Name	Guitar
Image capt	A classical guitar (nylon string)
Background	string
Classification	String instrument (plucked, nylon-stringed guitars usually played with fingerpicking, and steel-, etc. usually with a pick.)
Hornbostel sachs	321.322
Hornbostel sachs desc	Composite chordophone
Range	130px|center
Related	*Bowed and plucked string instruments
Articles	}}

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Some modern guitars are made of polycarbonate materials. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric.

Acoustic guitars (and similar instruments) with hollow bodies have been in use for over a thousand years. There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was found more suitable. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.

History

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar 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 related instruments that were developed and used across Europe beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. These instruments are descended from ones that existed in ancient central Asia and India. For this reason guitars are distantly related to modern instruments from these regions, including the tanbur, the setar, and the sitar. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard.

The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, have been applied to a wide variety of cordophones since ancient times and as such is the cause of confusion. The English word guitar, the German , and the French were adopted from the Spanish , which comes from the Andalusian Arabic , itself derived from the Latin , which in turn came from the Ancient Greek , and is thought to ultimately trace back to the Old Persian language. Tar means string in Persian.

Although the word guitar is descended from the Latin word cithara, the modern guitar itself is not generally believed to have descended from the Roman instrument. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar. One commonly cited influence is of the arrival of the four-string oud, which was introduced by the invading Moors in the 8th century. Another suggested influence is the six-string Scandinavian lut (lute), which gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across medieval Europe. Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried. It is likely that a combination of influences led to the creation of the guitar; plucked instruments from across the Mediterranean and Europe were well known in Iberia since antiquity.

Two medieval instruments that were called "guitars" were in use by 1200: the (Moorish guitar) and the (Latin guitar). The guitarra moresca had a rounded back, wide fingerboard, and several soundholes. The guitarra Latina had a single soundhole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers "moresca" and "latina" had been dropped and these two cordophones were usually simply referred to as guitars.

The Spanish vihuela or (in Italian) "", a guitar-like instrument of the 15th and 16th centuries, is widely considered to have been a seminal influence in the development of the 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 the late 15th century some vihuelas were played with a bow, leading to the development of the viol. By the sixteenth 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 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 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. Confusingly, in Portugal, the word vihuela referred to the guitar, whereas guitarra meant the "Portuguese guitar", a variety of cittern.

Types

Guitars can be divided into two broad categories, acoustic and electric:

Acoustic guitars

There are 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 the acoustic bass guitar, which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar.

Renaissance and Baroque guitars

:These are the gracile ancestors of the modern classical guitar. They are substantially smaller and more delicate than the classical guitar, and generate a much quieter sound. 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. 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' Instrucción de Música sobre la Guitarra Española of 1674 constitutes the majority of the surviving solo corpus for the era.) 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

:These are typically strung with nylon strings, plucked with the fingers, played in 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 are associated with a more percussive tone. In Mexico, the popular mariachi band includes a range of guitars, from the tiny requinto to the guitarrón, a guitar larger than a cello, which 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 the playing of single-lined melodies. Modern dimensions of the classical instrument were established by the Spaniard Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817-1892).

Extended-range classical guitars

:An Extended-range classical guitar is a classical guitar with more than 6 strings, usually up to 13.

Flamenco guitars

:The flamenco guitar is similar to the classical guitar, but of lighter construction, with a cypress body and spruce top. Tuning pegs like those of a violin are traditional, although many modern flamenco guitars have machine heads. A distinguishing feature of all flamenco guitars is the tapping plates (golpeadores) glued to the table, to protect them against the taps with the fingernails that are an essential feature of the flamenco style.

:Many modern soloists (following the lead of Paco de Lucía) play what is called a flamenca negra, a hybrid of the flamenco and classical guitar constructions.

Flat-top (steel-string) guitars

:Similar to the classical guitar, however, within the varied sizes of the steel-stringed guitar the 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 the steel-string was developed in the 1840s by German-American luthiers of whom C. F. Martin is the best known. Originally used on gut-strung instruments, the strength of the system allowed the guitar to withstand the additional tension of steel strings when this fortunate combination arose in the early 20th century. The steel strings produce a brighter tone, and according to many players, 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 the roughly classical-sized OO and Parlour to the large Dreadnought and Jumbo. Ovation makes a modern variation, with a rounded back/side assembly molded from artificial materials.

Archtop guitars

:These are steel-string instruments in which the top (and often the back) of the instrument are carved from a solid billet in a curved rather than a flat shape; this violin-like construction is usually credited to the American Orville Gibson (1856-1918). Lloyd Loar of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co introduced the violin-inspired f-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 violin family instrument. Nowadays, most archtops are equipped with magnetic pickups and 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.

Selmer-Maccaferri guitars

:These are usually played by those who follow the style of Django Reinhardt. It is an unusual-looking instrument, distinguished by a fairly large body with squarish bouts, and either a "D"-shaped or longitudinal oval soundhole. The strings are gathered at the tail like an archtop guitar, but the top is formed from thin spruce (like a flat-top or classical) forced into a shallow dome. It also has a wide fingerboard and slotted head like a nylon-string guitar. The loud volume and penetrating tone make it suitable for single-note soloing and it is frequently employed as a lead instrument in gypsy swing.

Resonator, resophonic or Dobro guitars

:All three principal types of resonator guitars were invented by the Slovak-American John Dopyera (1893-1988) for the National and Dobro (Dopyera Brothers) 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 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 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 the same fashion as other guitars, although slides are also often used, especially in blues.

Twelve-string guitars

:The twelve-string guitar usually has steel strings and 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 the others are tuned in octaves. The 12-string guitar is also made in electric forms.

Russian guitars

:These seven-string acoustic guitars were the norm for Russian guitarists throughout the 19th and well into the 20th centuries. The Russian guitar is traditionally tuned to open G major.

Acoustic bass guitars

:These have steel strings or gut strings and often the same tuning as an electric bass guitar.

Guitarrón

:The guitarrón is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi bands. It is fretless with heavy gauge nylon strings, and is usually played by doubling notes at the octave, which is facilitated by the unusual tuning of A D G C E A.

Tenor guitars

:A number of classical guitarists call the Niibori prime guitar a "Tenor Guitar" on the grounds that it sits in pitch between the alto and the bass. Elsewhere the name is taken for a 4-string guitar with a scale length of 23" (585 mm)—about the same as a Terz Guitar. The tenor guitar is tuned in fifths, C G D A, as is the tenor banjo and the cello. It is generally accepted that the tenor guitar was created to allow a tenor banjo player to follow the fashion as it evolved from Dixieland Jazz towards the more progressive Jazz that featured guitar. It allows a tenor banjo player to provide a guitar-based rhythm section with little to learn. A small minority of players (such as Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio) close tuned the instrument to D G B E to produce a deep instrument that could be played with the 4-note chord shapes found on the top 4 strings of the guitar or ukulele. The deep pitch warrants the wide-spaced chords that the banjo tuning permits, and the close tuned tenor does not have the same full, clear sound.

Harp guitars

:Harp Guitars are difficult to classify as there are many variations within this type of guitar. They are typically rare and uncommon in the popular music scene. Most consist of a regular guitar, plus additional 'harp' strings strung above the six normal strings. The instrument is usually acoustic and the harp strings are usually tuned to lower notes than the guitar strings, for an added bass range. Normally there is neither fingerboard nor frets behind the harp strings. Some harp guitars also feature much higher pitch strings strung below the traditional guitar strings. The number of harp strings varies greatly, depending on the type of guitar and also the player's personal preference.The Pikasso guitar; 4 necks, 2 sound holes, 42 strings] and also the Oracle Harp Sympitar; 24 strings (with 12 sympathetic strings protruding through the neck) are modern examples.

Extended-range guitars

:For well over a century guitars featuring seven, eight, nine, ten or more strings have been used by a minority of guitarists as a means of increasing the range of pitch available to the player. Usually, it is bass strings that are added. Classical guitars with an extended range are useful for playing lute repertoire, some of which was written for lutes with more than six courses. A typical example is the modern 11 string archguitar, invented and played by Peter Blanchette.

Guitar battente

:The battente is smaller than a classical guitar, usually played with four or five metal strings. It is mainly used in Calabria (a region in southern Italy) to accompany the voice.

Electric guitars

Electric guitars can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies, and produce little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups convert the vibration of the steel strings into signals, which are fed to an amplifier through a cable or radio transmitter. The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices or the natural distortion of valves (vacuum tubes) 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 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 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.

The first electric guitarist of note to use a seven-string guitar was jazz guitarist George Van Eps, who was a pioneer of this instrument. Solid body seven-strings were popularized in the 1980s and 1990s in part due to the release of the Ibanez Universe guitar, endorsed by Steve Vai. 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 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 33-fret "Mighty Wing" guitar features a six-octave range.

The electric bass guitar is similar in tuning to the traditional double bass viol. 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 the sound of a stand-up bass), 5.1 surround guitar, and such.

Some electric guitar and electric bass guitar models feature piezoelectric pickups, which function as transducers to provide 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.

Construction and components

General

Guitars can be constructed to meet the demands of both left and right-handed players. Traditionally the dominant hand is assigned the task of plucking or strumming the strings. For the majority of people this entails using the right hand. This is because musical expression (dynamics, tonal expression, color, etc.) is largely determined by the plucking hand, while the fretting hand is assigned the lesser mechanical task of depressing and gripping the strings. This is similar to the convention of the violin family of instruments where the right hand controls the bow. Left-handed players generally choose a left-handed (mirror) instrument, although some play in a standard right-handed manner, others play a standard right-handed guitar reversed, and still others (for example Jimi Hendrix) play a right-handed guitar strung in reverse. This last configuration differs from a true left-handed guitar in that the saddle is normally angled in such a way that the bass strings are slightly longer than the treble strings to improve intonation. Reversing the strings therefore reverses the relative orientation of the saddle (negatively affecting intonation), although in Hendrix' case this is believed to have been an important element in his unique sound.

Headstock

The headstock is located at the end of the guitar neck furthest from the body. It is fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings, which in turn affects the pitch. 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 as well, including six-in-line (featured on Fender Stratocasters) tuners or even "4+2" (Ernie Ball Music Man). However, some guitars (such as Steinbergers) do not have headstocks at all, in which case the tuning machines are located elsewhere, either on the body or the bridge.

Nut

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, and/or string buzz. To reduce string friction in 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.

Fretboard

Also called the fingerboard, 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 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 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 or composite materials such as HPL or resin. See below on section "Neck" for the importance of the length of the fretboard in connection to other dimensions of the guitar.

Frets

Frets are metal strips (usually nickel alloy or stainless steel) embedded along the fretboard and located at exact points that divide the scale length in accordance with a specific mathematical formula. 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 to 24 frets, although guitars have been made with as many as 27 frets.

Frets are laid out to a mathematical ratio that results in equal tempered division of the octave. The ratio of the spacing of two consecutive frets is the twelfth root of two. The twelfth fret divides the scale length in two exact halves and the 24th fret position divides the scale length in half yet again. Every twelve frets represents one octave. In practice, luthiers determine fret positions using the constant 17.817, which is derived from the twelfth root of two (17.817 = (1-2^-1/12)⁻¹). The scale length divided by this value yields the distance from the nut to the first fret. That distance is subtracted from the scale length and the result is divided in two sections by the constant to yield the distance from the first fret to the second fret. Positions for the remainder of the frets are calculated in like manner. Actual fret spacing does not use this exact value; the fret spacing on the fretboard was also done by trial and error (testing) method over the ages.

There are several different fret gauges, which can be fitted according to player preference. Among these are "jumbo" frets, which have much thicker gauge, allowing for use of 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 allows a dramatic vibrato effect. Fine frets, much flatter, allow a very low string-action but require other conditions such as curvature of the neck to be well maintained to prevent buzz.

On steel-string guitars, frets are eventually bound to wear down; when this happens, frets can be replaced or, to a certain extent, leveled, polished, recrowned, or reshaped as required.

Truss rod

The truss rod is a metal rod that runs along the inside of the neck. It is used to correct changes to the neck's curvature caused by the neck timbers aging, 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 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 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, allowing the neck to be pushed both forward and backward (standard truss rods can only be released to a point beyond which the neck is no longer compressed and pulled backward).

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 running down the back of a cedar neck. There is no tension adjustment on this form of reinforcement.

Inlays

Inlays are visual elements set into the exterior surface of a guitar. 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 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 a 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 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, coloured 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 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 sound boards are sometimes inlaid. Some instruments have a filler strip running down the length and behind the neck, used for strength and/or to fill the cavity through which the trussrod was installed in the neck.

Elaborate inlays are a decorative feature of many limited edition, high-end and custom-made guitars. Guitar manufacturers often release such guitars to celebrate significant or historic milestones.

Neck

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 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 the guitar is one determinant of a good instrument versus a poor one. The shape 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 fingerboard, scale (distance between the frets), the neck wood, 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 type of material used to make guitar necks are graphite (Steinberger guitars), aluminium (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.

Neck joint or "Heel"

This 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 CF Martin & Co.), dovetail joints (also used by CF Martin on 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, is the neck-through-body construction. These are designed so that everything from the machine heads down to the bridge are 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 the neck and sides built as one piece and the body built around it.

Strings

The standard guitar has six strings but four-, seven-, eight-, nine-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars are also available.

Classical and flamenco guitars historically used gut strings but these have been superseded by polymer materials, such as nylon and fluorocarbon.

Modern guitar strings are constructed of metal, polymers, or animal or plant product materials. Instruments utilising "steel" strings may have strings made of alloys incorporating steel, nickel or phosphor bronze. Bass strings for both instruments are wound rather than monofilament.

Body (acoustic guitar)

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 tone woods such as spruce or cedar. Timbers for tone woods are chosen for both strength and ability to transfer mechanical energy from the strings to the air within the guitar body. Sound is further shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity.

In electric guitars, transducers known as pickups convert string vibration to an electric signal, which in turn is amplified and fed to speakers, which vibrate the air to produce the sounds we hear. Nevertheless, the body of the electric guitar still performs a role in shaping the resultant tonal signature.

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, is strengthened by differing types of internal bracing. The top is considered by many luthiers to be 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.

Body size, shape and style has 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 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.

The body of an acoustic guitar has a sound hole through which sound projects. The sound hole is usually a round hole in the top of the guitar under the strings. 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 characterised, like the rest of the guitar body, by a number of resonance modes at which it responds more strongly.

Instruments with larger areas for the guitar top were introduced by Martin in an attempt to create louder volume levels. The popularity of the larger "dreadnought" body size amongst acoustic performers is related to the greater sound volume produced.

Body (electric guitar)

Most electric guitar bodies are made of wood, and include a plastic pick guard. Boards wide enough to use as a solid body are very expensive due to the worldwide depletion of hardwood stock since the 70's, so the wood is rarely one solid piece. Most bodies are made of two pieces of wood with some of them including a seam running down the centre line of the body. The most common woods used for electric guitar body construction include maple, basswood, ash, poplar, alder, and mahogany. Many bodies consist of good sounding but inexpensive woods, like ash, with a "top", or thin layer of another, more attractive wood (such as maple with a natural "flame" pattern) glued to the top of the basic wood. Guitars constructed like this are often called "flame tops". The body is usually carved or routed to accept the other elements, such as the bridge, pickup, neck, and other electronic components. Most electrics have a polyurethane or nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Other alternative materials to wood, are used in guitar body construction. Some of these include carbon composites, plastic material (such as polycarbonate), and aluminum alloys.

Pickups

Pickups are transducers attached to a guitar that detect (or "pick up") string vibrations and convert the mechanical energy of the string into electrical energy. The resultant electrical signal can then be electronically amplified. The most common type of pickup is electromagnetic in design. These contain magnets that are tightly wrapped in a coil, or coils, of copper wire. Such pickups are usually placed right underneath the guitar strings. Electromagnetic pickups work on the same principles and in a similar manner to an electrical generator. The vibration of the strings causes a small voltage to be created in the coils surrounding the magnets; this signal voltage is later amplified.

Traditional electromagnetic pickups are either single-coil or double-coil. Single-coil pickups are susceptible to noise induced from electric fields, usually mains-frequency (60 or 50 hertz) hum. The introduction of the double-coil humbucker in the mid-1950s did away with this problem through the use of two coils, one of which is wired in a reverse polarity orientation.

The types and models of pickups used can greatly affect the tone of the guitar. Typically, humbuckers, which are two magnet–coil assemblies attached to each other are traditionally associated with a heavier sound. Single-coil pickups, one magnet wrapped in copper wire, are used by guitarists seeking a brighter, twangier sound with greater dynamic range.

Modern pickups are tailored to the sound desired. A commonly applied approximation used in selection of a pickup is that less wire (lower DC resistance) = brighter sound, more wire = "fat" tone. Other options include specialized switching that produces coil-splitting, in/out of phase and other effects. Guitar circuits are either active, needing a battery to power their circuit, or, as in most cases, equipped with a passive circuit.

Fender Stratocaster type guitars generally utilize three single-coil pickups, while most Gibson Les Paul types use humbucker pickups.

Piezoelectric, or piezo, pickups represent another class of pickup. These employ piezoelectricity to generate the musical signal and are popular in hybrid electro-acoustic guitars. A crystal is located under each string, usually in the saddle. When the string vibrates, the shape of the crystal is distorted, and the stresses associated with this change produce tiny voltages across the crystal that can be amplified and manipulated.

Some piezo-equipped guitars use what is known as a hexaphonic pickup. "Hex" is a prefix meaning six. In a hexaphonic pickup separate outputs are obtained from discrete piezoelectric pickups for each of the six strings. This arrangement allows the signal to be easily modified by on-board modelling electronics, as in the Line 6 Variax brand of electric guitars; the guitars allow for a variety of sounds to be obtained by digitally manipulating the signal. This allows a guitar to mimic many vintage models of guitar, as well as output alternate tunings without the need to adjust the strings.

Another use for hexaphonic pickups is to send the output signals to a MIDI interpretation device, which determines the note pitch, duration, attack and decay characteristics and so forth. The MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) interpreter then sends the note information to a sound bank device. The resulting sound can closely mimic numerous types of instruments. The MIDI setup can also enable the guitar to be used as a game controller (i.e. Rock Band Squier) or as an instructional tool, as with the Fretlight Guitar.

Electronics

On guitars that have them, these components and the wires that connect them allow the player to control some aspects of the sound like volume or tone. These at their simplest consist of passive components such as potentiometers and capacitors, but may also include specialized integrated circuits or other active components requiring batteries for power, for preamplification and signal processing, or even for assistance in tuning. In many cases the electronics have some sort of shielding to prevent pickup of external interference and noise.

Lining, binding, and purfling

The top, back and ribs of an acoustic guitar body are very thin (1–2 mm), so a flexible piece of wood called lining 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 to allow it to bend with 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 are 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 the two or three sections of the back.

Binding and purfling materials are generally made of either wood or plastic.

Bridge

The main purpose of the bridge on an acoustic guitar is to transfer the vibration from the strings to the soundboard, which vibrates the air inside of the guitar, thereby amplifying the sound produced by the strings.

On all electric, acoustic and original guitars, the bridge holds the strings in place on the body. There are many varied bridge designs. There may be some mechanism for raising or lowering the bridge saddles to adjust the distance between the strings and the fretboard (action), and/or fine-tuning the intonation of the instrument. Some are spring-loaded and feature a "whammy bar", a removable arm that lets the player modulate the pitch by changing the tension on the strings. The whammy bar is sometimes also referred to as a "tremolo bar" (see Tremolo for further discussion of this term—the effect of rapidly changing pitch produced by a whammy bar is more correctly called "vibrato"). Some bridges also allow for alternate tunings at the touch of a button.

On almost all modern electric guitars, the bridge has saddles which are adjustable for each string so that intonation stays correct up and down the neck. If the open string is in tune but sharp or flat when frets are pressed, the bridge saddle position can be adjusted with a screwdriver or hex key to remedy the problem. In general, flat notes are corrected by moving the saddle forward and sharp notes by moving it backwards. On an instrument correctly adjusted for intonation, the actual length of each string from the nut to the bridge saddle is slightly but measurably longer than the scale length of the instrument. This additional length is called compensation, which flattens all notes a bit to compensate for the sharping of all fretted notes caused by stretching the string during fretting.

Saddle

The saddle of a guitar refers to the part of the bridge that physically supports the strings. It may be one piece ( typically on acoustic guitars) or separate pieces, one for each string ( electric guitars and basses). The saddle's basic purpose is to provide the end point for the string's vibration at the correct location for proper intonation, and on acoustic guitars to transfer the vibrations through the bridge into the top wood of the guitar. Saddles are typically made of plastic or bone for acoustic guitars, though synthetics and some exotic animal tooth variations (e.g. fossilized tooth, ivory, etc. ) have become popular with some players. Electric guitar saddles are typically metal, though some synthetic saddles are available.

Pickguard

Also known as a scratchplate. This is usually a piece of laminated plastic or other material that protects the finish of the top of the guitar from damage due to the use of a plectrum or fingernails. Electric guitars sometimes mount pickups and electronics on the pickguard. It is a common feature on steel-string acoustic guitars. Vigorous performance styles such as flamenco, which can involve the use of the guitar as a percussion instrument, call for a scratchplate to be fitted to nylon-string instruments.

Whammy Bar (Tremolo Arm)

Many electric guitars are fitted with a vibrato and pitch bend device known as a "tremolo bar (or arm)", "sissy bar", "wang bar", "slam handle", "whammy handle", and "whammy bar". The latter two terms led stompbox manufacturers to use the term 'whammy' in coming up with a pitch raising effect introduced by popular guitar effects pedal brand Digitech.

The tremolo arm is common enough that there is a technical term, hard tail, for a guitar without one.

Leo Fender, who did much to create the electric guitar, also created much confusion over the meaning of the terms "tremolo" and "vibrato" by the naming the "tremolo" unit on many of his guitars and also the "vibrato" unit on his "Vibrolux" amps. In general, vibrato is a variation in pitch, whereas tremolo is a variation in volume, so the tremolo bar is actually a vibrato bar and the "Vibrolux" amps actually had a tremolo effect. However, following Fender's example, electric guitarists traditionally reverse these meanings when speaking of hardware devices and the effects they produce. See vibrato unit for a more detailed discussion, and tremolo arm for more of the history.

Another type of pitch bender is the B-Bender, a spring and lever device mounted in an internal cavity of a solid body electric, guitar that allows the guitarist to bend just the B string of the guitar using a lever connected to the strap handle of the guitar. The resulting pitch bend is evocative of the sound of the pedal steel guitar.

Guitar strap

A guitar strap is a strip of fabric with a leather or synthetic leather piece on each end. It is made to hold a guitar via the shoulders, at an adjustable length to suit the position favoured by the guitarist.

Guitars have varying accommodations for attaching a strap. The most common are strap buttons, also called strap pins, which are flanged steel posts anchored to the guitar with screws. Two strap buttons come pre-attached to virtually all electric guitars, and many steel-string acoustic guitars. Strap buttons are sometimes replaced with "strap locks" which connect the guitar to the strap more securely.

The lower strap button is usually located at the bottom (bridge end) of the body. The upper strap button is usually located near or at the top (neck end) of the body: on the upper body curve, at the tip of the upper "horn" (on a double cutaway), or at the neck joint (heel). Some electrics, especially those with odd-shaped bodies, have one or both strap buttons on the back of the body. Some Steinberger electric guitars, owing to their minimalist and lightweight design, have both strap buttons at the bottom of the body. Rarely, on some acoustics, the upper strap button is located on the headstock.

Some acoustic and classical guitars only have a single strap button at the bottom of the body—the other end must be tied onto the headstock, above the nut and below the machine heads.

Some acoustic and classical guitars come with no strap buttons at all. In this case, one or two strap buttons can usually be added to the guitar, or a "classical guitar strap" (also called a "guitar harness" or "neck strap") can be used, which supports the guitar by hooking into the sound hole.

Self-tuning guitars

Self-tuning guitars are computerized guitars programmed to tune themselves. The Gibson Robot Guitar, released in 2007, is often mistaken as the first of this kind, but was preceded by the Transperformance system by at least 20 years. Gibson has also released a second, self-tuning model called the Dark Fire.

Tuning

The guitar is a transposing instrument. Its pitch sounds one octave lower than it is notated on a score.

A variety of tunings may be used. The most common tuning, known as "Standard Tuning," has the strings tuned from a low E, to a high E, traversing a two octave range—EADGBE. When all strings are played open the resulting chord is an Em7/add11.

The pitches are as follows:

E₄ B₃ G₃ D₃ A₂ E₂

String !! Scientific pitch notation	Scientific pitch !! Helmholtz pitch	Interval (music)>Interval from middle C
first	|	e'	major third above	329.63 Hz
second	|	b	minor second below	246.94 Hz
third	|	g	perfect fourth below	196.00 Hz
fourth	|	d	minor seventh below	146.83 Hz
fifth	|	A	minor tenth below	110 Hz
sixth	|	E	minor thirteenth below	82.41 Hz

The table below shows a pitch's name found over the six strings of a guitar in standard tuning, from the nut (zero), to the twelfth fret.

G D B F C G

0 !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12

! E

F

F

|

A

A

B

B

C

C

D

E

E

B

C

C

|

E

E

F

F

G

A

A

B

B

G

A

A

|

B

C

C

D

E

E

F

F

G

D

E

E

|

F

G

A

A

B

B

C

C

D

A

B

B

|

C

D

E

E

F

F

G

A

A

E

F

F

|

A

A

B

B

C

C

D

E

E

A guitar using this tuning can tune to itself using the fact, with a single exception, that the 5th fret on one string is the same note as the next open string; that is, a 5th-fret note on the sixth string is the same note as the open fifth string. The exception is the interval between the second and third strings, in which the 4th-fret note on the third string is equivalent to the open second string.

Standard tuning has evolved to provide a good compromise between simple fingering for many chords and the ability to play common scales with minimal left hand movement. Uniquely, the guitar's tuning allows for repeatable patterns, which also facilitates the ease of playing common scales. There are also a variety of commonly used alternate tunings. Most of these are open tunings, i.e., the unfretted strings produce a simple chord, such as a G Major chord. Many open tunings, where all of the strings are tuned to a similar note or chord, are popular for slide guitar playing. Alternate tunings are used for two main reasons: the ease of playing and the variation in tone that can be achieved.

Many guitarists use a long established, centuries-old tuning variation where the lowest string is 'dropped' down a whole tone. Known as Drop-D (or dropped D) tuning it is, from low to high, DADGBE. This allows for open string tonic and dominant basses in the keys of D and D minor. It also enables simple fifths (powerchords) to be more easily played. Eddie Van Halen sometimes uses a device known as a 'D Tuna,' which he patented. It is a small lever, attached to the fine tuner of the 6th string on a Floyd Rose tremolo, which allows him to easily drop that string from E to D. Many contemporary rock bands retune all strings by several semi-tones, making, for example, Drop-C or Drop-B tunings, However this terminology is inconsistent with that of "drop-D" as "drop-D" refers to dropping a single string to the named pitch. Often these new tunings are also simply referred to as the "Standard" of the note in question e.g.–"D Standard" (DGcfad').

Some guitarists tune in straight fourths, avoiding the major third between the third and second strings. While this makes playing major and minor triads slightly more difficult, it facilitated playing chords with more complicated extended structures. One proponent of the straight fourth tuning (EADGCF) is Stanley Jordan.

As with all stringed instruments a large number of scordatura are possible on the guitar. A common form of scordatura involves tuning the 3rd string to F to mimic the standard tuning of the lute, especially when playing renaissance repertoire originally written for the lute.

Guitar accessories

Though a guitar may be played on its own, there are a variety of common accessories used for holding and playing the guitar.

Capotasto

A capo (short for capotasto) is used to change the pitch of open strings. Capos are clipped onto the fret board with the aid of spring tension, or in some models, elastic tension. To raise the guitar's pitch by one semitone, the player would clip the capo onto the fret board just below the first fret. Its use allows players to play in different keys without having to change the chord formations they use. Because of the ease with which they allow guitar players to change keys, they are sometimes referred to as "cheaters" or the "hillbilly crutch." Classical performers are known to use them to enable modern instruments to match the pitch of historical instruments such as the renaissance lute.

Slides

A slide, (neck of a bottle, knife blade or round metal bar) used in blues and rock to create a glissando or 'Hawaiian' effect. The necks of bottles were often used in blues and country music. Modern slides are constructed of glass, plastic, ceramic, chrome, brass or steel, depending on the weight and tone desired. An instrument that is played exclusively in this manner, (using a metal bar) is called a steel guitar or pedal steel. Slide playing to this day is very popular in blues music and country music. Some slide players use a so called Dobro guitar.

Some performers that have become famous for playing slide are Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Ry Cooder, George Harrison, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Duane Allman, Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher, and George Thorogood.

Plectrum

A "guitar pick" or "plectrum" is a small piece of hard material generally held between the thumb and first finger of the picking hand and is used to "pick" the strings. Though most classical players pick with a combination of fingernails and fleshy fingertips, the pick is most often used for electric and steel-string acoustic guitars. Though today they are mainly plastic, variations do exist, such as bone, wood, steel or tortoise shell. Tortoise shell was the most commonly used material in the early days of pick-making, but as tortoises and turtles became endangered, the practice of using their shells for picks or anything else was banned. Tortoise-shell picks made before the ban are often coveted for a supposedly superior tone and ease of use, and their scarcity has made them valuable.

Picks come in many shapes and sizes. Picks vary from the small jazz pick to the large bass pick. The thickness of the pick often determines its use. A thinner pick (between .2 and .5 mm) is usually used for strumming or rhythm playing, whereas thicker picks (between .7 and 1.5+ mm) are usually used for single-note lines or lead playing. The distinctive guitar sound of Billy Gibbons is attributed to using a quarter or peso as a pick. Similarly, Brian May is known to use a sixpence coin as a pick. David Persons is known for using old credit cards, cut to the correct size, as plectrums.

Thumb picks and finger picks that attach to the finger tips are sometimes employed in finger-picking styles on steel strings. These allow the fingers and thumb to operate independently, whereas a flat pick requires the thumb and one or two fingers to manipulate.

Notes

See also

Outline of guitars

External links

Instruments In Depth: The Guitar An online feature from Bloomingdale School of Music (October, 2007)

Stalking the Oldest Six-String Guitar

Guitar physics

International Guitar Research Archive

The Guitar, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring many historic guitars from the Museum's collection

Category:Guitars Category:Celtic musical instruments Category:Irish musical instruments Category:Spanish musical instruments Category:Arabic words and phrases

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name	Andy McKee
background	solo_singer
born	April 04, 1979 Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
instrument	Guitar, baritone guitar, harp guitar
genre	Folk, Instrumental, Fingerstyle guitar
occupation	Guitarist
years active	2001 – present
label	Razor & Tie, CandyRat Records
website	www.andymckee.com
religion	Atheist }}

Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979 in Topeka, Kansas) is an American fingerstyle guitarist, currently signed to the American record label Razor & Tie. His style of playing and his compositions have earned him a considerable international fanbase; in late 2006, a live performance of his signature song "Drifting" became a Featured Video on YouTube and MySpace, achieving over 40,000,000 views on the former to date and remaining one of its highest rated music clips. A handful of McKee's other songs have experienced lesser success on YouTube, such as "Rylynn" with over 19,000,000 views. Similarly, McKee's cover of "Africa" reached over 9,000,000 views before suddenly being removed by Candyrat Records.

Life and career

McKee played his first guitar, an Aria nylon string bought by his father, at age 13. Initially underwhelmed by his guitar lessons, McKee's electric guitar-playing cousin inspired him to continue learning, taking him out for his 16th birthday to see a guitarist named Preston Reed perform live at a clinic. McKee later bought an instructional videotape from Reed and began to learn more complex guitar techniques from it, also earning his GED that year in order to quit attending high school. He began to draw influence from guitarists such as Michael Hedges, Billy McLaughlin, Pat Kirtley, and from Passion Session by Don Ross, as he continued studying the instrument on his own.

Nocturne (2001)

In 2001, McKee independently released his first album, Nocturne. That same year, he was placed third at the National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition in Winfield, Kansas. In 2003, McKee toured in Taiwan with Jacques Stotzem, Isato Nakagawa, and Masaaki Kishibe, and earned first place in the Miscellaneous Acoustic Instrument contest of the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships with a Ron Spillers harpguitar he purchased from Stephen Bennett in 2002.^, The instrument can be heard in a number of his songs, such as "Into The Ocean" and "Gates of Gnomeria". Only 1,000 copies of Nocturne were ever produced and the album is now out of circulation.

Dreamcatcher (2004)

McKee released his second album, Dreamcatcher, in 2004. The album includes his cover of "Africa" , as well as "The Friend I Never Met", a song written in tribute to Michael Hedges. McKee used the title track to win the opportunity to perform with bassist Michael Manring, with whom he has since toured. Additionally, he placed second in the Fingerstyle Guitar Competition of the Canadian Guitar Festival that year. The album was later re-released by McKee's label in response to the popularity he garnered on YouTube.

Art of Motion (2005)

McKee's third CD, Art of Motion, was released on Candyrat Records in November 2005 and earned considerable praise from established acoustic guitarists such as Don Ross, whom McKee is currently on the same label with and has noted as one of his favorite artists. Most of the songs that McKee is known for on YouTube appear on the album, which has a handful of tracks carried over from Dreamcatcher as well. During the early stages of McKee's success on YouTube in late 2006 and early 2007, Art of Motion was the only album of his carried by Candyrat Records, and saw the most mainstream exposure as a result. In a couple of his songs he plays a harp guitar shown down and to the right.

Gates of Gnomeria (2007)

After his popularity due to his performances on YouTube and touring extensively throughout much of 2007, McKee returned to the studio to record his fourth CD, Gates of Gnomeria. The album contains six new songs, one of which had already been seen on YouTube ("Gates of Gnomeria"), as well as two cover songs. McKee spent the majority of 2008 on tour throughout the world, performing with other Candyrat artists and promoting both Gates of Gnomeria and his collaborative album with Don Ross, The Thing That Came From Somewhere. He released a split DVD that same year with labelmate Antoine Dufour, each artist contributing eight songs to the disc; two of McKee's from Gates of Gnomeria.

Common Ground EP (2009)

In between touring extensively, and helping promote his duo guitar record with Don Ross, McKee recorded an EP of 2 re-recordings of songs from his Dreamcatcher album, and a cover song by Japanese guitarist Masaaki Kishibe. The album was released digitally only, along with videos available on iTunes that include his performance of his 2 compositions, a video each that either does or does not include commentary.

Joyland (2010)

McKee announced in May 2009 that he was intending to finish touring in the second half of the year and concentrate on recording his upcoming album. He stated in July 2009 that it will most likely be titled "Joyland", the title track of the album which originally went under the name "Music For A Vacant Amusement Park". The album was completed in November 2009 and was released in iTunes on March 23, 2010, and in stores on March 30, 2010 on Razor & Tie Records. According to McKee, "On this album I've branched out a bit and included some instrumentation on a couple of songs. There's also a new harpguitar tune and a couple of covers such as "Layover" by Michael Hedges and one of my favorite 80's tunes." (That one is Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World".) The album also features a DVD full of 75 minutes worth of additional video material, including a documentary called Andy McKee: Joyland, and four new performance music videos. All four music videos have been released on YouTube and can be found at:

"Never Grow Old"

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

"Hunter's Moon"

"Joyland"

The documentary is currently only available for purchase as a part of the Joyland album CD/DVD.

Career progression

Self-described as "just this guy from Topeka, Kansas who kind of blew up on the Internet about a week before Christmas", McKee became one of Candyrat Records' best-selling artists after their video of "Drifting" was massively upvoted by users at Digg. In the wake of this exposure, he appeared by invitation on Woodsongs as well as Last Call with Carson Daly, and his online store completely sold out of his various guitar tablature books. Due to the increased demand, he began to offer sheet music for nearly all of his songs on his official website. He also contributed to Josh Groban's 2007 Grammy-nominated Christmas album, Noël, playing guitar on the song "Little Drummer Boy". Groban's album went on to become the best-selling CD of 2007 in the U.S., hitting #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2010 McKee contributed to Lee Ritenour's highly acclaimed CD 6 String Theory that also features guitarists like Steve Lukather, Slash, Neal Schon, Tal Wilkenfeld, and Mike Stern.

Response to filesharing

McKee has, at least once in the past, personally commented on BitTorrent websites hosting his music, chastising downloaders for their actions. Posting to The Pirate Bay under the name "AlteredTuning" (which is the same handle he uses in all his internet message board appearances as well as on his own website's message boards), McKee sarcastically echoed other commenters' thanks to the original uploader of his album and urged people to purchase his work legitimately. His comments were met with approval while some pointed out that the exposure on The Pirate Bay might lead to increased sales.

"Yeah thanks a lot for uploading! It's not like I need to make a living with my music or anything. 8,676 thieves. If you really appreciate what I am doing, buy my CD legitimately so I can continue to compose music rather than work at K-Mart. I'm not Metallica. I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars, much less millions. Andy McKee"

Equipment and influences

McKee currently uses the following equipment:

Greenfield G4 and GB Guitars

Greenfield HG1.2 Harp Guitar

Lance McCollum Baritone Guitar

Ron Spillers Harp Guitar

K&K; Sound Pickups (internal)

DTAR Solstice Pre-Amp

D'Addario Phosphor Bronze Medium Gauge

Shubb Capos

McKee's influences include: Eric Johnson, Dream Theater, Michael Hedges, Preston Reed, Billy McLaughlin, Tommy Emmanuel, Björk, Steve Lukather, Metallica, Joe Satriani, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Steve Erquiaga, Vince Di Cola, Toto, Peter Gabriel, Imogen Heap, King Crimson, Primus, Pat Metheny, and Don Ross,

McKee began listening to metal, such as Dream Theater, at the age of 13. He described on Woodsongs how he was a "metal freak" during childhood, even performing a Metallica song in his high school talent show. It was not until he saw Preston Reed that his influences began to shift towards acoustic songwriters such as Don Ross and Michael Hedges. Both walks of music continue to influence him, though he has stuck with acoustic music in his professional life.

In response to certain comments regarding the source of his creative talent, McKee has proudly admitted to have never taken any recreational drugs in his life—a fact lauded by many of his fans online, including fellow guitarist Don Ross. Commenting on McKee's MySpace, Ross wrote:

:"I too have never touched weed, pills, blow or needles. I'm always insulted when people find that hard to believe. 'How can you write such insane music straight?!?' Frick! Some of us are just creative using only the chemicals already present in our bodies. That goes for almost any musician I've had a close association with, contrary to the stereotypes. Hell, Zappa was sober all the time! :Bravo, Andy. I appreciate the fact that when you and I tour together, there's no junk going around, no smokes, no nothing. Keeping it clean. And we always have a fabulous time."

Discography

Album Title	Year
	2001
	2004
	2005
Gates of Gnomeria	2007
Split DVD with Antoine Dufour	2007
	2008
	2009
	2010

References

External links

McKee's Official Website

Andy McKee's MySpace

Andy McKee @ Razor & Tie

McKee @ Candyrat Records

Interview @ InstruMentalCase

2011 Andy McKee Interview on FingerstyleGuitarists.com

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:American folk guitarists Category:American Internet personalities Category:Fingerstyle guitarists Category:Musicians from Kansas

cs:Andy McKee de:Andy McKee es:Andy McKee fr:Andy McKee it:Andy McKee lv:Endijs Makijs nl:Andy McKee ja:アンディ・マッキー pl:Andy McKee pt:Andy McKee simple:Andy McKee

name	Peter NalitchПётр Налич
background	solo_singer
birth name	Piotr Andreevich Nalich
born	April 30, 1981 in Russian SFSR, USSR
origin	Moscow
instrument	Vocals, accordion, classical guitar
genre	Pop
associated acts	"Peter Nalitch's musical collective" (Музыкальный коллектив Петра Налича; Muzykalny kollektiv Petra Nalitcha, MKPN) also nown as "Peter Nalitch and Friends"
website	peternalitch.ru }}

Peter Andreyevich Nalitch (, also spelled as Petr Nalich or Pyotr Nalich, is a Russian singer and composer who represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo. In the final on May 29, he came 11th with his song "Lost and Forgotten".

Personal Info

Peter Nalitch was born on 30 April 1981 in Moscow, Russia. His grandfather Zahid Nalić, was a Bosnian opera singer from Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Peter graduated from the Moscow University of Architecture (MARHI) and studied music at Orfei Studio directed by Irina Mukhina. He has worked for two years as an architect. He has a son from his first marriage and a daughter from the second.

"Gitar"

Peter Nalitch has become famous in Russia after the publication in 2007 on YouTube of the clip of his song "Gitar" (where he makes fun of himself with broken English lyrics and dubious film editing qualities). In about three years, more than 4,000,000 people had watched it. Interviews and articles about Peter followed in some Russian papers. The song "Gitar" is most popular in Greece, Germany and Slovakia.

Peter Nalitch and Friends

Beginnings

In 2007, Peter already had about 40 songs written down, all available on his website for free. Fans archived them, they can still be found on the web. It is with these songs that Peter gave his first concert, on November 9, 2007, in the club "Apshu" ("Апшу") in Moscow.

After the success of this first concert (a lot of people had been unable to enter the first crowded venue), articles were written on blogs and in newspapers. Peter then gathered a band of musicians, with whom he gave two more concerts during the winter of 2008 in the club "IKRA" ("Икра"), in Moscow. Tickets were sold out several months before the event.

The band took the name Peter Nalitch's Musical Collective - "Muzykalny kollektiv Petra Nalitcha" ("Музыкальный коллектив Петра Налича") or more simply "MKPN" ("МКПН").

Success

Over the following two years, in addition to the Moscow venues, MKPN went on tour, performing in Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and other large Russian cities. The band released their first album in 2008 - "Radost Prostykh Melody" ("Радость простых мелодий" - translated as "The Joy of Simple Melodies" on their website). They also released a DVD of the footage of a concert in Moscow – "MKPN v B1 Maximum" ("МКПН в Б1 Maximum" – "MKPN at the B1 Maximum") and an EP, "More" ("Море" – "The Sea"). In 2009, the band was one of the headliners at the "Sfinks" festival in Antwerp (Belgium).

Nalitch is self-produced.

Eurovision 2010

Peter Nalitch and Friends was chosen to represent Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, in Oslo, with the song Lost and Forgotten. The final, on May 29, saw the song finishing 11^th.

Musical style

Peter Nalitch sings in Russian, English (the latter with a Russian accent, which he refuses to hide), Italian ("Santa Lucia"), French ("Il pleut toujours", on the EP "More") and Baburi, an invented language.

The lyrics of his songs are often humorous and can sometimes be compared to child songs ("Yeti" - «Йети», is a song about a lonely yeti). MKPN also did covers of Russian romances and Cossack songs. All albums and songs are available for free on the band's official website, with the mention "Pay what you will", even though the album and the EP have been released. Peter Nalitch had declared in an interview that they were not really making money from album sales, only from the concerts given in Russia.

In the wake of this idea of self-promotion on the web, the band has given, on September 17, 2009, an acoustic concert from their own flat, broadcast live on RuTube (a local videohosting and live broadcasting site). On October 30, 2009, they broadcast another show live on RuTube, this time a real concert in Moscow.

Band members

Peter Nalitch — voice, guitar, piano, accordion

Yura Kostenko — saxophone, flute, piano

Sergei Sokolov — domra, guitar, voice

Kostia Shvetsov — guitar

Dima Simonov — bass

Denis Marinkin — drums

Discography

2007 — Single of summer 2008 (with the magazine "Afisha" ("Афиша"))

2008 — "Radost prostykh melody" ("Радость простых мелодий" - "The Joy of Simple Melodies") 2009 — "Kontsert MKPN v B1 Maximum" ("Концерт МКПН в Б1 Maximum" - Concert of MKPN at the B1 Maximum") 2009 — EP "More" ("Море" - "The Sea")

2010 — "Vesyoliye Baburi" ("Весёлые Бабури" - "Jolly Baburi")

References

External links

Official website

www.youtube.com/user/hanurpriehal — MKPN channel on YouTube

Official Peter Nalitch mp3 free download from Yandex

Peter Nalitch on MySpace.com

Peter Nalitch on Yandex.Video

peternalitch.livejournal.com — MKPN on LiveJournal

Yandex interview with Peter Nalitch

Category:Russian Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2010 Category:Russian people of Ukrainian descent Category:Living people Category:1981 births

az:Pyotr Naliç bg:Пьотър Налич da:Pjotr Nalitj de:Pjotr Andrejewitsch Nalitsch es:Peter Nalitch eo:Pjotr Naliĉ fr:Peter Nalitch hr:Petar Nalič it:Peter Nalitch lv:Pjotrs Naļičs lb:Pjotr Nalitsch hu:Peter Nalitch & Friends nl:Peter Nalitch pl:Piotr Nalicz ro:Piotr Nalici ru:Налич, Пётр Андреевич sq:Peter Nalitch sh:Petar Nalič fi:Pjotr Nalitš sv:Pjotr Nalitj tr:Pyotr Naliç uk:Наліч Петро Андрійович

name	Ewan Dobson
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Ewan Dobson
birth date	September 09, 1981
birth place
origin	Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
instrument	Guitar
genre	Fingerstyle guitar, Acoustic metal
occupation	Musician, composer
label	CandyRat
website
notable instruments	Stonebridge 23CRMartin D-28CW }}

Ewan Dobson is a Canadian fingerstyle guitarist and Candyrat Records recording artist noted for the creativity and intensity of his playing as well as his use of extended technique. Dobson's music borrows from bluegrass, classical music, folk, techno, heavy metal as well as trance. In 1993, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and mild Tourette's Syndrome. In support of Tourette's Syndrome awareness Ewan has performed at the Tourette's Syndrome National Conference in Canada. As a classical guitarist Dobson won numerous awards such as the Grand Prizes of both the Burlington Rotary Fall Music Festival and the Pickering Rotary Music Festival (1996 and 1998) as well as the D'addario Scholarship from the Kiwanis Music Festival which is given to the top classical guitarist in the competition. As a fingerstyle guitarist, Ewan placed first at the 5th Annual Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competition. Two months after this he competed in the 38th Annual International Fingerstyle Guitar Competition in Winfield, Kansas and placed third. Immediately following this he placed first in the Acoustic Category of the 4th Annual Montreal Guitar Grand Prix.

Solo albums

2007: Guitar, Self released title.

2008: The Red Army Love Potion, Self released title

2009: Healthy Obsession, Self released title.

2009: Ewan Dobson, CandyRat Records 2010: Ewan Dobson II, CandyRat Records

See also

Music of Canada

References

External links

Candyrat Records label website

Ewan Dobson on Online Music Jamming

FingerstyleGuitarists.com Ewan Dobson Interview

Category:Living people Category:Canadian heavy metal guitarists Category:Fingerstyle guitarists Category:1981 births Category:People from Richmond Hill, Ontario Category:Musicians from Ontario

de:Ewan Dobson ru:Добсон, Эван sv:Ewan Dobson

name	Michael Angelo Batio
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
born	February 23, 1956 Chicago, Illinois, USA
alias	Mike Batio, MAB
instrument	Guitar, bass, keyboard, vocals, drums
genre	Instrumental rock, neo-classical metal, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, jazz
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, columnist
years active	1984–present
label	M.A.C.E.
associated acts	Nitro, Holland, Jim Gillette, C4, The Michael Angelo Band, Katrina Johansson, Bill Peck, Dave Reffett
website	www.angelo.com
notable instruments	Dean MAB1 ArmorflameDean MAB1 LazerDean MAB2 AviatorDouble-GuitarQuad Guitar }}

Michael Angelo Batio (, also known as Mike Batio or MAB (born February 23, 1956) is a guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. His work has encompassed many genres, notably metal and its subgenres. Batio was voted the "No. 1 Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine in 2003. He was also listed as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" by Guitar World Magazine, for which he wrote the column Time to Burn, and one of the "20 Greatest Shredders of All Time" by Total Guitar Magazine, both in April 2008. Batio also won the 2009 Guitar World Magazine Readers Choice award in the "Best Shredder" category.

Biography

Early life and career

Michael Angelo Batio started playing the piano and composing music at the age of five, and first played guitar at the age of ten, reportedly playing faster than his teacher within two years. At the age of fourteen he started playing jazz guitar, and within two years he had won the Chicago-based "All-State Jazz Solo Award". He attended Northeastern Illinois University and achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Theory and Composition. After he had graduated, Batio looked to become a session guitarist in his hometown. When he asked for a job at a nearby studio, he was given a piece of music and simply asked to play it. He managed to play it adding his own improvisations and fills, making him the studio's primary call-out guitarist. As a session player, Batio recorded music for such companies as Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, United Airlines, United Way, McDonalds, Beatrice Corp. and the Chicago Wolves hockey team.

Holland, the Michael Angelo Band and Nitro (1984–1993)

Batio began his recording career in 1984 when he joined new Chicago-based heavy metal band Holland, an eponymous project set up by ex-Steppenwolf singer Tommy Holland. With major label Atlantic Records, the band released their debut studio album in 1985 entitled Little Monsters, which saw moderate success in the United States. The band split up soon after, and a compilation of material from the Little Monsters sessions, Wake Up the Neighbourhood, was released in 1999 through Batio's label M.A.C.E. Music.

After the breakup of Holland, Batio started his own eponymous band with singer Michael Cordet, bassist Allen Hearn and drummer Paul Cammarata. The Band did not release any albums, though three of their songs appeared on the 1998 Nitro compilation Gunnin' for Glory.

In 1987 Batio joined glam metal artist Jim Gillette on his solo album Proud to Be Loud, before founding the band Nitro with bassist T.J. Racer and drummer Bobby Rock. In 1989 Nitro released their first studio album, O.F.R., from which they released two singles, "Freight Train" and "Long Way From Home". The music video for "Freight Train", which received much airplay on MTV, was notable for featuring Batio playing his now famous 'Quad Guitar', a notion which FHM Magazine voted one of the "50 most outrageous moments in rock history".

1987 was also the year Batio released his first instructional video with "Star Licks Productions" as part of the "Masters Series" and was one of the first recognized rock guitarists to make the jump into video instructional material. This video was the very first "shred" instructional program showing many modern guitar concepts for the first time.

By 1992, Comet and Racer had been replaced by Johnny Thunder and Ralph Carter respectively, and it was in this year that they released their second studio album entitled Nitro II: H.W.D.W.S.. Included on the album was a cover of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever", which the band also recorded a music video for. Nitro disbanded shortly afterwards.

Solo career (1993–present)

In April 1993, Batio founded his own record label, M.A.C.E. Music, which became one of the first labels online in 1996. He used this label when he began recording his first album, No Boundaries, which he released in 1995. Batio's second studio release was Planet Gemini in 1997, which showed a very progressive, experimental side to his playing. In 1999, Batio released his second instructional video, Jam With Angelo, which came with his third studio album as a companion CD: Tradition. This was quickly followed by a fourth full-length album in 2000, Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity, which was credited to "Mike Batio and Rob Ross", the latter being the drummer.

In 2001, Batio released a CD with his band "C4," covering songs from his Holland years and including the original "Call to Arms." It was his 1st all vocal CD since recording with Nitro.

In 2003, Batio released his first DVD, the title release in his Speed Kills series, followed by the second, Speed Lives, in 2004. It was also in this year that Batio released a compilation album, Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity Part 2, which featured songs from Tradition and Lucid Intervals.

In 2005, Michael released his highly anticipated cover/tribute/studio album, Hands Without Shadows, which featured guest appearances from such musicians as Mark Tremonti (of Alter Bridge fame), Rudy Sarzo (of Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake and Dio fame) and virtuoso newcomer Bill Peck. In 2006, DVD Speed Kills 2 was released, in addition to the first in the new Hands Without Shadows series, Performance. Batio's latest release came in 2007, when his first two albums - No Boundaries and Planet Gemini - were remixed and remastered with additional drums, for an album entitled 2 X Again; the title of a song from the first album. Angelo also released three DVDs in 2007: Speed Kills 3, 25 Jazz Progressions and MAB Jam Session.

Film Appearance

In 1991, Batio's guitar work appeared in the low budget horror film Shock 'Em Dead, recording tracks for the soundtrack as well as playing the guitar parts of the demonically possessed main character Angel Martin in close ups.

Style

Batio is ambidextrous, a skill he taught himself. This enables him to play two guitars at the same time either in synchronization or using separate harmonies. This includes playing completely different parts at once, as shown while playing his famous Double-Guitar. Though naturally left-handed, he plays as right-handed when playing one guitar. Batio invented and often demonstrates the "Over-Under" technique, which involves flipping his fretting hand over and under the neck rapidly, playing the guitar both regularly and like a piano.

Batio gave lessons to guitarist Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame) while at college. Morello has credited MAB with teaching him in a feature article in Guitar World Magazine in 2005. Michael also gave lessons to guitarist Mark Tremonti after Creed broke up and Tremonti wanted to learn more techniques. Batio is also widely known for his extremely fast and well articulated alternate picking, which he credits to his use of anchoring, or planting the fingers he does not use while picking on the body of the guitar to restrict motion.

Batio has an advanced knowledge of music theory, having a deep understanding of complex scale combinations and time signatures which assist him in his compositions. Batio has cited F-sharp minor and F-sharp phrygian dominant as one of his favorite keys. He has described F sharp minor as a "demonic" key, giving a dark, evil sound.

Equipment

Guitars

Batio has an extensive collection of guitars, which he has collected since the 1980s including a Dave Bunker "Touch guitar" (double neck with both bass and guitar, similar to the Chapman Stick), a mint condition 1968 Fender Mustang, a 1986 Fender Stratocaster 1962 re-issue and several other vintage and custombuilt guitars. Among his custom made guitars is a 29 fret guitar made of military grade Aluminium, which makes the guitar very light. He stated in a Guitar World Magazine video interview (featuring his recording studio in 2008) that he has "around 67 guitars" and he humorously added that he would like 67 more. Batio currently has over 100 guitars in his collection. For live performances Batio is an exclusive user of Dean Guitars, both electric and acoustic. In 2007 he designed and developed a signature guitar with Dean, known as the MAB1 Armorflame. Another signature piece of equipment Batio developed is the "MAB Hands Without Shadows" pickup, which he uses in his Double Guitar when touring. The pickup is specially designed for shred guitar, and provides the clean tone Batio is accustomed to. The Armorflame, Batio's signature guitar, uses EMG 81, 85 and SA pickups, as his signature Dimarzio pickups were still being developed at that time.

Earlier on in his career when he was first endorsed by Dean guitars he also embraced Dean's tradition of popularising Dimarzio pickups and had used Dimarzios in his guitars. These include the Dimarzio PAF, Super Distortion (sometimes using the Super Distortion both in the neck and bridge position, as he did in his Gibson Charvel Circuit Board double guitar. This was the main setup during the recording of No Boundaries). Batio has also used pickups of other brands including Seymour Duncan, namely the Pearly Gates and JB models and also Bill Lawrence pickups. Currently other than using EMGs in his signature guitar he also has a collection of the other brand pickups in his Dean limited edition collectors' models, such as Dimarzio Custom Super Distortions (based on the Super 2 and Super Distortion) in his USA Dean Time capsule Blue Burst ML and the Seymour Duncan pair he used (refer to above) in his USA Dean Collectors edition Hardtail.

;The Double-Guitar Batio was the inventor of the Double-Guitar, a V-shaped, twin-neck guitar which can be played both right- and left-handed. The first version of this instrument was actually two separate guitars simply played together, as opposed to being one entity. A Flying V was fastened to a snare drum in a left-handed position, while another one was strapped around his shoulder. The next version of the guitar, as designed by Batio and guitar technician Kenny Breit, featured a flight case latch attached to the back of each guitar, which could reportedly be assembled in five seconds. In October 2003, Dean designed and built the "Mach 7 Jet", and on March 6, 2007, the newest version was delivered to Batio. The original Double went on display at the Chicago Hard Rock Cafe 'wall of fame' before it was relocated to a HRC in Egypt. Its whereabouts are currently unknown.

When the Double-Guitar was first used in concert, Batio noticed that the guitars created a lot of feedback when played together. He decided that he needed to invent a way to 'dampen' the strings when both guitars were played at the same time, hence the invention of the "MAB String Dampener", which is now available to buy from M.A.C.E. Music.

The Double-Guitar was recently named as the 8th "coolest guitar in rock" by online music magazine Gigwise.

;The Quad Guitar As well as the Double Guitar, Michael Angelo also invented and designed the Quad Guitar. The guitar was originally built in conjunction with Gibson, and built by Wayne Charvel in California. The top two guitars have seven strings, while the bottom two have the regular six. The first Quad, as used in the video for Nitro's "Freight Train", was stolen in El Paso, Texas after the second show of Nitro's O.F.R. tour. When Batio was performing in November 2004, a young fan named Simon Jones and his father turned up with a guitar case which held inside the two top guitars of the Quad, as found by Mick Seymour. Dean designed and built a new Quad Guitar in 2007.

The Quad Guitar was recently named as the 2nd "coolest guitar in rock" by online music magazine Gigwise.

Effects

Batio's effects pedals are exclusively made by T-Rex, with whom he has also developed a signature model, the "MAB Overdrive". In his years with Nitro, Batio used Boss overdrive (DS-1, SD-1) pedals.

In the studio, Michael also uses the following effects pedals:

Vintage Digitech Whammy

Dunlop Cry Baby

Vintage Digitech 256 multifx

Eventide Eclipse

Rocktron Chameleon Pre amp

Rocktron Voodoo Valve Pre amp

Rocktron Intellifex

Rocktron Replifex

Amplification

Batio typically uses Marshall JCM 2000 amps on tour and for newer studio records. In the studio, he also uses the Marshall JMP-1 preamp and Rocktron Chameleon and Voodoo Valve preamps. During his years with Nitro, Batio used Randall amplifiers. He has been an avid Marshall amp user throughout his career and has used the JCM 800 (mostly Jose Arrendondo modified circuitry, very early in his career) and JCM 900 (especially when recording No Boundaries). Batio's cabinet setup consists of 4x12 Marshall cabinets loaded with Celeston vintage 30s and Greenbacks in mono and stereo.

Other equipment

;Strings Batio uses Ernie Ball guitar strings, favouring the .009 to .042 models for soloing and most rhythm guitar parts while thicker gauge strings are used for detuned guitars. The acoustic gauge is normally .010 to .046 or .011 to .052.

;Picks Michael uses black Dunlop Jazz IIIs as his guitar pick of choice, and has used the 'teardrop' shape of pick since he first started playing. Different picks are sometimes used for acoustic work.

Solo discography

No Boundaries (1995)

Planet Gemini (1997)

Tradition (1998)

Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity (2000)

Hands Without Shadows (2005)

Hands Without Shadows 2: Voices (2009)

Backing Tracks (2010)

References

External links

Official forum

Michael Angelo Batio at Dean Guitars

Michael Angelo Batio at Encyclopaedia Metallum

Category:American rock guitarists Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:American heavy metal guitarists Category:Living people Category:Nitro (band) members Category:Northeastern Illinois University alumni Category:1956 births Category:Lead guitarists Category:Ambidextrous

de:Michael Angelo Batio es:Michael Angelo Batio fa:مایکل آنجلو بتیو fr:Michael Angelo Batio it:Michael Angelo Batio he:מייקל אנג'לו באטיו hu:Michael Angelo Batio nl:Michael Angelo Batio ja:マイケル・アンジェロ no:Michael Angelo Batio pl:Michael Angelo Batio pt:Michael Angelo Batio fi:Michael Angelo Batio