Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Classical Guitar FeaturesJust now I found this wonderful information on Classical Guitar features on net.
The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of features:
* It is an acoustic instrument. The sound is amplified by a sound box.
* It has six strings. A few classical guitars have eight or more strings to expand the bass scale, even out overtone production, and allow lute music written for lutes with more than six courses of strings to be played.
* The strings are made from nylon (formerly catgut, which is made from sheep intestine, despite the name), as opposed to the metal strings found in some other forms of guitar. These strings have a much lower tension than steel strings. The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver or nickel. Some less common stringings use a fourth wound string.
* Because of the low tension of the strings the neck can be made entirely of wood, not requiring a steel truss rod.
* Also because of the low tension of the strings, the interior bracing of the sound board can be lighter, which allows more complex tonal qualities.
* The neck tends to be broader than with steel string guitars, making more complex fingerwork easier, but which may require a more exacting left hand position.
* The strings are usually plucked with the fingers. Most players shape their fingernails so that they contact the string in a certain way to achieve the desired tone.
* Traditionally, the tuning pegs (or "keys") at the head the fingerboard of a classical guitar point backwards (towards the player when the guitar is in playing position; perpendicular to the plane of the fretboard). This is in contrast to a traditional steel-string guitar design, in which the tuning pegs point outward (up and down from playing position; parallel to the plane of the fretboard).
* Classical guitars are typically built without pick-guards. A pick-guard is a piece of plastic affixed just below the strings on steel-string guitars to protect the sound board of the guitar from damage by aggressive strumming with a pick. It is assumed that a classical guitar will be played only with the fingers, and that a pick-guard is unnecessary.On flamenco guitars a tapping, or golpe board is attached to the front of the guitar, below the sound hole to allow the use of techniques that would normally damage a classical guitar.
Classical guitars are normally played without amplification of any sort but they can be equipped with an electronic pickup, which is sometimes used by performers in noisy environments. Either a piezoelectric pickup is placed under the bridge, or a microphone is suspended within the body.
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