Sizing steel-strung guitars is much more confusing because there is no standard or even an agreed naming convention. Typically, the scale length is 25.6”, the body length is 19.25”, the body depth is around 3.8” and the nut width is a whopping 2”.Ĭlassical guitars are also made in ¾ size, ½ size and so on, mostly for the children’s market but also to suit smaller players. This is the size that the vast majority of players play, and its dimensions don’t differ that much from one luthier or brand to the next. The classical sizing system is the easiest to understand, so let’s kick off with that.Ī regular size classical guitar is ‘full size’, aka Concert, aka 4/4. Acoustic guitar vs classical: Size mattersīoth steel-strung acoustic guitars and classical guitars are made in a variety of sizes. Many argue that the most favorable classical guitars are still built in Spain, yet Yamaha makes some fine instruments and the Californian brand, and relative newcomer, Cordoba has inspired many new players to pick up a nylon string acoustic for the first time. Martin may have pioneered the modern acoustic guitar, but there have been many incredible contributions from other brands along the way including Gibson, Taylor, Yamaha and scores of others. Strings are secured with ball-ends, pins and metal peg tuners. Steel strings are held under much higher tension, so a truss rod is required to stop the guitar from quite literally folding in on itself, the build has to be heavier and the bracing, often a variation of X bracing, more robust. The modern steel string acoustic has come a more circuitous route, from the violin workshops of Vienna, immigrant craftsmen hoping for a new future on the Eastern Seaboard and the Hawaiian dance and jazz clubs of the early 1900s. Headstocks are simple, with rollers and classical machine heads. Often, they’ll feature delicate fan bracing, their lowly tensioned strings don’t require a truss-rod and are tied to the bridge with a knot. To recap, classical nylon-strung guitars are lightly built and have a purity of line, direct descendants of the Torres vision. The modern steel-strung acoustic guitar was born and was soon to be joined by the aforementioned Dreadnought. He struggled with fan bracing in these new hybrids, so instead invented X-bracing, now a Martin hallmark.įast forward to the early 1900s and the US was swept with a craze for loud Hawaiian music and the popularity of jazz ensembles, which necessitated a switch to another Martin innovation, the use of steel strings. In 1833, visionary German luthier Christian Frederick Martin Sr immigrated to New England where he started re-incorporating Spanish design elements into his Viennese-style guitars. How we ended up with two distinct types – the steel string and the classical – is a fascinating tale that weaves through southern Spain, up through Germany and Austria before reaching the US eastern seaboard.Īs Spanish luthiers, like Antonio de Torres Jurado, were getting closer to what we now think of as a classical guitar, a lightly built instrument with extremely resonant fan-bracing, Viennese builders were adding all sorts of violin-inspired embellishments, including a rudimentary truss rod. Acoustic guitar vs classical: BuildĪll acoustic guitars can trace their heritage back to lute-like instruments developed on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. The effect can be subtle but playing without a pick is genuinely a skill worth persevering with.Ī guitar’s build has a dramatic effect on its tone, loudness and projection too. On either style of guitar, playing with flesh and nail provides a surprisingly wide variety of tones to call on. Compared with a classical, or a parlor-style steel string for that matter, they move a lot of air.Ĭlassical guitars are also traditionally plucked with fingers and thumb rather than a hard guitar pick, which influences both volume and tone. Dreadnoughts and jumbos, for example, were developed in the early 1900s to rival instruments competing for volume in the acoustic dance bands of the time. Steel string guitars tend to be louder, in part because of string material and tension, but also because their body-shape is usually larger and deeper. In contrast, steel string guitars are brighter with a fast attack but that’s not to say that classical guitars can’t be bright or that steel string guitars can’t sound warm and rich. This imbues a tone that’s more mellow with less attack. Yep, you probably already knew that, but what’s at work here?Ĭlassical guitars have softer, wider strings that are tuned to much lower tension than their hard, steely counterparts. Despite sharing a broadly similar appearance, steel-strung acoustic guitars and classical guitars sound very different.
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