Category: Electric/Acoustic Guitars

A little bit of guitar history today. This post is made up of a bunch of paragraphs from Wikipedia.
“The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that’s used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist.
The tenor guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string version of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument (in its acoustic form) was developed so that players of the four-string tenor banjo could double on the guitar. Later, solid-body electric models were also produced.
A seven-string guitar is a guitar with seven strings instead of the usual six. Such guitars are not as common as the six string variety but a minority of guitarists have utilised them for at least 150 years. Some types of these instruments are specific to certain cultures (for example the Russian and Brazilian guitars).
The twelve string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with twelve strings, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six string guitar. Essentially, it’s a type of guitar with a natural chorus effect due to the subtle differences in string timbre.
The strings are placed in courses of two strings each that are usually played together. The two strings in each bass course are normally tuned an octave apart, while each pair of strings in the treble courses is tuned in unison. The tuning of the second string in the third course (G) varies: some players use a unison string which is less prone to breakage, others prefer the distinctive high-pitched, bell-like quality an octave string makes in this position.”

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No matter what I do, I don’t give this poor old body the attention it deserves. And that goes double for when I sit with the guitar in my hands, leaning and grimacing, straining and nobraining. Athletes get told how to work with their equipment so that the partnership between man and machine generates optimum physical performance, cheers from the crowd and untold sponsorship wealth.
I was watching a movie about Modigliani the other day, and it seemed to me that the actors portraying painters working at their easels gave the impression that painting a picture involves getting to know how to stand, how to hold the brush, and so on. And they have to approach their art this way because they make marks on the canvas, and those marks don’t fade away like bum notes on the guitar. If a painter puts the paint on too heavily
he has to gather his forces and make a whole new start next time he touches the canvas. It’s harder for a musician to stand back and see exactly what direction he needs to take to make this strange process he’s involved in “art”.
So the first thing we gotta take care of is to not hurt ourselves. One resource for people who want to learn to play a guitar without becoming a cripple is Guitar Principles. Sign up for their newsletter, and you’ll have some valuable food for guitar playing in your in-box every week.
Another interesting resource is http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/ which is concerned with guitars that FEEL good to play. Here’s a good article on RSI and the gallery of ergonomic guitar designs has a bunch of nicely designed guitars that “range from slight departures from the norm to completely different approaches.”
Here’s an example of ergonomic thinking from the inventor of the Bardophone “A traditional guitar is structurally made in a way that it is impossible to play it in a correct position without using all kinds of awkward stratagems that can have bad physical effects on the guitarist:
- Using a guitar stool (like classical guitarists) warps your spine and alters the blood circulation in the leg on the stool !
- Folding your legs obstructs the blood stream in the higher leg!
- Using a strap puts weight on your shoulders and your spine!
If you try not to use any of these tricks, your right shoulder(for a right handed person)will stand too high and your left hand will play the guitar’s neck in a position that is too low to achieve a respectable velocity ! The ones who still try ,end up with a bent back!
The idea, granted that I play in a sitting position, was to find a new
shape of guitar that would allow me to have at the same time
- both my feet flat on the ground,
- my shoulders relaxed on a horizontal line,
- my spine straight and vertical (like a good position for a pianist), while having the neck of the instrument raised to the height and angle that would be the most natural ,the least straining ,for a comfortable and efficient playing position (the position advised by all classical teachers!)”
Maybe it’s not all about attracting the chicks.

I had to include this article by an ordinary dude about his relationship with his guitar and another more fickle partner. When you study the guitar you get stuck in the world of “legends”. This article gets down to the real issues:

When To Upgrade To An Electric Acoustic Guitar

By K. Petit

I have been playing acoustic guitar for years but just picked out my first acoustic electric guitar. For a long time I only used my guitar off and on and wasn’t serious about it. But then my girlfriend moved out a few months ago and I found myself with a lot more time on my hands, and I became reabsorbed in my music. The next thing I knew my buddy said I had really improved, and this is a guy who doesn’t hold back - ever. Anyway, I actually have been getting paying gigs. When I played for fun I didn’t need an acoustic electric guitar. An electric acoustic guitar is just like a normal acoustic except for one very important difference: right, the amplification. The electric version has a built in pickup. This means that you do not add an extra pickup to it to amplify it. Plug and play.
When I was just playing by myself, I had no need for an acoustic electric guitar. If you’re not playing with a band, why would you need one? Normal acoustic guitars produce plenty of volume by themselves; no need for acoustic electric guitar amplification. If you want to play in a band it’s a different thing. It’s worth the expense to upgrade and the electrics tend to have very high quality pickups, and the pickups are well mounted. I don’t have to keep tweaking its position or worry about losing it, or forgetting the thing.
Hands down the best feature is having the volume controls right in the body of the guitar. That rocks. It saves so much time to be able to make the sound adjustments straight up instead of crossing the room (or stage) to mess with the amplifier. Wouldn’t get me as much work either; the rest of the band would be waiting for me to get my act together. Not cool.
The acoustic electric guitar represents a new era in my playing. I really like everything about being in a band, and all the practice was worth it. There are even some fine looking ladies in the audience. I guess I should thank what’s-her-name for helping me turn my life around!
Best,
K.Petit
http://www.squidoo.com/JPATT/ PATT is a non-profit, Parents And Teens Together. Check out this lens. The author lives in California and supports PATT from “the left coast”. Get more tips on staying fit at http://www.playourplanet.com/workoutroom.com. This site has video games, music, musical instruments, sports gear, outdoor equipment, and some great links. Links to college newspapers nationwide on the way! http://www.playourplanet.com
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You can think of this kind of instrument in two ways: Either it’s an electric guitar that looks like an acoustic, or it’s an acoustic instrument that you can amplify without an external mike. If you’re thinking of trying an acoustic-electric bear in mind the kind of music you like to play. Try a couple of different models to get a feel for the instrument.