Famous Faces

Would you like to play bluegrass or rock music? Is country music appealing to you? Do you want to hear an authentic blues sound just like the old days? If you feel like your acoustic guitar won’t cut it, maybe it’s better to get out of the norm and explore the exciting world of guitar playing using these different types of guitars. Are you ready? Then, slide on!

Steel Guitars
It is an unusual type of guitar for two reasons: First, you need to lay it on your lap. Then instead of strumming them, you need to slide on the strings. Steel guitars have different variants: the lap slide guitar which was originally played in Hawaii and the pedal steel guitar which has two or three separate necks with varying tones. To play a steel guitar, you need a piece of smooth metal or glass that you are going to slide on different points across the neck, producing a relaxing laid-back sound you can groove to. You can hear it on Delta Blues, country and Hawaiian songs. The notable steel guitar players are Ben Keith (lap steel) and Harmon Davis.

Bass Guitar
Bass guitar has a similar structure of an electric or acoustic guitar. It features a longer neck scale-around 30″ – 34″-and 4 to 6 strings. The first electric bass guitar was commercially produced in the 1950′s by Leo Fender with the release of The Fender Precision Bass or “P-Bass” for short. It replaced the upright bass as the instrument of choice in the Jazz music scene. An acoustic bass guitar gained mainstream prominence during the late 80′s and early 90′s due to MTV Unplugged. Mexico has traditional acoustic bass guitars called “guitarrón mexicano” and “Bajo Sexto”. Check this out www.housegroove.net to find some traditional bass guitar music playlists.

Resonator Guitar
It is also known as resophonic guitar. It was invented in the 1930′s by John Dopyera as an answer to the growing demand for a guitar that can produce sufficient volume. The first instrument Dopyera invented was called a tricone guitar. It featured three aluminum disks attached together by a T-bar. Dobro-the company Dopyera co-founded-invented an inverted-cone variety and put a “spider” resonator on top. Most blues and country guitar players preferred this Dobro design simply because it has a better sound quality. To further appreciate the resonator guitar, listen to Jerry Douglas, Josh Graves and Mike Auldridge and read up on some great music articles.

Double neck guitar
Double necks feature two guitar necks in one body. It is the most common of the multi-neck guitar line. It has a twelve string guitar on top and the normal six-string below. You can virtually come up with your own combination: an acoustic and an electric; two guitars with varying pickups; a bass and an electric guitar; fretted and fretless. It allows guitarists to switch back and forth between different sounds without grabbing different guitars. For a perfect performance using a double neck, watch the live rendition of “Xanadu” by Rush. Read more about music updates to learn about the latest and greatest in guitar technology by going here www.offmachine.com.

By learning different types of guitar, it gives you a whole lot of understanding and appreciation about the instrument. Try one of them. Remember The Beatles made a giant leap with Rubber Soul when they featured a sitar on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”. Maybe it could happen to you too!

Would you like to learn how to play guitar? Visit our site to know more about it. We also offer great guitar lessons for beginners, as well as articles www.gettyarticles.com. The articles are free too.