GUITAR FOR FINGERSTYLE

Like choose guitar for fingerstyle? Everything you need to know about choosing a guitar.

Google translate from Ukrainian Guitar School https://www.fingerstyle.com.ua/gitara-dlya-fingerstajla/

1. Structure guitars
2. Types guitars for fingerstyle
   • Classical
   • Acoustic and electro-acoustic
   • Semi-acoustic
3. Shapes acoustic guitars.
   • Dreadnought
   • Orchestral model
   • Grand auditorium
   • Jumbo
   • Neckline in cases (cutaway)
   • Armrest on the Body
4. Guitars for children With reduced corps and guitars for travel .
5. Materials , from which made frame guitars and them influence on the sound .
   • Upper deck ( top )
   • Back soundboard and shells
   • Stand ( bridge )
   • Pegs ( pins )
   • Laminate, solid wood, composite material
6. Neck
   • Profile
   • Width
   • Fingerboard
   • Radius
   • Nuts
7. Strings
   • Gauge and strength tension
   • Material for manufacturing strings
   • Height above fingerboard
   • Mensur
8. Cost guitars
   • Pricing
   • Brands
   • Factory or artisan guitar ?
   • New or used
9. Finishing guitars

1. Building guitars.

Before you choose a guitar for fingerstyle, you need to decide on its structure so that you can understand what will be discussed further in this article. Looking ahead, the most preferred fingerstyle guitar is acoustic and electro-acoustic, so we will consider the structure of these types of instruments.

The guitar consists of two main parts – the body and neck.

• Body . The main part of the guitar, in which the sound and timbre of the instrument is formed. It consists of a top deck (top), a back deck and shells (sides). On the body are located: a resonator hole with a decorative rosette around it, a bridge (stand) with a saddle to which the strings are attached and secured with pegs (pins), a button for attaching a belt. The body can be either with a cutaway, equipped with a pickup, a pickguard (a protective plate against pick strikes or fingers), or without them.

• Neck . Attaches to the top of the case. On it there are metal partitions – sills, to which the strings are pressed, due to which the length of the string changes and, accordingly, the pitch changes. The distances between the nut are called frets, some of them are marked with markers for better orientation on the fretboard. Pegs are located on the head of the neck – mechanisms for increasing and decreasing the degree of tension of the strings, which leads to a change in the pitch of their sound. A button is installed on the heel of the bar to which the strap is attached.

2. Types guitars.

Classical guitar. Thanks to nylon strings (a synthetic material made from polymers), it has a soft, velvety sound. Great for different styles of music, especially classical and flamenco. This fingerstyle guitar is also fine until you meet specific playing techniques. For example, tapping and slapping with nylon strings will sound less expressive than on an acoustic guitar with metal strings. The classic has a wide neck (52 mm – the width of the zero nut), which is attached to the deck at the 12th fret.

Acoustic and electro-acoustic guitar. Thanks to the metal strings, it has a bright, loud sound. Such playing techniques as tapping, slap, legato (hummer, pool) sound great. On such guitars, a narrow neck (43mm) is most often installed and is longer than on the classics, which is attached to the body at the 14th fret. Electro-acoustic is most often equipped with a piezo pickup, less often with a magnetic pickup or a microphone system installed inside the case for connection to sound amplification systems, which gives you the opportunity to play on stage, concerts. Great for country music, blues, rock, pop.

Semi-acoustic guitar. An intermediate link between acoustic and electric guitar, and as close as possible to the latter. Most often they play jazz, blues, rockabilly. It has a thin hollow (hollow body) or semi-hollow (semi hollow) body. The neck is as close to an electric guitar as possible. Due to such a thin body, it sounds significantly quieter than a classical and acoustic guitar, but louder than an electric guitar (when not connected), so it is usually played through sound reinforcement systems. It sounds very soft, but it all depends on the settings of the sound reinforcement systems. Unlike electroacoustics, magnetic pickups are installed on it, and thanks to sound amplification, all fingerstyle playing techniques sound good on such a guitar, except for percussion on the body, since such pickups do not remove blows to the soundboard. But nothing prevents the semi-acoustics from being equipped with a piezo pickup on the body, and this problem will be solved.

Following from the above types of guitars, it can be concluded that the most suitable guitar for fingerstyle is an acoustic guitar or electro-acoustic if you plan to perform on stage, although for small rooms a regular acoustic without a pickup will be enough.

3. Acoustic guitar body shapes.

Unlike the classics, acoustics have a very extensive selection of cases that affect three main parameters – sound, playability and external aesthetic appearance. The larger the body, the “bigger” the sound with good bass, but due to the size of such an instrument, it is less comfortable to hold in your hands. Medium-sized guitars have a balanced sound, play in the lower range, but are much more comfortable than large ones. Below are the main types of acoustic guitar bodies. We will not touch on absolutely all existing cases, but will consider only the most popular of them and those that can be found in our stores.

• Dreadnought. Designed by Martin. It has a large, deep body with powerful surround sound, excellent concentrated low frequencies, clear highs, juicy mids, which made it the most sought after in the world.

• Orchestral model (Orchestra Model, OM). Also developed by Martin. It looks more like a classical guitar body. Thanks to the not as deep hull as the dreadnought, the model is very comfortable to play. But because of this, the guitar does not sound so spacious, loses bass, but has good mids and highs

• Grand audience (Grand Auditorium). Designed by Bob Taylor in 1994. The most versatile case. The golden mean between dreadnought and orchestral model. The hull is slightly smaller than the dreadnought, the same thickness, but with deeper shells. In terms of comfort, it is not inferior to the orchestral model. The sound loses a little to the dreadnought on the lows, but has excellent mids and sparkling highs.

• Jumbo The largest corps. Produces the biggest sound, but less balanced than a dreadnought. Due to this size, it is not suitable for everyone, it is not so convenient to hold such a tool.

Neckline on the hull (Cutaway).

Can be made in any of the hull types. Improves access to notes in high position. A very necessary thing for modern fingerstyle. Sooner or later you will need a cutout guitar. It is believed that such guitars are slightly inferior in volume to guitars without it, but everything is very conditional.

Armrest on the body .

Designed for a more comfortable position for the right hand, so that the angle of the top and sides does not press on the hand. It happens overhead and mortise. You can buy an invoice, but with a mortise guitar it’s hard to find at the moment, but they are, and of course already in expensive guitar models.

4. Small body guitars for kids and travel guitars.

Depending on the age, height, build and size of the hands of the child, it is necessary to choose the right size of the case. In a classical guitar, the sizes of reduced bodies are indicated by a fractional number ¼, ½, ¾, which indicates a part from a full-size instrument.

There are basically four sizes of classical guitars for different age categories:

• whole 4/4 (from 12 years old)

• three quarters ¾ (8-12 years old)

• half ½ (5-8 years)

• quarter ¼ (3-5 years )

This distinction is very arbitrary. Children at the age of 12 can be completely different, so you should choose a guitar individually for each child.

The reduced body sizes discussed above are mainly used for classical guitars. Such a gradation is rarely used with acoustics, and basically they will have the names Mini, Baby, Travel, etc. which complicates the choice, since different manufacturers will have a mini-body guitar with a slightly different size. If you need an acoustic guitar for a child, it is best to go to the store with a teacher in order to choose the right size of the guitar as accurately as possible.

Smaller cases aren’t just for kids. Such guitars often serve as “camping” and for travel. If you are going somewhere on vacation, especially abroad, taking a full-sized guitar with you is not the best idea. No, of course you can, but it’s inconvenient. Today, manufacturers have even invented collapsible guitars, in which the neck is detached from the body, which makes transportation even more comfortable.

5. The materials the guitar is made of and how it affects the sound.

Top deka

The best material for making the top deck is spruce or cedar, but can be found from mahogany, maple, koa and other species.

Several varieties of spruce are used for the manufacture of the upper deck, which differ in timbre characteristics: sitka (sitka), engelmann (engelmann), adirondack (adirondack)

• Sitkha Spruce The most commonly used species. Has a wide, even sound range with clear articulation.

• Engelman Spruce. Also known as European Spruce, German Spruce. They are actually different classes of trees, but they sound similar. Compared to Sitka spruce, it has an expensive, noble sound, with rich mids and sparkling soft highs that you can’t help but fall in love with.

• Adirondack spruce. The most expensive and rare type of spruce. Provides a wide dynamic range, which allows the guitar to sound loud without distortion, loss of quality and purity of sound. The mids are sweeter and richer than Sitka spruce, and every note is well heard.

• Cedar. Sounds warmer, darker, softer and not as bright as spruce. Less dynamic range, may sound distorted when playing aggressively loudly.

• Mahogany. Mainly used for backs and sides, but occasionally mahogany tops can be found. Has a deep, matte tone and the darkest sound.

Back soundboard and shells

For rear decks and shells use rosewood , mahogany , sapelle , maple , ovankol . You can also find more exotic breeds: koa, bubingu, cocobolo, blackwood, pau ferro, etc. We will focus on the most common ones.

• Indian Rosewood In my opinion the best wood for the back and sides. Wide dynamic and sonic range, perfect frequency balance, long sustain (duration of sound after sound extraction). This tree has it all: deep bass, volume, power, sparkling highs and regular, non-bulging mids that do not blur the sound. All this has made Indian rosewood the most sought-after wood in guitar building.

• Mahogany . It has thick full mids, moderate bass and high, generally smooth sound. Mahogany is probably the most common and commonly used type of wood, as it is suitable for a wide range of purposes, whether for solo playing or accompaniment.

• Sapelle. Very similar to mahogany, but due to the greater density of the wood, it has a brighter sound.

• Walnut. This wood is loved for its special, characteristic “woody” sound, which is like a cross between mahogany and rosewood. The bass is deeper, the mids are brighter than mahogany, and the highs are not as bright as rosewood.

• Maple. Sounds light and very focused, but with little sustain. Bright, juicy highs dominate, making the maple guitar cut through any mix.

• Ovankol. An African relative of rosewood. Has an excellent wide sonic and dynamic range, with fuller mids and slightly brighter frequencies than rosewood, but with less pronounced bass.

Bridge. Must be strong enough to hold the strings and transmit string vibrations well to the top soundboard. Therefore, in most cases they are made of rosewood and ebony.

Pins ( pegs , pins ). They can be made of plastic, wood and bone. Although they affect the overall sound of the guitar less, they do. Bone can produce a sharper, brighter sound, while wood is softer. Most importantly, make sure that the pins fit snugly into the bridge holes. Once I ordered beautiful ebony pins, and after installation I noticed that the sound dipped a lot in volume and lost its density. At first I didn’t understand why this happened, but comparing it with the old ones, it turned out that the new ones were hanging out in the seats.

Laminate, solid wood or composite material?

Guitar bodies can be made from:

• natural solid wood (when a piece of wood is sawn into thin boards about 3 mm thick)
• laminate, which can consist of pressed wood at worst (on cheap tools), at best of veneer, very thin layers of wood glued together (on more expensive guitars).
• Combinations of natural solid wood and laminate.
• Composite material, such as carbon. Not only the body, but also the neck and other parts of the guitar can be made from it.

Natural solid wood resonates better, has a beautiful open sound, full of overtones and excellent responsiveness. It is more difficult to take care of such guitars, it is necessary to observe the temperature and humidity conditions during storage, to make such a percussion technique as a barrel very carefully, as it is possible to damage the guitar up to cracks.

Over time, all solid wood guitars start to sound better, as we say “play out”. This is due to the fact that when the guitar is just made, the wood initially has a certain degree of rigidity and over time this rigidity is lost due to the constant vibration of the strings. As a result, the guitar starts to sound more flighty, open and even louder.

There are even individual companies that “play” instruments. Your guitar is placed in a room and different music and certain frequencies are turned on at a certain volume. You can even “play out” your instrument for a particular style of music. Specifically, in playing out for certain frequencies and styles of music, I personally have little faith. To test the theory, you need to record the guitar sound under the same conditions before and after such manipulations and compare the frequency response (amplitude-frequency response) on the devices.

Laminate, on the other hand, sounds flatter, duller, but it itself is stronger in structure and does not require special care.

The guitar can be either completely solid (all solid), or have a combination of solid wood and laminate. Most often, solid wood is installed on the top deck (solid top), and the rest of the body is made of laminate. A rarer option is when only the shells are made of laminate, and everything else is made of solid wood (solid top and backs). Solid top guitars are considered the best compromise between price and sound. Such guitars sound brighter and louder than fully laminated ones, but in terms of richness and beauty of timbre, they are inferior to fully solid ones.

6. Guitar Neck.

Firstly, it must have sufficient strength to withstand the load from string tension and at the same time remain stably straight. Secondly, you should be as comfortable as possible playing. All this is influenced by: the profile of the neck, its width, a reliable truss rod and the material of manufacture of the neck itself and its fingerboard

• The profile of the neckis the shape of the neck from the back where the thumb rests and the overall thickness of the neck. Thinner necks are much more comfortable to play, as the thumb does not move far from the index finger and retains a natural position. Thick necks are not as comfortable to play, but they are more resistant to stress, especially the variable stress from constantly retuning the guitar into alternate tunings. There are four main neck profiles: U-shaped, D-shaped, C-shaped and V-shaped. All the rest are modifications of these four, which can be thinner or thicker and have thin, soft, hard, modern prefixes in their names. If you are a beginner and do not know how to play, choose a thinner neck, they usually fit better in your hand than massive thick ones. Personally, I prefer the thin U or thin C profile.

• Nut nut neck width. A very important point that is of great importance for the comfort and clarity of guitar playing. Each performer has a different physiology and hand size. Most acoustic guitars have a neck width of 43mm at zero nut, and this neck is not suitable for everyone, since the distance between the strings is quite small. If you have large hands and large fingertips, chances are that your finger will simply snag those nearby when you press the string, even if you press the string to the fret technically correctly. In this case, you should look towards the wider neck of 45-48 mm and you will avoid many problems associated with catching adjacent strings. A feature of such guitars is that the distance between the strings is also widened on the bridge, so it will be more comfortable to play with the right hand.

• Overlay fretboard . The lining should be hard so that scuffs and pits from the fingers do not appear over time. Black is considered the best wood, but it is already put on expensive guitars. Most often, most good guitars are fitted with a rosewood fretboard. On cheap instruments, why don’t they just do it. Composite materials deserve special attention, for example, micarta, which was developed by Martin for their guitars and for Sigma guitars. Considered an indestructible material, but since both the fretboard and neck also transmit vibrations from the string and affect overall resonance, composite fretboards subjectively may not “sound” as good as wood fretboards. In addition, the pad affects the tactile sensation of the pads pressed against it. Personally, I really love the ebony fingerboards, which are very smooth, hard and feel good.

• Fingerboard radius – how rounded the fretboard is. It can be absolutely straight (flat) or have a simple (constant) or complex (variable) radius. Affects only comfort and should be chosen according to the convenience of the game.

It is impossible to give any specific recommendations for choosing a neck, since everyone has different hands in size and structure. The only thing I would advise is to test several guitars in the store with different profiles, fingerboards, neck radii and decide which one fits better in your hand and is comfortable for you. Play chords, big and small barre, make bends and slides and just play.

Nuts . Here you should pay attention to several parameters: the material of the nut, their shape, width and height. The material affects the hardness and sound of the guitar, as the nut transmits the vibration of the strings to the neck. The harder they are, the less wear will be. Basically, three types of metal are used for the thresholds: steel, nickel silver, bronze.

Steel ones are considered the hardest, their sound is punchy, bright. Nickel silver is inferior in hardness, but has a more balanced sound and is what they put on most instruments. Bronze is also inferior in hardness to steel. It has a very interesting, clear and soft sound with an emphasis on mids and bass frequencies. Once I changed the worn-out nuts on my guitar to bronze and since then I don’t even want to put any others. For three years of active play, my bronze sills have not worn out at all.

The shape of the nut affects the feel and sound. When you play high nut, you may not even feel the touch on the fingerboard, and some players really like this effect. Wide frets can improve the bass range, but blur the articulation, you need to be careful here.

7. Strings.

Caliber and tension force. The gauge of strings is marked in inches (inch) and each string has its own thickness and tension, which is expressed in pounds (lbs).

The gauge (thickness) and tension of the strings determine how tight your guitar will sound and how easily you can press the strings against the nut. The thinner the strings, the more flying and open the sound will be and the strings are easier to press, the thicker – the sound is more massive, stable, dense, bass, but, accordingly, it is harder to press thick strings. The softness of the sound also depends on the tension force. Strings of the same gauge can have different tensions. When buying a set of 12-53 gauge strings from one manufacturer, you may feel that the strings are stiffer than the same set of 12-53 gauges from another manufacturer.

String material. The material of acoustic guitar strings determines the sound, strength, durability of sound and tactile sensations from touching them.

For acoustics, 80/20 bronze and phosphor bronze strings are used. Less common are nickel bronze and aluminum bronze.

Phosphor bronze has the best balance between warmth and brightness. In bronze 80/20, the emphasis is shifted to high frequencies. Nickel bronze has a cleaner, more neutral tone. Aluminum bronze can accentuate the bass on your instrument.

Special attention should be paid to the strings with a protective coating (coating string), which prevent string contamination and thus prolong their service life and retain their bright sound for a long time. At the moment, such coatings can be found in two manufacturers: Elixir (with Nanoweb and Polyweb coating) and D’Addario (XS series). Yes, other companies also have strings with a protective coating, but in practice they are not even close to the two above and there is no question of a long-lasting bright sound. And I tried a lot of different strings.

In addition to the material, the sound is also affected by the braiding of the strings. Most use round and very rarely flat. It is the round braid that gives a clear, sonorous, bright sound, when the flat one – on the contrary, is warmer and softer.

Height of strings above fretboard

The comfort of the game directly depends on the height. The higher the strings, the more difficult it is to press them down, but you can play loudly without fear that the guitar will rattle. Accordingly, the lower the strings, the easier it is to press them, but when playing loudly, a bounce will appear. The optimal height, with the neck deflection adjusted by the anchor, is when the distance from the 12th nut to the sixth string will be 2-2.5 mm, and to the first – 1.5-2 mm, with a gradual decrease in height from the sixth to the first.

Mensura .

In simple words, the scale is the length of the string from the nut to the nut. Two parameters depend on the scale: how well the guitar will build along the frets and the string tension. The scale length is usually expressed in inches or millimeters. Standard scale lengths in inches for full-size guitars are 24.75 to 25.5, but other values can be found.

The strength of the strings affects the sound of the guitar and how hard they will seem to you. The longer the strings, the harder it will be to press them and the sound will be more dense and stable. The smaller the scale, the easier the pressing, and the sound will be softer, swung, flying.

The length of the scale should also be considered if you play in lower tunings. In order to make the strings not quite like rags, it is better to choose a guitar with a longer scale and thicker strings, as they have more tension. Some manufacturers produce long scale guitars over 25.5″ specifically for lower tunings.

If everything is fine with the scale and nut settings on the guitar, your tuner will show the correct notes anywhere on the fretboard. Of course, not everything is so simple, some notes may fall out of order, since it is quite difficult to achieve this on the guitar. Now they even produce fretboards with a fan arrangement of the nuts, for a more accurate system.

At least an open string and its octave repetition at the 12th fret should build perfectly. This is easy to check. Tune the open first string and then hold it at the 12th fret, the tuner should show that both notes are tuned correctly. If the note on the 12th fret is high (that is, there is some plus value in cents), in this case the length of the string must be increased by sawing the nut at an angle and vice versa, if it is low, decrease it.

8. Price of the guitar.

Pricing . The cost of the instrument is formed from all of the above parameters, but the main pricing depends on the wood used in the manufacture of the acoustic guitar:

• Laminate – from $50
• Laminate + solid top – from $200
• Laminate back, sides and solid wood top from $500
• Full solid wood guitar – from $800

Brands . Try to choose well-known brands that are trusted all over the world. These include Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Yamaha, Ibanez, and others. The quality of their instruments is more stable, and the price is correspondingly higher. But that doesn’t mean lesser-known companies have bad guitars. I once bought a full solid wood guitar (Sitha Spruce + Indian Rosewood) from the not-so-famous Parkwood brand for $500 and it can easily compete with any $1000-2000 guitar. You should always look, play, listen and compare.

Custom or factory guitar?

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find the guitar of your dreams, so that the sound is right, and the comfort of playing is on top and every detail suits. There are two ways out of this situation. Firstly, well-known companies have a special Custom Shop department, which will gladly take into account all your wishes and still make the guitar of your dreams. The second is to order the instrument from a guitar luthier, who must be chosen very carefully so that you are happy with the instrument. Both in the first and in the second case, there are two minuses – the price, which can start from $ 2000 and the inability to listen to the instrument before buying. If nothing can be done about the price (although a master guitar can be found for $ 1000-1500), then there is a way out with the probing of the instrument, although not an easy one – to find a person who has a guitar of this production and at least find out if he is satisfied with the quality, but as a maximum ask for a visit and listen. It happens that a guitar master has ready-made instruments that you can listen to and if you are satisfied with the quality, they will make one close to it and take into account your wishes. Of course, you can search YouTube for videos with such guitars, but believe me, until you pick up the guitar yourself and play, I can’t imagine the quality and sound through the screen.

New guitar or used?

Hand tools are a good opportunity to save a lot. But there are a number of nuances that you should pay attention to when buying a guitar, both new and used:

• The external condition of the guitar. If the guitar is used, of course there may be some scratches, scuffs, dents, etc., which do not affect the sound, but affect the aesthetic view. Beware of cracks in the soundboard, fretboard, fretboard. I have one 100% solid wood Washburn guitar (spruce + sapelle) that I bought with a crack in the top but it was seven times cheaper than the store and it plays fine to this day and nothing happens to it, but here as luck would have it. If in the store you notice some kind of scratch on a new guitar and it is not critical for you, do not be afraid to ask for a discount, at least 5-10% of the cost can be claimed.
• The performance of the tuning pegs. They should do their job, rarely if something goes wrong with them. Just make sure that there is no idle scrolling when turning the pegs. If the pegs turn too easily or vice versa hard, it is necessary to adjust them with a special screw.
• Anchor performance. If the anchor rod does not turn, and if it does turn, but it is impossible to adjust the deflection with it fretboard – you should never buy a guitar.
• Evenness of the fretboard. You can take a long ruler with you and check that the nuts are in the same plane. There should be a slight deflection of up to 0.5mm around the 7th-9th fret (which is adjustable with a truss rod) when you press the 1st and 12th frets at the same time on the same string. There should be no more depressions or humps. With a short ruler at least three frets, you can check whether any of the nut protrudes above the rest.
• The condition of the nut. They should not have any dents or cuts from the strings. In the best case, if you notice such nuances, you will need to grind the nut, in the worst case, they will be completely replaced, and this is expensive.
• Bridge height. If the neck is even, and the strings are very high ( 5 mm or more above 12 nut), there is a chance that the bridge itself is too high and the bone cannot be ground to the desired values, the string will simply lie on the bridge.

All of the above nuances can most often be corrected by a guitar master. But add his work to the price and think about whether it is worth taking a used tool. If everything is in order with the guitar, then you can save from 30 to 50% on a new instrument.

9. Finishing guitars.

Almost all factory instruments need to be brought to a playable state, even expensive ones. Playing the guitar should be as convenient and comfortable as possible. It is best to take the guitar to the luthier to straighten the neck, lower the strings as low as possible without rattling, adjust the height of each string to zero nut, adjust the scale, grind the nut as needed (even on new guitars, some of them can be higher than the rest). ). If you do not do all these actions, it will simply be difficult for you to play, and your hands and fingers will hurt from excessive effort. O detuning guitars read HERE