Fingerstyle Guitar is the method by which the music is played and not the instrument itself. Fingerstyle is just that, a method of playing music with the fingers. It is a method of playing the instrument.
A good fingerpicker will use all the fingers on his or her right hand when playing fingerstyle. The more popular way to play a guitar is with a pick. Fingerstyle music can sound like a full band with several parts playing at once. Fingerstyle can be played on any guitar however there are some instruments that are more suited to it. A fingerstyle guitar is usually but not always an
acoustic guitar. Chet Atkins made the big electric Gretsch famous with his fingerpicking hits. Most music that is not of the classical genre is played on steel string guitars.
Fingerstyle Guitar is often used as accompaniment for singing which makes it a popular form with folk, blues, country and pop singers because it works well for the solo artist that does not travel with a band.Jazz, smooth jazz, and new age music are all perfect for fingerstyle guitar playing. Classical guitarists have been playing solo instrumental music for centuries.
This brings us back to the question of the fingerstyle guitar itself. The classical guitar is the closest thing to a fingerstyle guitar. This instrument is made to be played with fingers instead of a pick. The classical instrument has always been a nylon string (or cat gut before there was nylon) acoustic guitar. Recently several companies have introduced a thin bodied electric version but they are still rare. The tonewoods, that is the woods that make up the top, sides, and back of the guitar, are selected for the way they enhance the classical fingerstyle playing. The neck is often much wider than that of a steel string guitars so that the artists picking fingers can grab
individual strings. Instruments made for playing classical music will often have a nut width of 2 1/2 inches. Most steel string guitars that are constructed for fingerstyle playing have have 1 3/4 inch width at the nut. Most other steel string guitars are slightly smaller, usually 1 11/16 inch nut width. I say usually and most to let you know that there always be different strokes for different folks. Hopefully this has given the reader an idea as to what constitutes a fingerstyle acoustic guitar.