The standard guitar has a range of just over 3 and a half octaves which is small compared to the range of a piano or symphony orchestra of 7 to 8 octaves. One of the attractions of the classical guitar is its ability to produce an infinite variety of tones and quality of notes, however the range puts a limitation on the arrangement or number of pieces that can be played.

By incorporating specialist guitars into the ensemble an increased range and different ‘colours’ can be achieved. This creates the opportunity to play pieces that were written for an orchestra or have been specifically composed for the guitar orchestra.

The full WAGO ensemble has four specialist guitars highlighted in bold in the table below (equivalent voice parts shown in brackets) and a number of standard guitars (prime guitars) which are owned by members of WAGO. Elsewhere there are other guitars available for ensemble playing; these are included for completeness but are not used in the WAGO ensemble and are shown in italics.

Instrument	Notes (bottom to top)	Compared to prime guitar
Soprano, octave, piccolo –(Soprano)	E A D G B E 165 – 659 Hz	An octave up
Quint –( Alto)	B E A D F# B 123 – 494 Hz	A fifth up
Requinto, quart – (Treble)	A D G C E A 110 – 440 Hz	A fourth up
Terz	G C F Bb D G 98 – 392 Hz	A minor third up
Prime – (Tenor)	E A D G B E 82 – 330 Hz	(at pitch)
Bass, quart bass, baritone (*)	B E A D F# B 62 – 247 Hz	A fourth down
Baritone (*), quint bass, guitarron in A	A D G C E A 55 – 220 Hz	A fifth down
Contra, octave bass, guitarron in E- (Contrabass)	E A D G B E 41 – 163 Hz	An octave down