Guitar Styles And Models

Guitar Styles and Guitar Models

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Guitar Styles

Listed below are various guitar styles and guitar types. Also find a brief guitar history on each guitar style, model, or guitar type.

Electric Guitar Styles And Guitar Models:

Stratocaster

Fender came up with the Stratocaster guitar about 50 yrs ago.  There are many companies that produce this style of guitar today.  Typically the Stratocaster guitar has a bolt on neck,  6 on one side tuners, strat style body with two cutaways, 3 single coil pickups, and a tremelo.   But there are many variations of the Stratocaster today.  Some have Humbucker pickups, while others have a humbucker and single coils.  The nice part about the strat guitar is that they can be modified fairly easily with different pickups and hardware.  An interesting fact about the strat is that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd owns the first strat ever made Serial Numbered 001.

Telecaster

Fender invented the 1st telecaster style guitars, and they have been around since before the Stratocaster.  Telecasters typically have two pickups, a smaller headstock than the strat, and a 3 way pickup selector.   Most have a string through body, but not all.  The unique sound you usually get from a telecaster is when you use the middle position on the pickup selector.   This activates both pickups and give that unique telecaster sound.  Many famous guitarists have played the Telecaster including Bruce Springstein, Prince, and many more. 

Les Paul Style Guitar

Les Paul style guitars were invented by Les Paul of course, hence the name.  Les Paul has been quite an innovator in the music field and has even invented some of the first track style recording devices to record music.  The Les Paul guitar consists of a set neck (glued in), 3 on one side tuners, usually two humbucking pickups, and a single cut away body w/ a 3 way pickup selector switch.   Some Les Paul's have carved top bodies, binding around the body, and trapazoid inlays.  It just depends on the model of the guitar.  Famous Les Paul players include Slash, Jimmy Page, and Joe Perry.

Flying V

The Flying V guitar became popular in the 1980's with guitarists like Rhandy Rhodes (Ozzy Osbourne's Guitarist on his 1st solo album).  The Flying V name comes from the body shape which is a Large V shaped body.  These guitars are typically for eye appeal, because they are not easy or comfortable to play. 

SG

The SG Guitar (Solid Guitar) is another product coming from the Gibson guitar family.  They are best known for their pointy guitar horn body type.   Usually they have two humbucking pickups and a set neck (Glued).  They are typically thinner than their Les Paul counterparts.   Made famous by Angus Young of AC/DC and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.

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Electric Bass Styles:

Precision or P Bass

The Precision Bass or P Bass as some call it have been around for years.  They typically have a thicker neck than a Jazz Bass, and have a P bass type offset pickup.  Usually they have a volume and tone knob and 4 on one side tuning system.  Older styles have reverse tuners, meaning you turn them the opposite direction of today's tuners.  Many famous players have used the P Bass including John Paul Jones of Zeppelin. 

Jazz Bass

Jazz Basses usually have a thinner body shape and neck shape.  They have a unique off balanced body shape much different than that of the precision bass.  They are a more traditional kind of bass played by many Jazz musicians.  They may have 2 pickups to give different types of sounds and an extra tone knob for different tones.  Sound depends on the manufacturer.

Acoustic Guitar Styles

Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitars have an open chamber and are much thicker than electric's.  The sound occurs from the vibration of the strings entering the sound chamber which then amplifies the sound.  Their a many types of acoustic guitars.  They usually have no cutaway to the body,  3 on one side tuners, pick guard, and a stop tailpiece acoustic bridge

12 String Acoustic Guitar

A 12 String Acoustic Guitar is similar to the acoustic guitar above, but it has 6 extra stings.  For instance, your low E String will also have a lighter or higher pitched string next to it playing a higher range of the same note.  The 12 String gives a fuller sound almost like a chorus effect.  They are genuinely harder to play than a regular acoustic given that they have more strings.  Usually more experienced guitarists pickup this instrument after they have learned on a standard 6 string guitar.

Acoustic Bass

Acoustic Bass is similar to the guitar, but has 4 heavier sounding bass strings attached to it.  Therefore it gives the deeper bass tones associated with acoustic bass playing.