar tunings
Guitar tunings: standard EADGBE (fourths plus a major third) and alternates such as Drop D, DADGAD, Open G, Open D, Nashville, and Eb standard, their history, uses, and practical costs.
Lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, or Hawaiian steel guitar, is a guitar played face up on the lap with a steel bar, developed in Hawaii in the late 19th century.
Open D tuning
Open D tuning, traditionally called Vestapol, is a guitar tuning with strings set to D-A-D-F#-A-D, so strumming open sounds a D major chord, popular for slide guitar and blues.
Open G tuning
Open G tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D) is an alternate guitar tuning whose open strings spell a G major chord, requiring only three strings dropped a whole step from standard. Known for slide blues, Keith Richards' five-string Rolling Stones riffs, and Joni Mitchell's folk fingerpicking.
P-90
P-90: Gibson's single-coil electric guitar pickup, introduced 1946 by Walter Fuller; wide flat coil, two Alnico bar magnets, six pole screws; Gibson's premium pickup until the 1955 humbucker; dogear and soapbar formats.
Pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar: electric lap-played steel guitar with foot pedals and knee levers changing string pitch, descended from Joseph Kekuku's Hawaiian steel guitar; E9 and C6 tunings, ten strings, defining voice of country music.
Plectrum
Plectrum, also called guitar pick: a small thin piece of plastic, metal, bone, or similar material used to pluck or strum strings of guitars, mandolins, and lyres, from Greek plêktron; modern celluloid guitar picks date to D'Andrea in 1922.
Power chord
Power chord (fifth chord, open-fifth chord): a root-plus-perfect-fifth guitar sonority, 7 semitones apart, with no third, so neither major nor minor; distortion-friendly, movable shape, central to rock and metal since Link Wray's 1957 "Rumble".
Resonator guitar
Resonator guitar, also called resophonic guitar or Dobro: acoustic guitar with spun aluminum cones replacing the soundboard, invented by John Dopyera in 1920s Los Angeles; tricone, biscuit, and spider-bridge designs used in blues and bluegrass.
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar: the guitar role providing chordal and rhythmic accompaniment in a band, distinct from lead guitar's melodies and solos; techniques include strumming, palm muting, and arpeggios, with noted players such as Malcolm Young and Nile Rodgers.
Slide guitar
Slide guitar, also called bottleneck guitar, is a guitar technique using a glass, metal, or porcelain slide or steel bar to sound notes, producing continuous glissando and vibrato; it originated with Joseph Kekuku's Hawaiian steel guitar and shaped blues, country, and rock.
Steel guitar
The steel guitar is a guitar played horizontally with a metal bar rather than fretted by hand, originating in Hawaii and central to Hawaiian and country music.
Twelve-string guitar
A twelve-string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with twelve strings in six courses, fretted as single notes, producing a loud, shimmering, chorus-like sound.
Ukulele
Ukulele (ʻukulele, "jumping flea"): small four-string Hawaiian plucked lute developed in the 1880s by Madeiran makers Nunes, Dias, and Espírito Santo; re-entrant GCEA tuning; popularized by Kalākaua and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.