Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge ; January 8, 1903 – March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red , was an American Chicago blues musician.
147-408: Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide ) against the strings , creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position (flat against the body) with
294-516: A chord when not fretted, and is most often major. Open tunings commonly used with slide guitar include open D or Vestapol tuning: D–A–D–F ♯ –A–D; and open G or Spanish tuning: D–G–D–G–B–D. Open E and open A , formed by raising each of those tunings a whole tone, are also common. Other tunings are also used, in particular the drop D tuning (low E string tuned down to D) is used by many slide players. This tuning allows for power chords , which contain root, fifth and eighth (octave) notes in
441-515: A session musician , working with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson , Memphis Minnie , Big Maceo , and many others. He signed with Victor Records in 1934 and remained on their artist roster until 1953. He formed the Chicago Five, a group of session musicians who created what became known as the Bluebird sound, a precursor of the small-group style of later jump blues and rock and roll bands. Red
588-402: A "bass") is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length , and four to six strings. The four-string bass, by far the most common, is usually tuned the same as the double bass , which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest pitched strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument , as it
735-423: A "one-finger fretless guitar". The placement of a slide on a string determines the pitch , functioning in the manner of a steel guitar. The slide is pressed lightly against the treble strings to avoid hitting against the frets . The frets are used here only as a visual reference, and playing without their pitch-constraint enables the smooth expressive glissandos that typify blues music. This playing technique creates
882-413: A 12-string guitar, allowing him to incorporate chiming 12-string elements in standard six-string playing. In 1982 Uli Jon Roth developed the "Sky Guitar", with a vastly extended number of frets, which was the first guitar to venture into the upper registers of the violin. Roth's seven-string and "Mighty Wing" guitar features a wider octave range. The bass guitar (also called an "electric bass", or simply
1029-461: A blues player, Hooker explored using a wah-wah pedal in the 1960s to further emulate the human voice. Possibly the most influential electric blues slide guitarist of his era was Elmore James , who gained prominence with his 1951 song " Dust My Broom ", a remake of Robert Johnson's 1936 song, "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom". It features James playing a series of triplets throughout the song which Rolling Stone magazine called "one immortal lick" and
1176-496: A career spanning over 30 years, he also recorded pop, R&B and hokum songs. His best-known recordings include "Anna Lou Blues", " Black Angel Blues ", "Crying Won't Help You", " It Hurts Me Too ", and " Love Her with a Feeling ". Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia . The date of his birth is uncertain, with Tampa himself giving years varying from 1900 to 1908. The birth date given on his death certificate
1323-402: A chordophone, and clay plaques from Babylonia show people playing a lute-like instrument which is similar to the guitar. Several scholars cite varying influences as antecedents to the modern guitar. Although the development of the earliest "guitar" is lost to the history of medieval Spain, two instruments are commonly claimed as influential predecessors: the four-string oud and its precursor,
1470-440: A filler strip running down the length and behind the neck, used for strength or to fill the cavity through which the truss rod was installed in the neck. In acoustic guitars, string vibration is transmitted through the bridge and saddle to the body via sound board . The sound board is typically made of tonewoods such as spruce or cedar. Timbers for tonewoods are chosen for both strength and ability to transfer mechanical energy from
1617-427: A guitar with one finger (the bar). Known for its portamento capabilities, gliding smoothly over every pitch between notes, the instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato emulating the human singing voice. Typically, the strings are plucked (not strummed) by the fingers of the dominant hand, while the steel tone bar is pressed lightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand. The instrument
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#17328687800611764-453: A guitarist, he was best known for his electric slide playing. Muddy Waters helped bring the Delta blues to Chicago and was instrumental in defining the city's electric blues style. He was also one of the pioneers of electric slide guitar. Beginning with "I Can't Be Satisfied" (1948), many of his hit songs featured slide, including " Rollin' and Tumblin' ", " Rollin' Stone " (whose name was adopted by
1911-479: A hollow tube. The choice of shape and size is a matter of personal preference. The most common steel is a solid metal cylinder with one end rounded into a dome shape. Some lap slide guitar players choose a steel with a deep indentation or groove on each side so it can be held firmly, and may have squared-off ends. The better grip may facilitate playing the rapid vibratos in blues music. This design facilitates hammer-on and pull-off notes. Guitar The guitar
2058-439: A hybrid of the attributes of a steel guitar and a traditional guitar in that the player's remaining (non-slide) fingers and thumb still have access to the frets, and may be used for playing rhythmic accompaniment or reaching additional notes. The guitar itself may be tuned in the traditional tuning or an open tuning. Most early blues players used open tunings, but most modern slide players use both. The major limitation of open tuning
2205-683: A key role in the development of blues and rock music , both as an accompaniment instrument (playing riffs and chords ) and performing guitar solos , and in many rock subgenres, notably heavy metal music and punk rock . The electric guitar has had a major influence on popular culture . The guitar is used in a wide variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues , bluegrass , country , flamenco , folk , jazz , jota , ska , mariachi , metal , punk , funk , reggae , rock , grunge , soul , acoustic music , disco , new wave , new age , adult contemporary music , and pop , occasionally used as
2352-481: A knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. The effect was unforgettable." Blues historian Gérard Herzhaft notes that Tampa Red was one of the first black musicians inspired by the Hawaiian guitarists of the beginning of the century, and he managed to adapt their sound to the blues. Tampa Red, as well as Kokomo Arnold , Casey Bill Weldon , and Oscar Woods adopted
2499-531: A large aluminum cone, resembling an inverted loudspeaker, attached under the instrument's bridge to increase its volume. It was patented in the late 1920s by the Dopyera brothers and became widely used on many types of guitars, and was adapted to the mandolin and ukulele . Tampa Red played a gold-plated National Tricone style 4, and was one of the first black musicians to record with it. Delta blues pioneer, Son House, played this type of guitar on many songs including
2646-459: A metal slide. Nighthawk's sound was extremely clean and smooth, with a very light touch of the slide against the strings. He helped popularize Tampa Red's " Black Angel Blues " (later called "Sweet Little Angel"), "Crying Won't Help You", and "Anna Lou Blues" (as "Anna Lee") in his electric slide style-songs which later became part of the repertoire of Earl Hooker, B.B. King , and others. His style influenced both Muddy Waters and Hooker. Nighthawk
2793-580: A motorcycle accident at age 24, was hailed by NPR 's Nick Morrison as "the most inventive slide guitarist of his era". He extended the role of the slide guitar by mimicking the harmonica effects of Sonny Boy Williamson II , most clearly in the Allman Brothers' rendition of Williamson's "One Way Out" , recorded live at the Fillmore East and heard on their album Eat a Peach . The slide guitar, according to music educator Keith Wyatt, can be thought of as
2940-539: A newspaper obituary published by Jim O'Neal, his funeral was held at Biggs & Biggs Funeral Home, and he was buried in Mount Glenwood Memory Garden, in the Chicago suburb of Willow Springs . Red was one of the most prolific blues recording artists of his era. It has been estimated that he recorded 335 songs on 78-rpm records, of which 251 were recorded between 1928 and 1942, making him the blues artist with
3087-477: A resemblance to the human singing voice and music writer Andy Grigg commented: "He had the uncanny ability to make his guitar weep, moan and talk just like a person ... his slide playing was peerless, even exceeding his mentor, Robert Nighthawk." The vocal approach is heard in Hooker's instrumental, "Blue Guitar", which was later overdubbed with a unison vocal by Muddy Waters and became " You Shook Me ". Unusual for
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#17328687800613234-402: A right-handed guitar strung in reverse (the treble strings and bass strings reversed). The problem with doing this is that it reverses the guitar's saddle angle. The saddle is the strip of material on top of the bridge where the strings rest. It is normally slanted slightly, making the bass strings longer than the treble strings. In part, the reason for this is the difference in the thickness of
3381-625: A sample in hip-hop , dubstep , or trap music . The modern word guitar and its antecedents have been applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times, sometimes causing confusion. The English word guitar , the German Gitarre , and the French guitare were all adopted from the Spanish guitarra , which comes from the Andalusian Arabic قيثارة ( qīthārah ) and
3528-413: A seated position and are used to play a diversity of musical styles including classical music . The classical guitar's wide, flat neck allows the musician to play scales, arpeggios, and certain chord forms more easily and with less adjacent string interference than on other styles of guitar. Flamenco guitars are very similar in construction, but they are associated with a more percussive tone. In Portugal,
3675-472: A slide guitar break by Brian Jones , which may be the first appearance of a slide on a rock record. Critic Richie Unterberger commented, "Particularly outstanding was Brian Jones's slide guitar, whose wailing howl gave the tune a raunchy bluesiness missing in the Beatles' more straightforward rock 'n' roll arrangement." Jones also played slide on their 1964 single " Little Red Rooster ", which reached number one on
3822-685: A slide of some type has been traced back to African stringed instruments and also to the origin of the steel guitar in Hawaii. Near the beginning of the twentieth century, blues musicians in the Mississippi Delta popularized the bottleneck slide guitar style, and the first recording of slide guitar was by Sylvester Weaver in 1923. Since the 1930s, performers including Robert Johnson , Robert Nighthawk , Earl Hooker , Elmore James , and Muddy Waters popularized slide guitar in electric blues and influenced later slide guitarists in rock music , including
3969-428: A slight vibrato technique from pushing the string down harder and softer. "Scalloped" fretboards, where the wood of the fretboard itself is "scooped out" between the frets, allow a dramatic vibrato effect. Fine frets, much flatter, allow a very low string-action , but require that other conditions, such as curvature of the neck, be well-maintained to prevent buzz. The truss rod is a thin, strong metal rod that runs along
4116-496: A sound closer to that of an acoustic guitar with the flip of a switch or knob, rather than switching guitars. Those that combine piezoelectric pickups and magnetic pickups are sometimes known as hybrid guitars. Hybrids of acoustic and electric guitars are also common. There are also more exotic varieties, such as guitars with two , three, or rarely four necks, all manner of alternate string arrangements, fretless fingerboards (used almost exclusively on bass guitars, meant to emulate
4263-458: A street musician, adopting the name "Tampa Red", with reference to his childhood home and his light-colored skin. His big break came when he was hired to accompany Ma Rainey. While in Chicago, he met Thomas A. Dorsey , also known as Georgia Tom. Dorsey was an accomplished pianist, composer, and arranger who had performed and recorded with the leading female blues singers of the era, in particular Ma Rainey. Dorsey introduced Red to J. Mayo Williams ,
4410-455: A tune, borrowed from a Charley Jordan song, built around the then-popular catch phrase, "Tight Like That." Williams loved it and insisted they record it right away. Played in a bawdy and humorous style that became known as hokum , it ended up selling one million copies. Red would later recall people standing outside of record stores waiting to buy it. Since the song was composed by both Red and Dorsey, they shared around $ 4,000 in royalties from
4557-464: Is January 8, 1904. His parents, John and Elizabeth Woodbridge, died when he was a child, and he moved to Tampa, Florida , where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and adopted their surname, Whittaker. He emulated his older brother, Eddie, who played the guitar around the Tampa area, and he was especially inspired by an old street musician called Piccolo Pete, who first taught him to play blues licks on
Slide guitar - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-423: Is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with some exceptions ) 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
4851-601: Is credited as one who helped bring music from Mississippi into the Chicago blues style of electric blues . As a teenager, Earl Hooker (a cousin of John Lee Hooker ) sought out Nighthawk as his teacher and in the late 1940s the two toured the South extensively. Nighthawk had a lasting impact on Hooker's playing; however, by the time of his 1953 recording of "Sweet Angel" (a tribute of sorts to Nighthawk's "Sweet Little Angel"), Hooker had developed an advanced style of his own. His solos had
4998-436: Is expected to know his or her way around the instrument. In addition to fretboard inlay, the headstock and soundhole surround are also frequently inlaid. The manufacturer's logo or a small design is often inlaid into the headstock. Rosette designs vary from simple concentric circles to delicate fretwork mimicking the historic rosette of lutes. Bindings that edge the finger and soundboards are sometimes inlaid. Some instruments have
5145-404: Is glued into the corners where the rib meets the top and back. This interior reinforcement provides 5 to 20 mm of solid gluing area for these corner joints. Solid linings are often used in classical guitars, while kerfed lining is most often found in steel-string acoustics. Kerfed lining is also called kerfing because it is scored, or "kerfed"(incompletely sawn through), to allow it to bend with
5292-678: Is heard in many blues songs to this day. Although Johnson had used the figure on several songs, James' overdriven electric sound made it "more insistent, firing out a machine-gun triplet beat that would become a defining sound of the early rockers", writes historian Ted Gioia . Unlike Nighthawk and Hooker, James used a full-chord glissando effect with an open E tuning and a bottleneck. Other popular songs by James, such as " It Hurts Me Too " (first recorded by Tampa Red), " The Sky Is Crying ", " Shake Your Moneymaker ", feature his slide playing. Although Muddy Waters , born McKinley Morganfield, made his earliest recordings using an acoustic slide guitar, as
5439-413: Is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) to avoid excessive ledger lines being required below the staff . Like the electric guitar, the bass guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances. Modern guitars can be constructed to suit both left- and right-handed players. Typically the dominant hand is used to pluck or strum
5586-462: Is played while sitting, placed horizontally across the player's knees or otherwise supported. The horizontal playing style is called "Hawaiian style". The twelve-string guitar usually has steel strings, and it is widely used in folk music , blues , and rock and roll . Rather than having only six strings, the 12-string guitar has six courses made up of two strings each, like a mandolin or lute . The highest two courses are tuned in unison, while
5733-609: Is slide vibrato that is achieved by shaking a slide back and forth. Muddy’s slide vibrato was insane, both manic and controlled. That added to the excitement of his playing." Rock musicians began exploring electric slide guitar in the early 1960s. In the UK, groups such as the Rolling Stones , who were fans of Chicago blues and Chess Records artists in particular, began recording songs by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf , and others. The Stones' second single, " I Wanna Be Your Man " (1963), featured
5880-411: Is strengthened by differing types of internal bracing . Many luthiers consider the top the dominant factor in determining the sound quality. The majority of the instrument's sound is heard through the vibration of the guitar top as the energy of the vibrating strings is transferred to it. The body of an acoustic guitar has a sound hole through which sound projects. The sound hole is usually a round hole in
6027-427: Is that usually only one chord or voicing is easily available and is dictated by how the guitar is originally tuned. Two-note intervals can be played by slanting the slide on certain notes. In the sixteenth century, the notes of A–D–G–B–E were adopted as a tuning for guitar-like instruments, and the low E was added later to make E–A–D–G–B–E as the standard guitar tuning . In open tuning the strings are tuned to sound
Slide guitar - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-402: Is the neck-through-body construction. These are designed so that everything from the machine heads down to the bridge is located on the same piece of wood. The sides (also known as wings) of the guitar are then glued to this central piece. Some luthiers prefer this method of construction as they claim it allows better sustain of each note. Some instruments may not have a neck joint at all, having
6321-530: Is the point at which the neck is either bolted or glued to the body of the guitar. Almost all acoustic steel-string guitars, with the primary exception of Taylors, have glued (otherwise known as set) necks, while electric guitars are constructed using both types. Most classical guitars have a neck and headblock carved from one piece of wood, known as a "Spanish heel". Commonly used set neck joints include mortise and tenon joints (such as those used by C. F. Martin & Co.), dovetail joints (also used by C. F. Martin on
6468-528: Is tuned in the bass register. In Colombia, the traditional quartet includes a range of instruments too, from the small bandola (sometimes known as the Deleuze-Guattari, for use when traveling or in confined rooms or spaces), to the slightly larger tiple , to the full-sized classical guitar. The requinto also appears in other Latin-American countries as a complementary member of the guitar family, with its smaller size and scale, permitting more projection for
6615-548: Is used extensively in jazz , blues , R & B , and rock and roll . The first successful magnetic pickup for a guitar was invented by George Beauchamp , and incorporated into the 1931 Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker ) "Frying Pan" lap steel; other manufacturers, notably Gibson , soon began to install pickups in archtop models. After World War II the completely solid-body electric was popularized by Gibson in collaboration with Les Paul , and independently by Leo Fender of Fender Music . The lower fretboard action (the height of
6762-899: Is usually credited to the American Orville Gibson . Lloyd Loar of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co introduced the violin-inspired F-shaped hole design now usually associated with archtop guitars, after designing a style of mandolin of the same type. The typical archtop guitar has a large, deep, hollow body whose form is much like that of a mandolin or a violin-family instrument. Nowadays, most archtops are equipped with magnetic pickups, and they are therefore both acoustic and electric. F-hole archtop guitars were immediately adopted, upon their release, by both jazz and country musicians, and have remained particularly popular in jazz music, usually with flatwound strings . All three principal types of resonator guitars were invented by
6909-502: The guitarra latina (Latin guitar) and the so-called guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar). The guitarra morisca had a rounded back, a wide fingerboard, and several sound holes. The guitarra Latina had a single sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers "moresca" or "morisca" and "latina" had been dropped, and these two chordophones were simply referred to as guitars. The Spanish vihuela , called in Italian
7056-421: The viola da mano , a guitar-like instrument of the 15th and 16th centuries, is widely considered to have been the single most important influence in the development of the baroque guitar. It had six courses (usually), lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist. It was also larger than the contemporary four-course guitars. By
7203-615: The Rising Sons , one of the earliest blues rock bands. His early guitar work appears on Captain Beefheart 's debut Safe as Milk album (1967) and several songs on Taj Mahal's self-titled 1968 debut album . Also in 1968, he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on recording sessions, which resulted in Cooder playing slide on " Memo from Turner ". The Jagger/Richards song was later included on
7350-435: The Rolling Stones , George Harrison , Duane Allman , and Ry Cooder . Lap slide guitar pioneers include Oscar "Buddy" Woods , "Black Ace" Turner , and Freddie Roulette . The technique of using a hard object against a plucked string goes back to the diddley bow derived from a one-stringed African instrument. The diddley bow is believed to be one of the ancestors of the bottleneck style. When sailors from Europe introduced
7497-503: The Spanish guitar to Hawaii in the latter nineteenth century, the Hawaiians slackened some of the strings from the standard guitar tuning to make a chord – this became known as "slack-key" guitar , today referred to as an open tuning . With the "slack-key" the Hawaiians found it easy to play a three-chord song by moving a piece of metal along the fretboard and began to play
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#17328687800617644-456: The classical guitar (Spanish guitar); the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar ; and the Hawaiian guitar (played across the player's lap). Traditional acoustic guitars include the flat top guitar (typically with a large sound hole) or the archtop guitar , which is sometimes called a " jazz guitar ". The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the strings' vibration, amplified by
7791-424: The loudspeaker . The original purpose of the resonator was to produce a very loud sound; this purpose has been largely superseded by electrical amplification , but the resonator guitar is still played because of its distinctive tone. Resonator guitars may have either one or three resonator cones. The method of transmitting sound resonance to the cone is either a "biscuit" bridge, made of a small piece of hardwood at
7938-537: The "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003. Duane Allman ’s slide-playing with the Allman Brothers Band was one of the formative influences in the creation of Southern rock . He also added memorable slide guitar to Derek and the Dominos ’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album, notably its title track, which was ranked at number 13 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitar Songs". Allman, who died in
8085-538: The 16th century, the vihuela's construction had more in common with the modern guitar, with its curved one-piece ribs, than with the viols, and more like a larger version of the contemporary four-course guitars. The vihuela enjoyed only a relatively short period of popularity in Spain and Italy during an era dominated elsewhere in Europe by the lute ; the last surviving published music for the instrument appeared in 1576. Meanwhile,
8232-635: The 1940s, Red was playing an electric guitar. In 1942, his "Let Me Play with Your Poodle", was a number 4 hit on Billboard ' s new "Harlem Hit Parade", a forerunner of the R&;B chart . His 1949 recording " When Things Go Wrong with You (It Hurts Me Too) ", another R&B hit, was covered by Elmore James . He was "rediscovered" in the blues revival of the late 1950s, like many other surviving early-recorded blues artists, such as Son House and Skip James . He made his last recordings in 1960. Red's wife, Frances Whittaker, died on November 21, 1953. The loss
8379-420: The 1960s and 1970s; they are less prone to unwanted acoustic feedback . As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of electric guitars, including hollowbody guitars , archtop guitars (used in jazz guitar , blues and rockabilly ) and solid-body guitars , which are widely used in rock music . The loud, amplified sound and sonic power of the electric guitar played through a guitar amp have played
8526-580: The 1960s. Roulette had played lap steel in other genres before focusing on blues – he stated this helped him add more complex chords to the basic blues played by Hooker and said, "it worked". Roulette was recruited to San Francisco in the mid-1970s by Charlie Musselwhite . In 1997, he recorded a solo album, Back in Chicago: Jammin' with Willie Kent and the Gents , which won Best Blues Album of 1997 by Living Blues Magazine . Roulette's contribution to
8673-454: The British charts. One of his last contributions to a Stones recording was his acoustic guitar slide playing on " No Expectations ", which biographer Paul Trynka describes as "subtle, totally without bombast or overemphasis ... the perfect embodiment of the journey he'd embarked on in 1961." In Chicago, Mike Bloomfield frequented blues clubs as early as the late 1950s – by
8820-494: The D-28 and similar models) and Spanish heel neck joints, which are named after the shoe they resemble and commonly found in classical guitars. All three types offer stability. Bolt-on necks, though they are historically associated with cheaper instruments, do offer greater flexibility in the guitar's set-up, and allow easier access for neck joint maintenance and repairs. Another type of neck, only available for solid-body electric guitars,
8967-529: The European lute ; the former was brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century. It has often been assumed that the guitar is a development of the lute, or of the ancient Greek kithara. However, many scholars consider the lute an offshoot or separate line of development which did not influence the evolution of the guitar in any significant way. At least two instruments called "guitars" were in use in Spain by 1200:
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#17328687800619114-583: The Experience Music Project in Seattle for $ 85,000). Tolbert died on December 10, 1974, and accounts of Red's past mental problems discouraged friends from taking him into their homes. By January 1975, he was at a state hospital in Chicago. Red lived out his final years in Central Nursing Home, where he died from a heart attack while eating breakfast on the morning of March 19, 1981. According to
9261-407: The Hawaiian mode of playing longer melodies with the slide instead of playing short riffs as they had done previously. In the early twentieth century, steel guitar playing was divided into two streams: bottleneck-style, performed on a traditional Spanish guitar held flat against the body; and lap-style, performed on an instrument specifically designed or modified for the purpose of being played on
9408-550: The Latin cithara , which in turn came from the Ancient Greek κιθάρα which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Kithara appears in the Bible four times (1 Cor. 14:7, Rev. 5:8, 14:2, and 15:2), and is usually translated into English as harp . The origins of the modern guitar are not known. Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar
9555-455: The Middle Ages. By the 16th century, most of the forms of guitar had fallen off, to never be seen again. However, midway through the 16th century, the five-course guitar was established. It was not a straightforward process. There were two types of five-course guitars, differing in the location of the major third and in the interval pattern. The fifth course can be inferred because the instrument
9702-540: The Slovak-American John Dopyera (1893–1988) for the National and Dobro ( Do pyera Bro thers) companies. Similar to the flat top guitar in appearance, but with a body that may be made of brass, nickel-silver, or steel as well as wood, the sound of the resonator guitar is produced by one or more aluminum resonator cones mounted in the middle of the top. The physical principle of the guitar is therefore similar to
9849-454: The Spanish guitar in Italy. Even later, in the same century, Gaspar Sanz wrote that other nations such as Italy or France added to the Spanish guitar. All of these nations even imitated the five-course guitar by "recreating" their own. Finally, c. 1850 , the form and structure of the modern guitar were developed by different Spanish makers such as Manuel de Soto y Solares and, perhaps
9996-507: The US Library of Congress in 1940 in Shreveport, Louisiana, including "Boll Weevil Blues" and "Sometimes I Get a Thinkin'". "Black Ace" Turner (born Babe Karo Turner), a blues artist from Texas, was befriended and mentored by Buddy Woods. Historian Gérard Herzhaft said, "Black Ace is one of the few blues guitarists to have played in the purest Hawaiian style, that is, with the guitar flat on
10143-495: The US. Sol Hoʻopiʻi was an influential Hawaiian guitarist who in 1919, at age 17, came to the US mainland from Hawaii as a stow-away on a ship heading for San Francisco. Hoʻopiʻi's playing became popular in the late 1920s and he recorded songs like "Hula Blues" and "Farewell Blues". According to author Pete Madsen, "[Hoʻopiʻi's playing] would influence a legion of players from rural Mississippi." Most players of blues slide guitar were from
10290-475: The United States. Electric guitars , first patented in 1937, use a pickup and amplifier that made the instrument loud enough to be heard, but also enabled manufacturing guitars with a solid block of wood needing a resonant chamber. A wide array of electronic effects units became possible including reverb and distortion (or "overdrive") . Solid-body guitars began to dominate the guitar market during
10437-440: The abundant nature of sub-categories and its unique tonal & functional property. Acoustic guitars form several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group: classical and flamenco guitars ; steel-string guitars, which include the flat-topped, or "folk", guitar; twelve-string guitars ; and the arched-top guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers, such as
10584-708: The acoustic bass guitar, which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar. Renaissance and Baroque guitars are the ancestors of the modern classical and flamenco guitar . They are substantially smaller, more delicate in construction, and generate less volume. The strings are paired in courses as in a modern 12-string guitar , but they only have four or five courses of strings rather than six single strings normally used now. They were more often used as rhythm instruments in ensembles than as solo instruments, and can often be seen in that role in early music performances. ( Gaspar Sanz 's Instrucción de Música sobre la Guitarra Española of 1674 contains his whole output for
10731-483: The bass strings and conventional tuning for the rest of the strings. Robert Johnson, whose playing has been cited by Eric Clapton , Keith Richards , Jimi Hendrix , and Johnny Winter as being a powerful influence on them, used tunings of standard, open G, open D, and drop D. The National String Instrument Corporation produced the first metal-body resonator guitars in the late 1920s ( see image at beginning of article ). Popular with early slide players, these featured
10878-489: The classic lineup of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Their first album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965), features Bloomfield's slide guitar work on the band's adaptations of two Elmore James songs. " Shake Your Moneymaker " shows his well-developed slide style and " Look Over Yonders Wall " is ranked at number 27 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Around
11025-410: The classic, " Death Letter ". A resonator guitar with a metal body was played by Bukka White (" Parchman Farm Blues " and " Fixin' to Die Blues "). "Lap slide guitar" does not refer to a specific instrument, rather a style of playing blues or rock music with the guitar placed horizontally, a position historically known as Hawaiian style. This is a lap-steel guitar, but musicians in these genres prefer
11172-430: The constant 17.817—an approximation to 1/(1-1/ 2 12 {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{12}]{2}}} ). If the nth fret is a distance x from the bridge, then the distance from the (n+1)th fret to the bridge is x-(x/17.817). Frets are available in several different gauges and can be fitted according to player preference. Among these are "jumbo" frets, which have a much thicker gauge, allowing for use of
11319-515: The early 1960s Muddy Waters and harmonica virtuoso Little Walter encouraged him and occasionally allowed him to sit in on jam sessions. Waters recalled: "Mike was a great guitar player. He learned a lot of slide from me. Plus I guess he picked up a little lick or two from me, but he learned how to play a lot of slide and pick a lot of guitar." Bloomfield's slide playing attracted Paul Butterfield and, together with guitarist Elvin Bishop , they formed
11466-401: The end of the nineteenth century in the United States, but nylon and steel strings became mainstream only following World War II . The guitar's ancestors include the gittern , the vihuela , the four- course Renaissance guitar , and the five-course baroque guitar , all of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument. There are three main types of modern guitar:
11613-429: The exterior surface of a guitar, both for decoration and artistic purposes and, in the case of the markings on the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th fret (and in higher octaves), to provide guidance to the performer about the location of frets on the instrument. The typical locations for inlay are on the fretboard, headstock, and on acoustic guitars around the soundhole, known as the rosette . Inlays range from simple plastic dots on
11760-409: The first black musician to play a National steel-bodied resonator guitar , the loudest and showiest guitar available before amplification, acquiring one in the first year in which they were available. This allowed him to develop his trademark bottleneck style, playing single-string runs instead of block chords , which was a precursor of later blues and rock guitar soloing. The National guitar he used
11907-423: The five course guitar. A literary source, Lope de Vega's Dorotea, gives the credit to the poet and musician Vicente Espinel . This claim was also repeated by Nicolas Doizi de Velasco in 1640, however this claim has been contested by others who state that Espinel's birth year (1550) make it impossible for him to be responsible for the tradition. He believed that the tuning was the reason the instrument became known as
12054-437: The five-course baroque guitar , which was documented in Spain from the middle of the 16th century, enjoyed popularity, especially in Spain, Italy and France from the late 16th century to the mid-18th century. In Portugal, the word viola referred to the guitar, as guitarra meant the " Portuguese guitar ", a variety of cittern . There were many different plucked instruments that were being invented and used in Europe during
12201-474: The fretboard and accessible through the sound hole. Some truss rods can only be accessed by removing the neck. The truss rod counteracts the immense amount of tension the strings place on the neck, bringing the neck back to a straighter position. Turning the truss rod clockwise tightens it, counteracting the tension of the strings and straightening the neck or creating a backward bow. Turning the truss rod counter-clockwise loosens it, allowing string tension to act on
12348-616: The fretboard and located at exact points that divide the scale length in accordance with a specific mathematical formula. The exceptions include fretless bass guitars and very rare fretless guitars. Pressing a string against a fret determines the strings' vibrating length and therefore its resultant pitch. The pitch of each consecutive fret is defined at a half-step interval on the chromatic scale . Standard classical guitars have 19 frets and electric guitars between 21 and 24 frets, although guitars have been made with as many as 27 frets. Frets are laid out to accomplish an equal tempered division of
12495-448: The fretboard to intricate works of art covering the entire exterior surface of a guitar (front and back). Some guitar players have used LEDs in the fretboard to produce unique lighting effects onstage. Fretboard inlays are most commonly shaped like dots, diamond shapes, parallelograms, or large blocks in between the frets. Dots are usually inlaid into the upper edge of the fretboard in the same positions, small enough to be visible only to
12642-403: The fretboard usually differs from the wood in the rest of the neck. The bending stress on the neck is considerable, particularly when heavier gauge strings are used (see Tuning ), and the ability of the neck to resist bending (see Truss rod ) is important to the guitar's ability to hold a constant pitch during tuning or when strings are fretted. The rigidity of the neck with respect to the body of
12789-534: The fretboard's surface constitutes a segment. The smaller the fretboard radius, the more noticeably curved the fretboard is. Most modern guitars feature a 12" neck radius, while older guitars from the 1960s and 1970s usually feature a 6-8" neck radius. Pinching a string against a fret on the fretboard effectively shortens the vibrating length of the string, producing a higher pitch. Fretboards are most commonly made of rosewood , ebony , maple , and sometimes manufactured using composite materials such as HPL or resin. See
12936-469: The fretting ability of that finger entirely. A shorter slide allows the fingertip to protrude from the slide and allow that finger to be used to fret. Improvised slides are common, including pipes, rings, knives, spoons, and glass bottlenecks. Early blues players sometimes used a knife, such as Blind Willie Johnson ( pocket - or penknife ) and CeDell Davis (butterknife). Duane Allman used a glass Coricidin medicine bottle. Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett
13083-556: The frontman for Paramount Records in Chicago, who arranged a recording session for him in 1928. His first recording "Through Train Blues" did not have as much success since it was the B-side to "How Long How Long" by Blind Lemon Jefferson , who was Paramount's biggest star at the time. It was Red's second recording, " It's Tight Like That ", that caused a national sensation. The song reportedly came about when Mayo Williams heard them playing with
13230-410: The guitar is one determinant of a good instrument versus a poor-quality one. The cross-section of the neck can also vary, from a gentle "C" curve to a more pronounced "V" curve. There are many different types of neck profiles available, giving the guitarist many options. Some aspects to consider in a guitar neck may be the overall width of the fretboard, scale (distance between the frets), the neck wood,
13377-423: 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 . The guitar is classified as a chordophone , meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood, with its strings made of catgut . Steel guitar strings were introduced near
13524-534: The guitar. Red also picked up some knowledge from early recordings of female blues singers like Ma Rainey , Bessie Smith , and Ida Cox . In an interview with Martin Williams, Red told Williams "That [1920] record of "Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith, it was one of the first blues records ever made. I said to myself, 'I don't know any music, but I can play that.'" By 1925, having already perfected his slide technique, he had moved to Chicago, Illinois , and began his career as
13671-403: The hollow body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber . The classical Spanish guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerstyle technique where each string is plucked individually by the player's fingers, as opposed to being strummed. The term "finger-picking" can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass, and country guitar playing in
13818-405: The inside of the neck. It is used to correct changes to the neck's curvature caused by aging of the neck timbers, changes in humidity, or to compensate for changes in the tension of strings. The tension of the rod and neck assembly is adjusted by a hex nut or an allen-key bolt on the rod, usually located either at the headstock, sometimes under a cover, or just inside the body of the guitar underneath
13965-452: The instrument across the lap. Near the end of the nineteenth century, a Hawaiian named Joseph Kekuku became proficient in playing this way using a steel bar against the guitar strings. The bar was called the "steel" and was the source of the name "steel guitar". Kekuku popularized the method and some sources claim he originated the technique. In the first half of the twentieth century, this so-called "Hawaiian guitar" style of playing spread to
14112-613: The knees." Turner played a square-neck National "style 2" Tri-cone metal body guitar and used a glass medicine bottle as a slide. Turner was also a good storyteller, which enabled him to host a radio program in Fort Worth called The Black Ace . His career effectively ended when he entered military service in 1943. His album, I Am the Boss Card in Your Hand , contained Turner's original 1930s recordings as well as new songs recorded in 1960. Turner
14259-453: The lap slide guitar was to prove that a lap-played instrument was capable of holding its own in Chicago blues style. A slide used around a player's finger can be made with any type of smooth hard material that allows tones to resonate. Different materials cause subtle differences in sustain , timbre , and loudness ; glass or metal are the most common choices. Longer slides are used to bridge across all six guitar strings at once, but take away
14406-536: The lowest four strings of the six-string guitar, which is the same tuning pitch as an electric bass guitar. It can, more rarely, be found with five or six strings, which provides a wider range of notes to be played with less movement up and down the neck. Electric guitars can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies; solid bodies produce little sound without amplification. In contrast to a standard acoustic guitar, electric guitars instead rely on electromagnetic pickups , and sometimes piezoelectric pickups, that convert
14553-469: The most distinctive styles in the recorded idom" of the time. He adds: Johnson was the first such player to achieve a real balance between treble and bass melodic lines, which acted as complementary voices in his arrangements of Baptist spirituals ... Tampa Red's [playing was] innovative for the late 1920s ... Thanks to his distinctive approach and suave sound, the Chicago-based Red became
14700-416: The most important of all guitar makers, Antonio Torres Jurado , who increased the size of the guitar body, altered its proportions, and invented the breakthrough fan-braced pattern. Bracing, the internal pattern of wood reinforcements used to secure the guitar's top and back and prevent the instrument from collapsing under tension, is an important factor in how the guitar sounds. Torres' design greatly improved
14847-556: The most influential bottleneck player of the blues age, his smooth-sound work echoing in the playing of Blind Boy Fuller , Robert Nighthawk, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. When the guitar was electrified in the 1930s, it allowed solos on the instrument to be more audible, and thus more prominently featured. In the 1940s, players like Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker popularized electric slide guitar; but, unlike their predecessors, they used standard tuning. This allowed them to switch between slide and fretted guitar playing readily, which
14994-714: The most influential designers of their time. Bracing not only strengthens the top against potential collapse due to the stress exerted by the tensioned strings but also affects the resonance characteristics of the top. The back and sides are made out of a variety of timbers such as mahogany, Indian rosewood and highly regarded Brazilian rosewood ( Dalbergia nigra ). Each one is primarily chosen for their aesthetic effect and can be decorated with inlays and purfling. Tampa Red His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago blues guitarists such as Big Bill Broonzy , Robert Nighthawk , Muddy Waters , and Elmore James . In
15141-553: The most recordings during that period. Most of his singles were released before Billboard magazine began tracking blues (and other " race music ") in October 1942, and accurate sales records are not available. However, he had four singles that placed in the R&;B top ten between 1942 and 1951. Red recorded alternate versions (usually designated "No. 2", "No. 3", etc.) of some of his early songs. Songs with alternate versions are marked with
15288-585: The neck and creating a forward bow. Adjusting the truss rod affects the intonation of a guitar as well as the height of the strings from the fingerboard, called the action . Some truss rod systems, called double action truss systems, tighten both ways, pushing the neck both forward and backward (standard truss rods can only release to a point beyond which the neck is no longer compressed and pulled backward). The artist and luthier Irving Sloane pointed out, in his book Steel-String Guitar Construction , that truss rods are intended primarily to remedy concave bowing of
15435-414: The neck and sides built as one piece and the body built around it. The fingerboard , also called the fretboard, is a piece of wood embedded with metal frets that comprises the top of the neck. It is flat on classical guitars and slightly curved crosswise on acoustic and electric guitars. The curvature of the fretboard is measured by the fretboard radius, which is the radius of a hypothetical circle of which
15582-471: The neck, but cannot correct a neck with "back bow" or one that has become twisted. Classical guitars do not require truss rods, as their nylon strings exert a lower tensile force with lesser potential to cause structural problems. However, their necks are often reinforced with a strip of harder wood, such as an ebony strip that runs down the back of a cedar neck. There is no tension adjustment on this form of reinforcement. Inlays are visual elements set into
15729-454: The nut, which can adversely affect tuning stability, some guitarists fit a roller nut. Some instruments use a zero fret just in front of the nut. In this case the nut is used only for lateral alignment of the strings, the string height and length being dictated by the zero fret. A guitar's frets , fretboard , tuners , headstock , and truss rod , all attached to a long wooden extension, collectively constitute its neck . The wood used to make
15876-413: The octave. Each set of twelve frets represents an octave. The twelfth fret divides the scale length exactly into two halves, and the 24th fret position divides one of those halves in half again. The ratio of the spacing of two consecutive frets is 2 12 {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{12}]{2}}} ( twelfth root of two ). In practice, luthiers determine fret positions using
16023-502: The others are tuned in octaves. The 12-string guitar is also made in electric forms. The chime-like sound of the 12-string electric guitar was the basis of jangle pop . The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than, that of a six-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar and the double bass , the acoustic bass guitar commonly has four strings, which are normally tuned E-A-D-G, an octave below
16170-529: The performer's lap. The bottleneck-style was typically associated with blues music and was popularized by African-American blues artists. The Mississippi Delta was the home of Robert Johnson , Son House , Charlie Patton , and other blues pioneers who prominently used the slide. The first known recording of the bottleneck style was in 1923 by Sylvester Weaver who recorded two instrumentals, "Guitar Blues" and "Guitar Rag". Guitarist and author Woody Mann identifies Tampa Red and Blind Willie Johnson as "developing
16317-420: The pitch. The traditional tuner layout is "3+3", in which each side of the headstock has three tuners (such as on Gibson Les Pauls ). In this layout, the headstocks are commonly symmetrical. Many guitars feature other layouts, including six-in-line tuners (featured on Fender Stratocasters ) or even "4+2" (e.g. Ernie Ball Music Man). Some guitars (such as Steinbergers ) do not have headstocks at all, in which case
16464-419: The player. These usually appear on the odd-numbered frets, but also on the 12th fret (the one- octave mark) instead of the 11th and 13th frets. Some older or high-end instruments have inlays made of mother of pearl, abalone, ivory, colored wood or other exotic materials and designs. Simpler inlays are often made of plastic or painted. High-end classical guitars seldom have fretboard inlays as a well-trained player
16611-499: The playing of single-lined melodies. Modern dimensions of the classical instrument were established by the Spaniard Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–1892). Flat-top guitars with steel strings are similar to the classical guitar , however, the flat-top body size is usually significantly larger than a classical guitar, and has a narrower, reinforced neck and stronger structural design. The robust X-bracing typical of flat-top guitars
16758-430: The roughly classical-sized OO and Parlour to the large Dreadnought (the most commonly available type) and Jumbo . Ovation makes a modern variation, with a rounded back/side assembly molded from artificial materials. Archtop guitars are steel-string instruments in which the top (and often the back) of the instrument are carved from a solid billet, into a curved, rather than flat, shape. This violin-like construction
16905-423: The same fashion as other guitars, although slides are also often used, especially in blues. A steel guitar is any guitar played while moving a polished steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it does not use frets; conceptually, it is somewhat akin to playing
17052-460: The same instrument is often used with steel strings particularly in its role within fado music. The guitar is called viola , or violão in Brazil, where it is often used with an extra seventh string by choro musicians to provide extra bass support. In Mexico, the popular mariachi band includes a range of guitars, from the small requinto to the guitarrón , a guitar larger than a cello, which
17199-562: The same time, he recorded with Bob Dylan for the Highway 61 Revisited album and contributed the distinctive slide guitar to the title track . On the second Butterfield album, East-West (1966), songs such as " Walkin' Blues " and " Two Trains Running " include slide playing that brought him to the audience's attention. Ry Cooder was a child music prodigy and at age 15 began working on bottleneck guitar techniques and learned Robert Johnson songs. In 1964, Cooder, along with Taj Mahal , formed
17346-607: The section "Neck" below for the importance of the length of the fretboard in connection to other dimensions of the guitar. The fingerboard plays an essential role in the treble tone for acoustic guitars. The quality of vibration of the fingerboard is the principal characteristic for generating the best treble tone. For that reason, ebony wood is better, but because of high use, ebony has become rare and extremely expensive. Most guitar manufacturers have adopted rosewood instead of ebony. Almost all guitars have frets, which are metal strips (usually nickel alloy or stainless steel) embedded along
17493-405: The shape of the rib). During final construction, a small section of the outside corners is carved or routed out and filled with binding material on the outside corners and decorative strips of material next to the binding, which is called purfling . This binding serves to seal off the end grain of the top and back. Purfling can also appear on the back of an acoustic guitar, marking the edge joints of
17640-514: The solo guitar.) Renaissance and Baroque guitars are easily distinguished, because the Renaissance guitar is very plain and the Baroque guitar is very ornate, with ivory or wood inlays all over the neck and body, and a paper-cutout inverted "wedding cake" inside the hole. Classical guitars, also known as "Spanish" guitars, are typically strung with nylon strings, plucked with the fingers, played in
17787-465: The song. Tampa Red's early recordings were mostly collaborations with Dorsey. The two recorded almost 90 sides, sometimes as the Hokum Boys or, with Frankie Jaxon , as Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band. In 1928 and 1929, besides making their own records, he and Georgia Tom appeared on recordings by Ma Rainey, Madilyn Davis, Lil Johnson, and female impersonator Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon. In 1928, Red became
17934-406: The sound of a stand-up bass ), 5.1 surround guitar , and such. Solid-body seven-string guitars were popularized in the 1980s and 1990s. Other artists go a step further, by using an eight-string guitar with two extra low strings. Although the most common seven-string has a low B string, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds and Rickenbacker ) uses an octave G string paired with the regular G string as on
18081-648: The soundtrack to the 1970 film Performance ; Rolling Stone included it at number 92 on its "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" list. In 1970, he recorded his own self titled debut album , which included the Blind Willie Johnson classic slide instrumental " Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground " (re-recorded in 1984 for the soundtrack to Paris, Texas ). Recognized as a master of slide guitar by 1967, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number eight on their list of
18228-420: The southern US, particularly the Mississippi Delta , and their music was likely from an African origin handed down to African-American sharecroppers who sang as they toiled in the fields. The earliest Delta blues musicians were largely solo singer-guitarists. W. C. Handy commented on the first time he heard slide guitar in 1903, when a blues player performed in a local train station: "As he played, he pressed
18375-476: The strings from the fingerboard), lighter (thinner) strings, and its electrical amplification lend the electric guitar to techniques less frequently used on acoustic guitars. These include tapping , extensive use of legato through pull-offs and hammer-ons (also known as slurs), pinch harmonics , volume swells , and use of a tremolo arm or effects pedals . Some electric guitar models feature piezoelectric pickups, which function as transducers to provide
18522-542: The strings to the air within the guitar body. Sound is further shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity. In expensive instruments, the entire body is made of wood. In inexpensive instruments, the back may be made of plastic. In an acoustic instrument, the body of the guitar is a major determinant of the overall sound quality. The guitar top, or soundboard, is a finely crafted and engineered element made of tonewoods such as spruce and red cedar . This thin piece of wood, often only 2 or 3 mm thick,
18669-427: The strings. Physical properties of the thicker bass strings require them to be slightly longer than the treble strings to correct intonation . Reversing the strings, therefore, reverses the orientation of the saddle, adversely affecting intonation. The headstock is located at the end of the guitar neck farthest from the body. It is fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings, which in turn affects
18816-425: The strings. This is similar to the violin family of instruments where the dominant hand controls the bow. Left-handed players usually play a mirror image instrument manufactured especially for left-handed players. There are other options, some unorthodox, including learn to play a right-handed guitar as if the player is right-handed or playing an unmodified right-handed guitar reversed. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix played
18963-571: The term slide instead of steel; they sometimes play the style with a flat pick or with fingers instead of finger picks. There are various instruments specifically made (or adapted) to play in the horizontal position, including the following: Buddy Woods was a Louisiana street performer who recorded in the 1930s. He was called "The Lone Wolf" after the title of his most successful song, "Lone Wolf Blues". Between 1936 and 1938, he recorded ten songs that are today considered classics, including "Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away". Woods recorded five songs for
19110-430: The top of the guitar under the strings. The air inside the body vibrates as the guitar top and body is vibrated by the strings, and the response of the air cavity at different frequencies is characterized, like the rest of the guitar body, by a number of resonance modes at which it responds more strongly. The top, back and ribs of an acoustic guitar body are very thin (1–2 mm), so a flexible piece of wood called lining
19257-550: The tuning machines are located elsewhere, either on the body or the bridge. The nut is a small strip of bone , plastic , brass , corian , graphite , stainless steel , or other medium-hard material, at the joint where the headstock meets the fretboard. Its grooves guide the strings onto the fretboard, giving consistent lateral string placement. It is one of the endpoints of the strings' vibrating length. It must be accurately cut, or it can contribute to tuning problems due to string slippage or string buzz. To reduce string friction in
19404-400: The two or three sections of the back. Binding and purfling materials are generally made of either wood or plastic. Body size, shape and style have changed over time. 19th-century guitars, now known as salon guitars, were smaller than modern instruments. Differing patterns of internal bracing have been used over time by luthiers. Torres, Hauser, Ramirez, Fleta, and C. F. Martin were among
19551-476: The type of neck construction (for example, the neck may be glued in or bolted on), and the shape (profile) of the back of the neck. Other types of material used to make guitar necks are graphite ( Steinberger guitars), aluminum ( Kramer Guitars , Travis Bean and Veleno guitars ), or carbon fiber ( Modulus Guitars and ThreeGuitars ). Double neck electric guitars have two necks, allowing the musician to quickly switch between guitar sounds. The neck joint or heel
19698-450: The use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle, giving rise to the term bottleneck guitar to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked (not strummed ) while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch . The guitar may also be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar ( lap steel guitar ). Creating music with
19845-453: The vertex of the cone (Nationals), or a "spider" bridge, made of metal and mounted around the rim of the (inverted) cone (Dobros). Three-cone resonators always use a specialized metal bridge. The type of resonator guitar with a neck with a square cross-section—called "square neck" or "Hawaiian"—is usually played face up, on the lap of the seated player, and often with a metal or glass slide . The round neck resonator guitars are normally played in
19992-453: The vibration of the steel strings into signals , which are fed to an amplifier through a patch cable or radio transmitter . The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices ( effects units ) or the natural distortion of valves ( vacuum tubes ) or the pre-amp in the amplifier. There are two main types of magnetic pickups, single - and double-coil (or humbucker ), each of which can be passive or active . The electric guitar
20139-584: The volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has remained essentially unchanged since. Guitars are often divided into two broad categories: acoustic and electric guitars . Within each category, there are further sub-categories that are nearly endless in quantity and are always evolving. For example, an electric guitar can be purchased in a six-string model (the most common model) or in seven- or twelve-string formats. An instruments overall design, internal construction and components, wood type or species, hardware and electronic appointments all add to
20286-469: The well-known rock band and the magazine), "Louisiana Blues", and "Still a Fool". Waters used an open G tuning for several of his earlier songs, but later switched to a standard tuning and often used a capo to change keys . He usually played single notes with a small metal slide on his little finger and dampened the strings combined with varying the volume to control the amount of distortion . According to writer Ted Drozdowski, "One last factor to consider
20433-401: Was a friend and associate of Big Bill Broonzy and Big Maceo Merriweather . He achieved commercial success and some prosperity. His home became a centre for the blues community, providing rehearsal space, bookings, and lodgings for musicians who arrived in Chicago from the Mississippi Delta as the commercial potential of blues music grew and agricultural employment in the South diminished. By
20580-712: Was a gold-plated tricone, which was found in Illinois in the 1990s by Randy Clemens, a music shop owner and guitarist, and later sold to the Experience Music Project in Seattle . Red was known as "The Man with the Gold Guitar", and into the 1930s he was billed as "The Guitar Wizard". In 1931, Red recorded "Depression Blues", including the topical lyrics, "If I could tell my troubles, it would give my poor heart ease, but Depression has got me, somebody help me please". Red's partnership with Dorsey ended in 1932, but he remained much in demand as
20727-487: Was an advantage in rhythm accompaniment. Robert Nighthawk (born Robert Lee McCollum) recorded extensively in the 1930s as "Robert Lee McCoy" with bluesmen such as John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (also known as Sonny Boy Williamson I ). He performed on acoustic guitar in a style influenced by Tampa Red. Sometime around World War II, after changing his last name to "Nighthawk" (from the title of one of his songs), he became an early proponent of electric slide guitar and adopted
20874-484: Was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard , ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides." The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. A 3,300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of
21021-471: Was developed in the 1840s by German-American luthiers, of whom Christian Friedrich "C. F." Martin is the best known. Originally used on gut-strung instruments, the strength of the system allowed the later guitars to withstand the additional tension of steel strings. Steel strings produce a brighter tone and a louder sound. The acoustic guitar is used in many kinds of music including folk, country, bluegrass, pop, jazz, and blues. Many variations are possible from
21168-556: Was featured in a 1962 documentary film entitled The Blues . Freddie Roulette (born Frederick Martin Roulette) is a San Francisco-based lap steel blues artist who became interested in the lap steel guitar at an early age and became proficient enough to play in Chicago blues clubs with prominent players. He played an A7 tuning with a slant-bar style and never used finger picks. He earned a spot in Earl Hooker's band and recorded with Hooker in
21315-479: Was fond of using a Zippo lighter as a slide, but this was largely for special effects. Jimi Hendrix also used a cigarette lighter for part of his solo on " All Along the Watchtower ". It is one of the few recordings with Hendrix on slide, and biographer Harry Shapiro notes he performed it with the guitar on his lap. For guitars designed to be played on the lap, the performer uses a solid piece of steel rather than
21462-428: Was known to play more than the sixteen notes possible with four. The guitar's strings were tuned in unison, so, in other words, it was tuned by placing a finger on the second fret of the thinnest string and tuning the guitar bottom to top. The strings were a whole octave apart from one another, which is the reason for the different method of tuning. Because it was so different, there was major controversy as to who created
21609-437: Was reportedly a great blow to him, and he became an alcoholic. When blues expert Jim O'Neal discovered him on Chicago's South Side in 1974, he was living with his female companion, 81-year-old Effie Tolbert. Red was reportedly in a much worse shape than in his earlier years, and his electric guitar rested under a bed while his National steel guitar had been stolen (it was recovered in a pawn shop in 1994, and eventually sold to
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