Traditional

The three treble guitar strings are made from sheep or cow intestine, referred to as plain gut, while the three bass strings are made of a silk thread core wound with gut.

Modern

Since the development of nylon guitar strings by Albert Augustine Ltd.

Albert Augustine Ltd.

Albert Augustine Ltd. is the originator of and currently a manufacturer of nylon classical guitar strings. In addition, the company supports the classical guitar and guitarists by presenting several annual New York guitar series at the Manhattan School of Music, the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute...

, the three treble strings are one piece plastic line, usually nylon filament, while the three bass strings are made of a core of fine plastic threads wound with bronze wire or silver plated copper wire.

String Vibration

It is these factors of the guitar that allow it to produce the specific sounds required to create music. In order to understand music and how guitars produce it, it is helpful to understand the physics of sound. Sound is created when the vibration of material bodies causes energy to propagate in pressure waves through a medium, usually air. All forms of musical instruments create vibrations in order to produce the sound waves that make music. Guitars are a type of musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

 called string instrument

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

s, meaning that they create their sound through the vibrations of a string

Vibrating string

A vibration in a string is a wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a sound whose frequency in most cases is constant. Therefore, since frequency characterizes the pitch, the sound produced is a constant note....

. Vibrating strings on a guitar are fixed at both ends and are elastic. When a guitar string is either strummed or plucked, vibrations in the form of waves travel in both directions along the string and are reflected back at each fixed end. These waves do not cancel each other out as they reflect back upon themselves, but instead form a standing wave

Standing wave

In physics, a standing wave – also known as a stationary wave – is a wave that remains in a constant position.This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction to the wave, or it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two waves traveling...

 where crests and troughs remain at fixed positions while the displacement of the envelope of the wave as a whole increases and decreases.

The guitar strings act in such a way that they can satisfy the relationship between wavelength

Wavelength

In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a...

 and frequency

Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...

, represented by the equation v = fλ . This equation can be rearranged to f = v/λ, meaning that the frequency of a wave (f) is dependent on both the velocity of the wave (v), and the length of the wave (λ). As well, the velocity of the wave traveling on the guitar string depends on the tension of the string

Tension (mechanics)

In physics, tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar object on another object. It is the opposite of compression. As tension is the magnitude of a force, it is measured in newtons and is always measured parallel to the string on which it applies...

 (T) and the linear mass density of the string (µ), in fact, “the root frequency for a string is proportional

Proportionality (mathematics)

In mathematics, two variable quantities are proportional if one of them is always the product of the other and a constant quantity, called the coefficient of proportionality or proportionality constant. In other words, are proportional if the ratio \tfrac yx is constant. We also say that one...

 to the square root of the tension, inversely proportional to its length, and inversely proportional to the square root of its linear mass density” . This means that waves will travel faster when the tension of the string is higher and in turn means that the frequency will be higher as the tension is increased (f = v/λ, the v is increasing).

This also means that waves will travel slower on a more massive string, since if the mass is increased, the v will decrease. This relationship between the speed, tension, and mass density can be arranged into a new equation, v = sqrt(T/µ).

When a standing wave vibrates its physical components, the incident and reflected waves, interfere with each other. When this interaction occurs the medium appears to vibrate in segments separated by nodal points and it is not visually apparent that the whole wave is traveling. Since a guitar

Guitar

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...

 string has two fixed ends it will behave as a standing wave when either plucked or strummed. The longest wavelength that a string can produce is twice the length of the string.

Mass density is the only other factor that can be significantly and easily changed, a fact easily verified by noting the different thicknesses of guitar strings. Nevertheless guitars are constructed so that the tension of the strings, as well as their mass, are increased together. As a result, strings are made so that the higher the required frequency, the less mass the string will have, as higher frequencies require a higher tension. The less mass they have the less tension is needed to achieve the same frequency. It follows that the lower the required frequency, the higher the mass of the string, since a lower tension produces lower frequencies. The greater the mass of a string, the more tension is required. In standard tuning the strings on the guitar are a perfect fourth apart in pitch (except between G and B), therefore the change in mass required such that the tension remains constant can be calculated.

History

Up until the Second World War animal gut and silk were the materials from which guitar strings were manufactured. Albert Augustine, an instrument maker from New York, USA, was the first to produce guitar strings in Nylon

Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...

. According to Rose Augustine, his wife, he was unable to secure source materials due to the war restrictions and happened upon nylon line in an army surplus store in Greenwich Village. When initially approached by him the DuPont

DuPont

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...

 company, who manufactured the material, were unconvinced that guitarists would accept nylon's sonic characteristics. Augustine staged a blind test with company representatives from DuPont, they happened to choose nylon over gut as having the best "guitar sound". The DuPont company then supported Augustine's initiative. Augustine classical guitar strings were first commercially manufactured in 1948, in conjunction with Olinto Mari, President of E.& O. Mari/La Bella Strings at their factory in Long Island City New York. When Andrés Segovia

Andrés Segovia

Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...

, the great Spanish guitar virtuoso, discovered Augustine's strings he was an immediate convert.

Fluorocarbon

Fluorocarbon

Fluorocarbons, sometimes referred to as perfluorocarbons or PFCs, are organofluorine compounds that contain only carbon and fluorine bonded together in strong carbon–fluorine bonds. Fluoroalkanes that contain only single bonds are more chemically and thermally stable than alkanes...

 polymers have recently become an alternative to nylon treble strings. The sound is preferred by some luthiers and players, especially for the smooth transition provided by the G string from treble to bass.

List of classical guitar strings makers

• Adagio
• Adamas
• Aquila USA
• Aranjuez
• Augustine
• Black Diamond
• C.F. Martin
• Conde Hermanos
  Conde Hermanos
  Hermanos Conde are world famous luthiers of classical and flamenco guitars.The Conde dynasty was founded by Domingo Esteso in 1915 in Madrid.Esteso in turn trained his nephews Faustino andMariano Conde Sr...
  
  
• D'Addario
  D'Addario
  D'Addario is a manufacturer of musical instrument strings, primarily guitar strings, currently headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York...
  
  
• D'Angelico
• D'Aquisto
• Darco
• Dean Markley
• DR Strings
• Ernie Ball
  Ernie Ball
  Ernie Ball was an American entrepreneur, musician, and innovator, widely acclaimed as a revolutionary in the development of guitar-related products. He began as a club and local television musician and small business entrepreneur, building an international business in guitars and accessories that...
  
  
• Fender
• Galli Strings, Since 1890, Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
  
• GHS
  GHS (strings)
  GHS Strings is a Battle Creek, Michigan based guitar and bass guitar string manufacturer. The company was founded in 1964, and in 1975 was bought by Robert McFee, who is still the CEO...
  
  
• Hannabach, Since 1869, Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
  
• Hermann Hauser
• John Pearse
• José Ramírez
  José Ramírez
  Ramírez Guitars is a Spanish manufacturer of high-quality classical and flamenco guitars.-History:Ramírez guitars have now been produced by four generations of the family....
  
  
• Ken Smith
• La Bella Since 1640 (Salle,Italy)
• Luthier
• RotoSound
• Savarez (France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
  )
• Sfarzo
• S I T Strings
• Thomastik-Infeld
• Yamaha
  Yamaha
  Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
  
  

External links

• http://www.lacg.net/artistpage_hoppstock.htm Tilman Hoppstock
  Tilman Hoppstock
  -Biography:He studied both guitar and cello in Darmstadt and Cologne. His concert career began in 1978. He has made several radio, television and commercial recordings, both solo and with other musicians including the pianist Alexis Weissenberg, tenor Christoph Prégardien, cellist Peter Wolf and...
  
  - 2006 Interview with lacg (Los Angeles Classical Guitar)
• How to Select the Best Classical Guitar Strings by Tom Prisloe
• The Guitar String Jungle. Are You Judging A Book By The Cover? Article about how guitar strings are marketed, written by Professor String
• ProfessorString.com Guitar string research
• Changing Classical Guitar Strings By Peter Kun Frary, Professor of Music • University of Hawaii, Leeward
• Restring Your Guitar By Frank Ford.
• Safety First! when re-stringing your guitar
• http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Strings/Strings/strings01.html A quick look at the composition of Strings, Frank Ford, 5/18/00.