Firstly,it’s important you understand that there are different types of guitar.
Broadly, they fall into two camps: acoustic or electric.
But there are different types of acoustic and different types of electric.
Let’s look at acoustic guitars first.
- Classical and flamenco guitars, which use nylon strings. (The guitar on the right, below, is a classical guitar).
- Steel-stringed guitars are more common and widely-used in rock, blues, pop and country music. (See the guitar on the left, below).
They look similar don’t they? It can be difficult for new guitarists to tell them apart.
How To Quickly Tell If A Guitar Has Nylon Or Steel Strings
- Feel them. Steel strings feel metallic. Nylon strings feel more like plastic and are warmer to the touch.
- Look at the bridge. Steel strings are usually attached with pegs. Nylon strings are tied with a loop.
Steel-strings are under a lot more tension, so they’re pegged in.
Here’s what the nylon strings of a classical guitar look like, with their loops:
What’s the difference between “electro acoustic” & “semi acoustic” guitars?
An electro-acoustic is an acoustic guitar that you can plug into an amplifier if you need more volume or want to use some effects. It looks just like a steel-stringed acoustic guitar, but it has a jack input, like this:
A semi-acoustic guitar (AKA ‘hollow-body’ electric) is a type of electric guitar that has both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. You’ll see an example in the next section.
Electric Guitars
Electric guitar. Even after 25 years of playing, those two words make my heart skip a beat!
If acoustic guitars are ‘standard guitar’ than electric guitars are the “GT Turbo Ultimate Editio".
Electric guitars have to be connected to a guitar amp. You can certainly play them without being connected to an amp, but they will be very quiet.
(Plus, what’s the point of owning an electric guitar if you don’t play through an amp?)
Broadly, There’s 3 Different Types Of Electric Guitar
1) ‘Standard’ Electric Guitars
This is probably the type of electric guitar you have in mind right now. They look like this:
2) Semi-acoustic guitars (AKA ‘hollow-body’ electric guitars)
This is an electric guitar that has both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. It’s a bit of a hybrid. Here’s an example:
3) Bass Guitars
Guitars normally have 6 strings, but bass guitar is a very different beast. Bass guitars have just 4 strings, they are very thick and play very deep, low tones.
These guitars are heavy and long (they’re built like solid tanks), and they require amplification like every other type of electric guitar. Here’s what a bass guitar looks like:
(Don’t be fooled by the scale of this picture – this guitar is about 20% larger than the two above it.)
Bass guitars are mainly used to play single-note melodies to accompany other guitarists.
Every guitarist should play and own a bass at some point because they’re great fun, but they are definitely not the best beginner guitar. (Unless your sole and only aim is to be a bass player!)
To be a well rounded guitarist, you must understand chords and strumming. For this reason, I recommend people learn guitar first and THEN move on to bass if they want to.