There are six strings on the traditional acoustic guitar. Strings come in several different weights or “gauges” The gauge refers to the thickness of the string, in millimeters. You can get light, extra light, medium, etc.Whether you use a light or heavy gauge string is largely a matter of personal preference. As a beginner, you’ll do just fine with a medium gauge string. As you progress in your study of the guitar and get into string bending and the like, you can always restring the guitar using a lighter gauge.
Whether you use a light or heavy gauge string, all six strings in the package will come in varying thickness. There are usually three heavy strings, which are wound with copper or bronze and three unwound steel strings (although, depending on the manufacturer, there may only be two plain, unwound steel strings). The heavier (thicker) the string, the less frequent the vibration is when the string is plucked. This will produce a sound of a lower pitch.
The strings are numbered on the guitar, starting from the string closest to the floor when you hold the guitar in a playing position. The strings are also given names, derived from the musical note that is produced when the guitar has been properly tuned. Strings on a guitar tuned to standard pitch would be named as follows:
1 = E, 2 = B, 3 = G, 4 = D, 5 = A, 6 = E
If you look at the diagram, you’ll get a better understanding of how the names and numbers are related. The heaviest, wound strings (E, A, D) are usually referred to as the bass strings because they produce the lowest sounding notes when the strings are plucked “open”. The bottom three (G, B, E) are called the treble strings.
Note: The numbers of the strings will remain the same no matter how the guitar is tuned. The names, on the other hand, will be different if you are using “Dropped D” tuning, for example, as opposed to standard pitch. This is not something you need to concern yourself with at this point.
