Over the centuries, the concept of music has remained largely an integral part of social and economic interactions within human culture. Of all the contributing instruments, the guitar is one of the most complex and widely used across all musical genres. Some records suggest that the guitar has even been used since the time of the Babylonians (Findlay 3). That said, the guitar is also one of the most elaborate instruments to build, with the greatest number of factors and variables involved in construction. The most important variable concerns the materials chosen to create the instrument. Contrary to popular belief, the quality of materials used to construct a guitar greatly affects its sound. The topic of materials and components has been debated among stringed instrument enthusiasts and luthiers for decades. The driving force that allows materials to affect the resonance of the guitar so immensely is the design of the guitar; this allows the physics of sound to create most of the natural sound of the instrument. It seems that simply choosing the most expensive parts for a guitar will result in the most expensive sounding guitar, although this statement is rather incorrect. The prerequisite information that goes into building a superior stringed instrument is an understanding of the physics of sound, rather than just a fat wallet. First of all, we must ask ourselves: “What is sound?” Sound is a vibration that propagates in the form of a mechanical wave of pressure and displacement through a given medium. In most cases, wood and air are the primary mids of a guitar (Hokin 1). Simply, sound is a wave that pushes (compression) and expands (rarefaction) the molecules around it. Each wave is different in shape and length, and thus sets a different tone....... middle of paper...... but this proves inconclusive (Lamb par 2). The problem is that by trying to isolate one variable from the aesthetics of the guitar, all other variables are ignored and behave differently than usual. What type of wood did he use? Did he use maple, alder, spruce, basswood or something else? All woods may have given different results. What type of pickups, strings, necks or bridges were used? It is comparable to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in atomic theory; we can know the location of an electron, but never its speed, or vice versa. This is why guitar building is such a troubleshooting profession; no singular part will make the difference, rather it is the relationship between all the parts that merge to create the voice of the instrument. This is why the quality of all components, not the price of a part, greatly affects the music of a guitar..