Nylon Strings
Definition:
While steel-string acoustic guitar strings and electric guitar strings are made of metal, modern classical guitar strings are made of nylon and nylon wound with wire, which produces a different sound to the metal strings. Classical guitar strings were originally made with animal intestine and silk wound with animal intestine up until World War II, when war restrictions led Albert Augustine Ltd. to develop nylon strings.
Nylon guitar strings were put into production in 1948. Strings made from fluorocarbon polymers have since been developed and are the main alternative to nylon strings. 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.
Since the development of nylon guitar strings by Albert Augustine Ltd. in 1948, the three treble strings are a single nylon filament, while the three bass strings are made of a core of fine nylon threadlike filaments wound with silver-plated bronze or copper wire.
Other Guitar Term
A piece of leather or fabric worn to support the guitar when standing. Straps attach to the button-like connectors on the sides of the guitar body. Some acoustic guitars that do not have the connector at the top end of the body require a small band that loops around the the headstock of the guitar just above the nut. This band allows for a guitar strap to connect to the top half of the guitar.
Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E, A, D, G, B, and E, from lowest (low E2) to highest (high E4). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning. There are hundreds of such tunings, often minor variants of established tunings.
Scale length refers to the distance between a guitar’s nut and its bridge. So in other words, a guitar’s scale length is determined by the gap between the two main components that seat its strings. It can therefore be thought of as the measurement of the maximum sounding length of a guitar’s strings. (https://blog.andertons.co.uk)
The guitar saddle can be a piece of bone or plastic on an acoustic guitar and a metal construct on electric guitars that is attached to the bridge and lifts the strings to the desired height transfering vibration through the bridge to the soundboard. The height of the saddle raises or lowers the action of the strings of the guitar.
An open string is any string that is played without fretting a note (placing any finger on the freboard).