Electro Acoustic Classical Guitar: A tip for when choosing your instrument

Even if you’re a compete beginner when it comes to guitar (and if you are, well done for making the decision to learn!), I expect you already know what an acoustic guitar is, and probably also what an electro acoustic guitar is. So what’s the difference between this, and an electro acoustic classical guitar?

Well firstly here’s a little background information on how electro acoustic guitars work. As you probably know, they’re extremely similar to standard acoustic instruments, but they have the added benefit of having an in-built pickup. If you’re a professional musician or even just an amateur performer, not having to use a microphone to play acoustic songs can be a huge benefit (if you’ve ever had to set up a stage before a gig, you’ll know exactly what I mean).

A standard guitar has metal (usually steel-cored) stings. This means that a standard magnetic pickup will detect the magnetic resonance from the strings and it’s pretty easy to have the amp produce a fairly accurate representation of the sound. However, a classical guitar has nylon strings, so there simply is no magnetic resonance.

Manufacturers instead usually use a combination of a piezoelectric pickup and specially made microphones. This is where you have to be careful when you’re thinking about buying an electro acoustic classical guitar: The instrument may be great, with good quality wood, easy to play neck, great sound etc. However, if the pickup & microphone combination hasn’t been well thought out, the amplified sound may surprise you and may not be as accurate a representation of the original sound as you’d like.

When you’re in the music shop trying out the guitars, don’t just rely on the sound of the non-amplified instrument; always ask to plug it into an amp to see if you like the amplified sound as well an the non-amplified sound.