Nylon String Acoustic Guitars vs

[Emma]

What Are Nylon String Acoustic Guitars?
The original acoustic guitars were quite similar to today’s nylon string guitars. Classical guitars, Spanish guitars, and their various derivations all fit the “nylon string” category. Here are some of their key characteristics:

The guitars are made of hollow wood with a large sound hole. The species of wood used varies from guitar to guitar, but spruce is the most popular material for the top panel.
These guitars typically have wide, flat necks that allow the guitar strings to be spaced fairly far apart. Neck materials also vary, but rosewood is a popular material.
Nylon string guitars have a mellow tone with strong resonance in lower-mid frequencies.
Traditionally, the strings of these guitars were made with “catgut” (literally dried cat intestines), but nylon is the prevailing material today.


What Are Steel String Acoustic Guitars?
The category of steel string guitars is even wider than its nylon counterpart.
This category includes most of the acoustic guitars used in rock, folk, country, and bluegrass music.
The body construction is similar to a nylon string guitar, but with more frequent deviations in body shape and size. The names of these guitar shapes are, from smallest to largest: Range, Parlor, Grand Concert, Auditorium, Dreadnought, Jumbo.
Dreadnaught is the most popular shape among contemporary acoustic guitarists. Martin Guitars is particularly known for its dreadnaught models, as is Gibson. A rival brand, Taylor, has made more of a name with its grand concert and auditorium style guitars.
Spruce tops are almost the uniform standard. Some acoustics (particularly those made by the Ovation brand) feature rounded plastic backs.
Some steel guitars are made of metal, such as the resonator guitar. But these instruments, which are played with a slide, are less commonly used by beginners.
The necks tend to be narrower and more rounded than on nylon string guitars. Most necks are rosewood, although pau ferro is another popular wood.
Despite the category name, “steel string” guitars may feature strings made of nickel, aluminum, and other metals.
The metal strings give these guitars a much brighter, treble-focused sound that projects at louder volumes.