Guitars for fingerpicking - GuitarNick

By Nicola Mandorino

What is the guitar more suited to fingerpicking? The answer is very simple: all of them.

Obviously the most used by fingerpicking guitarists in recent decades has been the acoustic guitar, but you will find many records in which they have also used classical guitars, electric and even semiacoustic electric solid body such as the Fender Telecaster.
Of course every type of guitar produces its own characteristic sound, but all can be used for fingerpicking. Chet Atkins used a lot especially in the Gibson and Gretsch semiacoustic and left us too many recordings of songs played with classical guitar, including a wonderful version of Black Mountain Rag.

Beyond the speech tone should be some consideration with regard to comfort with which we can embrace a type of guitar over another. While classical guitars and semiacoustic is quite comfortably embrace the same thing can not be said for certain types of acoustic guitars, like the Dreadnought, which are played by sitting quite uncomfortable.
In particular, the Dreadnought were born at the beginning of last century as a means to play a plectrum in the band and folk music were designed at a fairly large body so as to produce a volume that can stand comparison with the banjo and other instruments. It's a type of guitar that produces a very powerful sound full of bass, and these characteristics are preferred by many musicians fingerpicking though not born specifically for this style, and his body is rather bulky uncomfortable especially when playing seated. The most famous of this type of guitar is the Martin D-18 and D-28.

Subsequently, the Martin guitars made by the body as small and winding, easier to embrace, and therefore particularly suited to fingerstyle. They are of various shapes and sizes and are identified by Martin with the symbols 00, 000, OM and M, while manufacturers such as Taylor and others call today to cash guitars smallest Grand Auditorium or Grand Concert.
All these guitars have a more balanced sound of a Dreadnought, oriented more toward the middle and towards the high and low are preferred by a large crowd of fingerstyle guitar is because they are also very comfortable playing seated, and is notable for the sound projection have in practice is also a strong feeling considerable distance for the diffusion of high frequencies that produce high rating.