Guitars as Musical Instruments - A Potted History
Of all contemporary musical instruments, the one that has had the most impact in modern life is probably the guitar. An electric guitar is the quintessential trademark of rebellious youth. No matter which generation you belong to, at some point in your teenage life you will have been affected in some shape way or form by a guitar. Whether by listening to one on the radio, TV or on record, or by being bitten by the bug yourself, and playing your own guitar, this particular musical instrument will undoubtedly have had some impact on your life.
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It probably doesn't even matter what type of music you listen to by preference. Guitars have been a core element of band music back to the early part of the 20th century. Whilst they may not have adopted such a dominant stance as they do now, guitars still had a big part to play in the sound of every generation since.
Going back much further (predating electricity of course), the sound of an acoustic guitar has enriched the sound of the entertainment world going back even further. Hollow bodies musical instruments similar to the modern acoustic guitar have been around the planet for thousands of years. The shape and material of the body help to influence the sound that is produced, and help make every guitar pretty much unique. Subtle differences in manufacture can make a substantial difference in the sound of the end product, a quality which makes acoustic guitars special in the guitar world. Because they do not rely on amplifiers or any third party means of producing sound, acoustic guitars rely on their core components to produce their sounds. One area that is pretty exclusive to acoustic guitars is the type of strings used. Their hollow bodies mean that the material used to create the strings can have an impact on the sound. Flamenco music from Spain and classical music favour the use of nylon (or cat gut, yuck) strings, whereas more modern music use steel strung guitars. Each produces a very unique sound.
As means of amplifying musical instruments became available in the early part of the 20th century, musicians (in particular guitarists), made full use of the new technology to compete with the other dominant instruments of the age, such as brass instruments, saxophones and the like. With the aid of amplification, guitars were able to produce volume to match and exceed that produced by pretty much anything else. Because they started from the point of the acoustic guitar, amplification was first added to acoustic guitars. What followed was the evolution of the acoustic guitar to accommodate the means of amplification more fully, and the acoustic electric guitar was born.
Over the years, electric acoustic guitars became solid bodied, and relied exclusively on the amplifier for generating sound. This was not the end of the line for acoustic electric instruments though, because the sounds produced were different from solid bodied guitars and from traditional acoustic guitars, and musical niches developed that encompassed all types of guitars.
There is another section now on this site, in which I talk about some of my favourite guitarists. I have been adding video to these pages as well, which has made this extra fun for me!
And talking of videos, I have recently added another section to this site, in which I have added collections of videos of famous guitar players and bands.
We have also added some Ebay listings, which are live, of auctions involving guitar related items. Go and take a look, you can find some great bargains.
