The Origins of the Curvy Classical Guitar

Did a Woman’s Body Inspire the Creation of the Classical Guitar?

Anyone can tell you what a guitar is if asked. But how many people can actually tell you where the guitar originated from and how old it is? Here is a simple, but accurate overview of the classical guitar’s history.

The Vihuela & the Crude Spanish Guitar

The early guitar was derived from a sixteenth century instrument called a vihuela, which had 12 strings. When the vihuela became unpopular, the guitar made in Spain took its place. This guitar took the form of a woman with rounded shoulders, a waist and rounded bottom but with only 4 strings. These instruments were small for easy carrying. Spanish guitars have wooden string pegs. The first three strings were made of sheep gut, while the last three were metal wound on silk thread. The first of these small guitars had four strings much like our modern day ukulele. Then came one with five strings, and finally in the eighteenth century a sixth string was added.

Founding Composers for the Guitar

Composers such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839) and Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) were enthusiastic in their composition for these instruments. Sor Composed more than three hundred works and today these are being played by modern classical guitarists. He was the first guitarist to be asked to play with the London Philharmonic Society. He also wrote a guitar technique book in 1830 called Methode pour la guitare.

Early Guitar Makers

Luthiers began to try to keep pace with the demand to produce better instruments. Two of the lutheirs are Johann Georg Stanfer (1778-1852) and Johann Gottfried Scherzer (1842-1870) of Vienna. Scherzer worked on improving the guitar tone and producing fine concert guitars.

Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) was a teacher at both the Madrid and Barcelona Conservatories. His influence is seen in modern performers such as Miguel Llobit and Andres Segovia.

The Father of Guitar, the Man who Made it Popular



Andres Segovia did much to improve the guitar’s popularity. He believed the guitar should be played as other instruments were; on stage, in concerts and by important musicians instead of just the peasants in a bar.

Segovia made it his life’s ambition to bring the classical guitar to universities and conservatories. He learned classical guitar by himself, since he had no teacher. He transposed classical transcriptions for piano and organ into guitar music. He raised the standard for guitars by his musicianship. Today due to his influence, guitar classes are offered at high schools, universities, conservatories, and more.

In the 1850’s Christian F. Martin came from Germany and began the Martin Company. He built the first dreadnought guitar to satisfy the demand for larger guitars. At the same time, factories were building inexpensive instruments to sell and so were the mail order catalogs. The guitar became an instrument for young ladies because it was thought to be feminine. With the advent of jazz players the companies began to build steel string guitars as well as the nylon classical guitars.

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Electric Guitar History

Learn the history behind the electric guitar and how it was invented.
What is an electric guitar?

The definition of an electric guitar is a guitar with either a hollow body, semi-solid body, or a solid body with pickups. These pickups amplify the vibrations of the strings electronically.

The reason musicians wanted a louder guitar

When the guitarist played with a band they found that the brass and drum sections overpowered them. Many times the guitar player would be placed in the front of the stage with a chair and a microphone and could not move or he would not be heard. Sometimes any movement at all would cause the microphone to feedback and ruin the performance. This was when some of the guitarists began to think of ways to electrify their guitars.

Beginnings of the Electric guitar

The electric guitar came to life as a result of the Hawaiian guitar. The Hawaiian guitar was very popular in the 1920’s to 1930’s. It was the only guitar that depended on electricity to make it sound at that time. This fact led guitarists to begin to toy around with the idea of an electrically amplified solid body Spanish guitar.

It is believed that Audiovox may have built an electronic guitar with a solid body around the 1930’s. It is a well known fact that Adolph Rickenbacher (Now spelled Rickenbacker) began working on an electric guitar as early as 1931 when he got together with George Beauchamp and Paul Barth. They started the Electro String Company and began producing Hawaiian guitars. These guitars used tungsten pickups. Their popularity gave incentive for Gibson and others to try their hand at electric guitars.

Les Paul Contribution

One of the most well known guitarists to influence electric guitars was Les Paul. To begin with he used a gramophone needle to electrify his guitar. He used a semi-acoustic guitar and tried to improve on it, but found that there was too much feedback and electrical problems. He got the idea for a solid body guitar from learning about a solid body violin made by Thomas Edison. In 1948, he built the Telecaster. This was the beginning of a long line of solid body electric guitars of every make and model. He developed his own line of guitars called the Les Paul Series. Of course they are now much more refined that the first ones he made.

Leo Fender makes a guitar with a new pickup

Leo Fender teamed up with Doc Kaufman to form the K& F company and made solid body guitars. He tried a new, smaller pickup in a solid Hawaiian shaped body with a regular guitar neck for a demonstration and it became popular. He built the Stratocaster in 1954. Fender thought that the set in neck (Neck blued into the guitar) was too hard to design and repair. He decided to bolt the neck to the guitar body which is the way most guitars are today. The pickguard covers the wiring for the pickups. Both Les Paul and Leo Fenders solid body guitars models are copied today by many companies.

Today electric guitars are used in a variety of ways. Mostly they are used by rock bands. They are also used for lead guitar and rhythm guitars. They are also used as solo instruments and to accompany singers.
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