It all started from the Roman cithara which was used in 40 AD. Elsewhere in Europe, the Scandinavian lut or lute, a six-stringed indigenous instrument, was discovered to be used in Viking excursions. By 1200AD, 2 types of four-stringed guitars were used; the Moorish guitar and the Latin guitar. The Moorish guitar has a wide fingerboard and several sound holes and the Latin guitar resembled the modern guitar with sound hole and narrower neck. In the period between the 15th and 16th century, the Spanish vihuela or viola da mano was used. it was believed to be the immediate ancestor of the modern guitar because of its striking similarities. It has a lute-style tuning and a guitar-like body. Its construction is similar to that of a contemporary four-course renaissance guitar.

According to history, the Vinaccia family has built the oldest surviving string guitar. The guitar has Gaetano Vinaccia’s signature on it, with the date of 1779. However, it is Antonio Torres Jurado who has established the dimensions of a modern classic guitar which is also known as the Spanish guitar while he was working in Seville in the 1850s.

Today, modern guitars have been crated and constructed to cater to left and right handed guitarists. To allow easy gripping and depression on the strings, modern guitars were constructed to have the following parts:

• Headstock. Allows adjustment to pitch through string tension adjustments.

• Nut. A strip of bone, plastic, brass, corian, graphite, stainless steel and other medium-hard materials, serving as the guide of the strings onto the fretboard.

• Fretboard. A piece of wood that is embedded with metal frets.

• Frets. The metal strips that are embedded at the fretboard to divide the board in scale in accordance with the strings’ vibrating length and resultant pitch.

• Truss rod. The metal that runs along the inside of the neck. Corrects neck curvature to compensate for the effects of changing humidity and pitch due to string tension to the sound of the guitar.

• Inlays. The visual elements of the guitar. Fretboard inlays are shaped like dots and are arranged in between the frets. More elaborate inlays are found in the body of the guitar and on the body of high-end and limited edition guitar constructions.

• Neck. The board that accommodates the frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock, truss rod. Also doubles as the handle of the guitar.

• Strings. Modern guitar strings come in metal, carbon or nylon constructions.

Tags:
Guitar,
Instruments,
Music General

Source: Guitar

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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”.

Gray Rollins is a featured writer for GuitarsLand.com. If you’re looking to learn more about the [http://www.guitarsland.com/history/]history of the guitar or [http://www.guitarsland.com/acoustic/]learn more about acoustic guitars, then be sure to visit the site.

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