Acoustic Guitars - The Versatile Guitar, Across All Musical Genres
The very first guitar, all those thousands of years ago, was acoustic. Of course it was, it had to be. Amplified guitars have really only been around for the last 100 years or so, so in terms of historical significance, the acoustic guitar is most certainly the grand old man. Acoustic guitars have graced pretty much every musical theater of note in the world, and have covered every musical genre that you can think of. Amplification can help bring the guitar to adoring masses, but the quality of sound from a good acoustic cannot be touched.
Classical music and guitars are not always thought of in tandem, but wonderful classical music does exist for the guitar. The classical guitar is similar to the Spanish guitar in that they are smaller than their steel strung counterpart, and use nylon strings. Their tone is very different to steel strung guitars, and the playing style is different. Many guitarists who play steel strung instruments use either flat picks or thumb and or finger picks. Many also use their fingers to pluck the strings. However no self respecting classical guitar player would use picks at all.
Because acoustic guitars do not have the reach of their amplified brothers and sisters, they are more restricted to rhythm duties in a band environment. They can add colour and some je ne sais quois, but would struggle to be dominant in an amplified arena.
However they can produce beautiful music in the hands of a good guitar player. Many of the original blues artists did not have amplified guitars but produced very emotive music none the less on acoustic guitars.
In order to compete on a level playing field with solid electric guitars, you need to consider acoustic guitar amps when you get up on stage, especially if you will be playing with other musicians. That and the quality of the pickups you use will dictate how well you will sound on stage.
