Body of the guitar

The body of the guitar can be seen in the figure below.

 It is different for an electric guitar and different for an acoustic guitar. The body of an acoustic guitar is hollow. The hollow dome is required so that the sound of the strings can accumulate their and pronounce itself to an easily audible level. When you strike the strings with a plectrum, the vibrations produced by the strings travels into the sound hole of the guitar body and strikes the inner surface of the guitar body in different directions. Some part of the vibrations is also absorbed by the body of the guitar itself and hence the guitar body also vibrates. The body of the guitar reflects the sound waves which combine together to produce an overall effect. As the whole mechanism of sound production in an acoustic guitar depends very much on the body of the guitar, one must be very careful with the type and quality of wood used for making it. I am not saying that rosewood is inferior than spruce. But each kind of wood has a different quality and hence each adds a different flavor to the notes you play. For example you will find that the spruce bodies produce brighter sound than the rosewood bodies. But the choice is yours. If you love brighter sound go for spruce body. For a little bit mellower quality as compared to spruce, go for rosewood. No one is superior; it’s just that each one has different applications. Beginners should not bother much on this. Both are good to them.

Moving on to the electric guitar bodies, you may find that they are made from alder, rosewood, basswood, maple and many more. In an electric guitar, the body wood does not affect the sound to any significant level. So the body wood does not matter much. It may matter when it comes to weight of the guitar, as lighter guitar bodies are easier to hold and hang on the shoulder.