Guitar
(गिटार)The guitar is a six-string fretted chordophone from Spain that entered Indian music through colonial drawing rooms and film studios, later adopted into Hindustani classical music by Brij Bhushan Kabra and into Carnatic performance by Prasanna.
1
2
£80 - £3,000
Student models from £80 (Yamaha F310, Fender CD-60S); mid-range study instruments £300–£800; professional acoustics from Martin, Taylor, or specialist luthiers from £1,000.
History & Origins
The guitar descends from the vihuela and the four-course guitar that circulated in Spain and Italy during the 16th century. Luthiers added a fifth and then a sixth course through the 17th and early 18th centuries, reaching the six-string configuration Gaetano Vinaccia established in Naples by around 1779. Antonio Torres Jurado's innovations in 19th-century Seville, including fan bracing, a wider body, and a longer scale length, set the blueprint modern classical guitars still follow. The steel-string acoustic developed separately in the United States in the late 19th century, built for the volume demands of parlour and barn dance playing.
European colonialism brought the guitar to India's coastal cities during the 17th and 18th centuries. Goa, under Portuguese administration for over four hundred years, developed the deepest guitar culture on the subcontinent: local musicians integrated it into church music, Konkani folk song, and social dance. Acoustic guitars reached anglicised households in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras during the 19th century. From the 1930s onward, film studio orchestras in Bombay employed session guitarists, and the instrument became familiar to urban Indian audiences through film songs.
Brij Bhushan Kabra, trained under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, brought the guitar into formal Hindustani classical performance. His 1967 album Call of the Valley, with Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma, established the instrument's credentials in raga and shaped a generation of players. Prasanna, from the 1990s onward, built a rigorous methodology for Carnatic music on the electric guitar, performing at Chennai festivals and teaching internationally. The guitar's frets allow string bending for meend and gamaka; its range suits both melody and rhythm; and its global familiarity lowers the barrier to entry.
Construction & Craftsmanship
Materials Used
Construction Process
Acoustic guitar tops use spruce or cedar as the soundboard, braced internally with wooden struts. Classical guitars use fan bracing: angled struts radiating outward from below the soundhole, suited to nylon strings' lower tension. Steel-string acoustics use X-bracing, a cross of two main struts that stiffens the top against metal string tension while allowing acoustic projection. Mahogany or rosewood back and sides reflect sound within the body cavity, colouring the tone before it exits the soundhole. Luthiers voice each top by tapping and listening, adjusting brace height until the resonant quality they want is present.
Three components transfer string energy into the top. Bridge pins anchor steel strings into the bridge plate beneath the top. The saddle, a narrow strip of bone or synthetic material, contacts the strings and sets action height and intonation compensation. The bridge plate beneath the top spreads the strings' rotational pull across a wider area of wood to prevent tearing. At the headstock, the nut does the same work at the open-string end: bone nuts give better sustain than plastic, and precise slot depth eliminates open-string buzzing.
Electric guitars use pickups positioned beneath each string. A vibrating string disturbs the magnetic field around the pickup's pole pieces, inducing a small alternating current that the amplifier shapes into sound. Single-coil pickups deliver detail and brightness but pick up electromagnetic interference as a hum. Humbuckers wire two coils out of phase to cancel that noise and produce a fuller character. The neck joint, whether glued, bolted, or continuous with the body, affects how vibration transfers between neck and body and how long notes sustain.
Maintenance & Care
- Keep the case humidity between 45 and 55 percent. Use a soundhole humidifier in dry months; use silica gel packets during the monsoon. A digital hygrometer inside the case tells you where humidity sits. A cracked top or loose brace needs a technician.
- Wipe each string along the underside with a dry microfibre cloth after every session. Coated strings (Elixir, D'Addario EXP) last longer in humid conditions. Change strings every four to six weeks, sooner in monsoon months or if your hands sweat heavily.
- When changing strings, clean the fretboard with a dry cloth and oil unfinished rosewood or ebony boards two to three times a year.
- The truss rod controls neck relief. Fret buzz in lower positions or rising action in upper positions signals it needs adjustment. Turn a quarter increment at a time and wait 24 hours before checking again.
- Have a technician adjust intonation whenever string gauge changes and service the instrument once a year.
Playing Techniques
Krintan (Hammer-on/Pull-off)
IntermediateA finger-plucking technique where the left hand produces notes without a plectrum stroke, essential for rapid, ornamented passages.
Gamaka (Oscillation)
AdvanceExecuting traditional microtonal oscillations and ornaments essential to the authentic character of a Raga.
String Bending
IntermediatePress a fret and push the string toward the bass strings, or pull it toward the floor. Pitch rises as string tension increases. A full-tone bend raises the note two semitones; a minor-third bend goes three. Indian classical players sustain these bends for several seconds, matching the glide a sitarist achieves by pulling strings laterally across the fret.
Clean bending needs the right setup. Gauges of 0.010 or lighter reduce left-hand effort. Action of 1.8 to 2.2 mm at the 12th fret lets the string move without pressing against adjacent frets. Fretboards with a 12-inch radius or flatter allow wider bends without notes choking out.
Fingerpicking
BeginnerThe thumb handles bass strings; the index, middle, and ring fingers cover the treble strings. Indian classical players hold the open Sa string as a continuous drone while the melody moves above it. Brij Bhushan Kabra used this approach throughout raga elaboration, keeping the tonic present without the rhythmic interruption a plectrum stroke introduces.
Tone varies with right-hand contact. Nails give brightness and attack; bare flesh gives warmth and less definition. Most Indian classical guitarists strike bass strings with the side of the nail and treble strings with the fingertip.
Plectrum Picking
BeginnerA flat pick held between thumb and index finger delivers consistent force on each string. Film studio guitarists use pick technique for the rhythmic precision Hindi film arrangements demand. For fast single-note lines in fusion and raga-jazz, the pick's sharper transient makes quick passages more distinct than a finger stroke at speed.
Technical Specifications
Detailed specifications for the Guitar
Physical Dimensions
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Overall Length (Acoustic) | 965mm – 1030mm (38 – 40.5 inches) |
| Body Length | 480mm – 510mm (19 – 20 inches) |
| Body Width (Lower Bout) | 360mm – 410mm (14 – 16 inches) |
| Body Depth | 90mm – 110mm (3.5 – 4.5 inches) |
| Scale Length | 628mm – 650mm (24.75 – 25.5 inches) |
| Total Weight | 1.5kg – 4.5kg (acoustic to solid-body electric) |
Body Construction & Tonewoods
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Soundboard (Top) | Spruce (Engelmann, Sitka) or cedar |
| Back & Sides | Mahogany, rosewood, sapele, or koa |
| Internal Bracing | Fan bracing (classical); X-bracing (steel-string acoustic) |
| Electric Body Wood | Alder, ash, mahogany, or semi-hollow maple |
| Body Binding | Plastic, tortoiseshell, or wood purfling |
| Surface Finish | Nitrocellulose lacquer (vintage) or polyester/polyurethane |
Neck, Fretboard & Action
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Neck Material | Mahogany, maple, or multi-piece laminate |
| Fretboard Material | Rosewood, ebony, or maple |
| Fret Count | 19 – 22 frets (acoustic); 21 – 24 frets (electric) |
| Nut Width | 43mm – 48mm (classical); 41mm – 43mm (steel-string) |
| Action Height (12th fret) | 1.6mm – 2.2mm treble side; up to 3mm for Indian classical bending |
| Truss Rod | Adjustable steel rod; controls neck relief against string tension |
String & Tuning Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard Tuning | E2 – A2 – D3 – G3 – B3 – E4 (low to high) |
| String Count | 6 (standard); 12 for 12-string variants |
| Acoustic Gauges | 0.011 – 0.052 (light); 0.012 – 0.053 (medium) |
| Classical String Material | Nylon (treble); silver-wound nylon (bass) |
| Electric Gauges | 0.009 – 0.042 (super light); 0.010 – 0.046 (regular) |
| Electric String Material | Nickel-wound or stainless steel over steel core |
Acoustic & Electronic Characteristics
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Frequency Range | ~82 Hz (low E) – 5 kHz (upper harmonics) |
| Pickup Type | Single-coil, humbucker, or piezo (acoustic-electric) |
| Output Level | 100mV – 300mV RMS (passive pickups) |
| Tonal Bend Range | Up to minor third (3 semitones) for Indian classical gamaka |
| Sustain | 3 – 6 seconds (acoustic); 6 – 15 seconds (electric with amplifier) |
Your Journey to Guitar Mastery
Follow this structured path from absolute beginner to accomplished performer
Foundation & Posture
Scale Practice & Sargam
Raga Structure & Grammar
Compositions & Taal
Advanced Improvisation
Media Gallery
Watch performances, see details, and explore the Guitar in action
Featured Artists
Renowned Guitar players and performers
Giuliano Modarelli
Past Events
Browse our archive of past performances
Reading Raga Resonance: Slide & Strum on The Mystic Frets
Norwich Ragas: Slide & Strum on The Mystic Frets
Ready to start learning Guitar?
Get personalized quotes and explore courses