Guitarists know a lot about their instruments—techniques,
chords, songs etc. But what many guitarists don’t know is
the history of the guitar. It’s understandable, because
many people don’t feel this helps at all in actually playing
the Guitar.Still, it is helpful to know everything
about the instrument—
including the history.The history of guitar is a debatable topic,
as there are no concrete facts about the guitar and when
exactly it first appeared. What is known, though,
is that guitars or similar instruments have been
around for over 5,000 years.
Entire books could be written about the history of guitar,
so in this article, we’ll just go over a timeline of
How it is thought the guitar evolved.
• 1400 B.C: The Hittites play a four-string, Guitar-like instrument.
This four string instrument had soft, curved sides, which were
somewhat similar to the current guitar. Also around this time,
the Greeks produced a similar instrument which was modified
by the Romans and became known as the cithara.
• By 1200 A.D.: There were two types of Guitars. One type was
known as the Moorish guitar (guitarra morisca).
This guitar had a wide fingerboard, rounded back,
and several sound holes. The type of guitar was the
Latin guitar (guitarra Latina).
The Latin guitar looked more like our current guitar
with a narrower neck and just one sound hole.
• The late 1400’s: A new Guitar, called the vihuela,
evolved from the two types of guitar mentioned.
The vihuela was a large instrument with double the strings
of the Latin and Moorish guitars, a longer neck and ten or
eleven frets. The Portuguese and Spanish courts preferred the
vihuela over any other instrument for roughly 200 years.
• Until the late 1600’s: The vihuela, and another instrument
called the lute, were more popular than the guitar.
This changed when the popularity of the lute declined because
it had too many strings and was too hard to play and tune.
The vihuela was replaced by four and five course guitars
of that time. Four course guitars had seven strings—a single
high string and three pairs of other strings—while five course
guitars had nine strings—a single high string and four pairs of
other strings. Some feel that the addition of the fifth course
during the 16th century, which gave the guitar greater flexibility,
was the reason why the guitar became popular.
• By the beginning of the 1800’s: Some guitars used fan struts
under the soundboard and featured six strings
(like the modern guitar). Also changed during this time
was the neck (which was raised),
the fingerboard (which used ebony or rosewood),
and the tuning pegs
(which were replaced with machine tuners).
Guitars like these are most similar to early classical guitars.
• By the late 1800s: A man named Antonio Torres Jurado changed
the guitar dramatically by refining the strutting of the guitar.
This allowed for as many as seven struts to be spread out like a
fan under the soundboard. Additionally, the size of the body and
the width of the neck were greatly increased. As a result of Jurado’s
improvements, the Guitar had greater bass response and volume.
Jurado’s work made it possible for the guitar to meet
the demands of both the solo performer and
the concert stage.
• The Present: Our modern guitar is practically
the same as the one made by Jurado.
As was previously said, this is but a brief introduction
to the fascinating history of guitars. If you wish to
find out more on certain types of guitars,
such as the history of Acoustic, Electric or Bass guitars,
you can check out our articles titled “The Acoustic Guitar”,
“The Electric Guitar”, and “The Bass Guitar”.
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