GUITAR COLLECTIONS

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being a construction of a musical instrument having “a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with in curved sides”. Instruments similar to the guitar have been popular for at least 5,000 years.

Guitar construction can fulfill the needs of both left and right-handed players. Traditionally, the dominate hand is assigned the undertaking of plucking or strumming the strings. For the majority of people this implies using the right hand. This is because musical expression (dynamics, tonal expression, color, etc.) is for the most part dictated by the plucking hand, while the fretting hand is assigned the lesser mechanical task of depressing and gripping the strings.

This is similar to the convention of the violin family of musical instruments where the right hand controls the bow. Left-handed players broadly speaking choose a left-handed instrument, although some play in a standard right-handed fashion, others play a standard right-handed guitar reversed, and still others (for example Jimi Hendrix) play a right-handed guitar strung up in reverse.

This last guitar constraction differs from a true left-handed guitar in that the saddle is generally angled in such a way that the bass strings are somewhat longer than the treble strings to better intonation. Reversing the strings consequently reverses the relative orientation of the saddle (negatively affecting intonation), although in Hendrix’ case this is considered to have been an significant element in his unique sound.

Construction of A Guitar

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: Expression of Love for Music.