page_title: Acoustic guitar
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Acoustic guitar / Types
caption_attribution_description: Baroque guitar (ca.1630-50), Matteo Sellas, The Met, NYC.jpg Guitar Attributed to Matteo Sellas (German, Füssen ca. 1599&#8211;1654 Venice) Accession Number:1990.103 Date: ca. 1630&#8211;50 Geography: Venice, Italy Medium: Spruce, bone, parchment, snakewood, ivory Dimensions: Label: 26.9 x 95.6cm (10 9/16 x 37 5/8in.) Classification: Chordophone-Lute Credit Line: Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 1990 This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 684
context_page_description: An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the guitar family. Its strings vibrate a sound board on a resonant body to project a sound wave through the air. The original, general term for this stringed instrument is guitar, and the retronym 'acoustic guitar' distinguishes it from an electric guitar, which relies on electronic amplification. Typically, a guitar's body is a sound box, of which the top side serves as a sound board that enhances the vibration sounds of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned E₂ A₂ D₃ G₃ B₃ E₄.
  Guitar strings may be plucked individually with a pick or fingertip, or strummed to play chords. Plucking a string causes it to vibrate at a fundamental pitch determined by the string's length, mass, and tension. The string causes the soundboard and the air enclosed by the sound box to vibrate. As these have their own resonances, they amplify some overtones more strongly than others, affecting the timbre of the resulting sound.
context_section_description: Historical and modern acoustic guitars are extremely varied in their design and construction, far more so than electric guitars. Some of the most important varieties are the classical guitar (Spanish Guitar/Nylon-stringed), steel-string acoustic guitar and lap steel guitar.
  Nylon/gut stringed guitars:
  Vihuela
  Gittern
  Baroque guitar
  Romantic guitar
  Classical guitar, the modern version of the original guitar, including additional strings models
  Russian/Gypsy guitar
  Flamenco guitar
  Lute
  Steel stringed guitars:
  Steel-string acoustic guitar, also known as western, folk or country guitar
  Twelve string guitar
  Resonator guitar (such as the Dobro)
  Archtop guitar
  Selmer/Maccaferri (Manouche) guitar
  Battente guitar
  Lap steel guitar
  Lap slide guitar
  Parlor guitar
  Lyre-guitar
  Other variants:
  Harp guitar
  Pikasso guitar (a variant of harp guitar)
  Contraguitar (Viennese variant of harp guitar)
  Acoustic bass guitar
  Banjo guitar
caption: Baroque guitar, c. 1630
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