The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.
C.F. Martin & Company is an American guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. It is highly respected for its acoustic guitars and is a leading manufacturer of flat top guitars and ukuleles. The company has also made mandolins and tiples, as well as several models of electric guitars and electric basses, although none of these other instruments are still in production.
The fingerboard is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The strings run over the fingerboard, between the nut and bridge. To play the instrument, a musician presses strings down to the fingerboard to change the vibrating length, changing the pitch. This is called stopping the strings. Depending on the instrument and the style of music, the musician may pluck, strum or bow one or more strings with the hand that is not fretting the notes. On some instruments, notes can be sounded by the fretting hand alone, such as with hammer ons, an electric guitar technique.
Shubb is a company that specialises in producing capos for all kinds of stringed instruments. The company was formed in 1974 by banjoists Rick Shubb and Dave Coontz. Shubb capos remain a top-selling capo forty years after their invention. Shubb wanted to create a capo that would not make his instrument go out of tune, which has resulted in ongoing efforts to refine his invention. Since 2016 at least 80% of Shubb's Capos are manufactured in China.
Martin Stewart Simpson is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in Britain, Ireland, America and beyond. He builds a purposeful, often upbeat voice on a spare picking style.
Inlay on guitars or similar fretted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard inlay techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboard, headstock—typically the manufacturer's logo—and around the sound hole of acoustic guitars. Only the positional markers on the fretboard or side of the neck and the rosette around the sound hole serve any function other than decoration. Nacre, plastic and wood are the materials most often used as inlay.
A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities.
Tom Anderson Guitarworks is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and guitar pickups, based in Newbury Park, California. The company was started in 1984 by Tom Anderson, who is regarded as "one of the most respected names in the […] custom guitar market." They manufacture about 1200 instruments per year and have a reputation for "consistently high build quality, superb playability and innovative tones." Their Atom model was featured in Guitarist magazine's "50 guitars to play before you die".
George Gruhn is an American writer, businessman and ophiophilist. He is one of the foremost experts on vintage American guitars and fretted instruments, and the author of several books on the subject. He is the founder of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, and has sold guitars to musicians such as Hank Williams, Jr., Eric Clapton, Brad Paisley, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Billy Gibbons, Rick Nielsen, Vince Gill, and John Hiatt.
String bending is a guitar technique where fretted strings are displaced by application of a force by the fretting fingers in a direction perpendicular to their vibrating length. This has the net effect of increasing the pitch of a note. String-bending allows exploration of microtonality and can be used to give a distinctive vocal articulation to lead guitar passages.
Taylor Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in El Cajon, California. The company was founded in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug and specializes in acoustic guitars and semi-hollow electric guitars. It is one of the largest manufacturers of acoustic guitars in the United States and sells guitars in 65 countries around the world.
Guitar manufacturing is the use of machines, tools, and labor in the production of electric and acoustic guitars. This phrase may be in reference to handcrafting guitars using traditional methods or assembly line production in large quantities using modern methods. Guitar manufacturing can also be broken into several categories such as body manufacturing and neck manufacturing, among others. Guitar manufacturing includes the production of alto, classical, tenor, and bass tuned guitars.
Jon Kammerer Guitars is an American manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars and basses, founded in 1999 by Jon Kammerer. The first Jon Kammerer guitars were acoustic, featuring an innovative, patented parabolic design that increases structural strength and durability, yet maintains tonal projection while reducing the size/weight of traditional acoustic guitars. Electric models followed, including full-sized and downsized solid-bodies, chambered, semi-hollow-body, and hollow-body models using similar rounded design cues based on parabolic arcs.
The Santa Cruz Guitar Company is an American manufacturer of acoustic guitars, located in Santa Cruz, California. The company was started in 1976 by luthier Richard A. Hoover, who is reputed to have "trained some of the most accomplished contemporary luthiers in his workshop", and investors Bruce Ross and William Davis. They produce somewhere between 500 and 700 guitars a year, and their instruments are known for being "some of the world’s finest steel-string guitars" with characteristics described as "being highly resonate and having a complexity of overtones".
Joe Veillette, is a luthier and the owner of Veillette Guitars. He specializes in the crafting of unusual and innovative handmade guitars, basses, and other stringed instruments. Veillette's diverse client list includes John Sebastian, James Taylor, Ani DiFranco, Dave Mathews, John Mayer, Jorma Kaukonen, Steve Miller, Todd Rundgren, Tina Weymouth, Chris Martin, Jimmy Vivino, Tim Pierce, Colin Hay, David Torn, Brian May, Kaki King, Neal Schon, Mike McCready, Eddie Van Halen and other notable players.
Kiesel Guitars is an American manufacturer of custom electric guitars and electric bass guitars located in Southern California, with a heritage dating back to 1946. In 2015, Kiesel Guitars split from Carvin Corporation, taking the guitar and bass portions of Carvin.
Ken Parker is an American luthier known for his unique archtop guitars and the Parker Fly electric guitar which came out in 1993. He is the founder of Parker Guitars.
Gurian Guitars was a manufacturer of high quality acoustic guitars based in New York City, then Hinsdale, New Hampshire and finally West Swanzey, New Hampshire, from the 1960s to 1981. The instruments were designed by luthier Michael Gurian who also supervised production of the instruments bearing his name. The company was one of the earliest "boutique" acoustic guitar makers in the United States, offering an alternative product to those of the larger, factory-based makers of the day, with instruments characterized by a distinctive shape, features and sound.
Michael Gurian is an American-born guitarist and luthier of Armenian descent. He had some initial furniture making experience when he became a guitar teacher at the Guitar Workshop, Roslyn, New York in 1961.
The GuitarViol is a modern Arpeggione built by guitarist and luthier Jonathan Eric Wilson. It has six strings tuned in E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 in a standard (tenor) guitar tuning, though some tune in baritone tuning in B1–E2–A2–D3–F#3–B3, with 24 frets. It is most often played in a semi-diagonal, guitar-like playing position and bowed with an underhand “German” bow grip manner similar to the viola da gamba. GuitarViols exist in solid body electric, semi-acoustic, and acoustic configurations. GuitarViols have been predominantly used by media composers, with notable examples including 300, Game of Thrones, and Borderlands.
