gitarens

The guitar is a fretted string instrument that is typically played by plucking or strumming the strings with the fingers or a pick. It has a hollow body that serves as a resonator, a neck with a fretted fingerboard, and a headstock with tuners. Most guitars have six strings, though variants with seven or twelve strings exist. Strings are nylon on classical guitars and steel on most steel-string acoustics, electrics, and many electro-acoustics. The instrument is built in several families: classical (nylon-string), steel-string acoustic, electric, and electro-acoustic guitars.

Guitar construction involves a body, soundhole on many acoustics, a top plate, back and sides, bracing, a neck, a fretboard, and a bridge with a saddle. The nut and tuners regulate string height and tuning stability. Electric guitars use magnetic pickups to convert string vibrations into an electrical signal that is amplified, while acoustic guitars rely on the body’s resonance to project sound. The body shapes vary, with dreadnought, concert, and auditorium being common for acoustics, and solid bodies for many electric models.

Playing technique includes fingerpicking, strumming, and various picking styles. Players adjust tone through left-hand fretting and right-hand attack, as well as volume and tone controls on electrics. Maintenance involves regular string changes, cleaning, and storing the instrument in moderate humidity to preserve the wood and setup.

History shows the modern guitar evolving from Iberian and European plucked instruments, with the classical guitar refined in the 19th century by luthiers such as Antonio de Torres. The electric guitar emerged in the 1930s and helped shape modern popular music. In Swedish, the instrument is gitarr; the definite form gitarren and possessive gitarens.