Acoustic Guitar

An acoustic guitar means one which produces its sound without the help of electronics, although is more typically used to mean a hollow-bodied steel-string guitar, to distinguish them from electric guitars. The acoustic guitar was invented long before the electric guitar, and started its evolution as what would now be called a “classical” or “nylon-stringed” guitar.

To add more complexity to the definition, many acoustic guitars are now actually acoustic-electric, so they are still designed to produce their sound acoustically by using a hollow body for resonance, but have a pickup and usually some additional electronics which enable them to be plugged directly into a mixer for stage use, without the difficulty and expense of using a microphone (with it’s feedback problems and stationary position). But still the acoustic guitar is designed very differently fom an electric guitar in that the acoustic is designed to produce its sound acoustically and to stay as similar as possible to this sound when plugged in, where-as the electric guitar is designed to only produce it’s sound via the electronics which change the sound considerably from what could be heard acoustically.

Acoustic guitars are used in a wide variety of musical styles today, and are one of the most popular instruments world-wide. There are many makers of acoustic guitars including Gibson, Taylor, Martin, and others. See the links on the right for our in-depth reports on acoustic guitars, which go into the details of user feedback on what these guitars are like in practice.