Guitar Size
For acoustic guitars the sound quality will be mostly determined by the guitar size and the body shape. When we are talking about the sound quality it covers both of the volume and tonal quality. Another factor that plays an important role is the guitar materials.
Generally there are 4 different guitar sizes: 1/4-size, 1/2-size, 3/4-size and 4/4 or full size. Note that the size is not based on the guitar overall length but the length measured from the guitar nut to the guitar bridge (the scale length).
As a general guide, a full size guitar normally will have 25” scale length, while the 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 will have 23”, 21” and 19” scale length. These numbers are average and may vary slightly.
The optimal size of a guitar is always a compromise between comfort and sound quality and stability. The smaller the guitar body the more difficult it would be to get a good quality of low tones. The shorter the scale the trickier it is to get a stable pitch and intonation. Due to this reason smaller guitars don’t necessarily be cheaper than the full size ones.
Here is a rough guide of the guitar size:
The table above compromise between the player’s age and height so you must decide which parameter fits better. To me the height is more important because the taller the player the bigger guitar he can play.
Reducing guitar size will also reduce the guitar sound volume because the resonator box is smaller compared to the full-size guitar. They also tend to have more treble sound, although the guitar materials also have some contribution here.
It is much easier for a young child to play an appropriate sized guitar. I don’t recommend children to learn to play guitar on a full-size one because they can easily develop poor posture which can be difficult to rectify. They may also develop bad fretting fingers position because their small fingers can’t reach the whole strings. All of these problems should be avoided starting from the earliest stage of their guitar journey.
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin
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