The guitar has roots stretching back to ancient Mesopotamia, more than four or five thousand years ago. Other, similar variations like single-stringed lutes and harps began to make an appearance in the Middle East and Persia and then spread throughout the entire globe, influencing musical culture.
Storytellers and singers would often use these stringed musical instruments throughout ancient societies. The oldest guitar-like device has been spotted more than 3,500 years ago, in ancient carvings and statues from Egyptian, Sumerian, and Babylonian civilizations.
You can visit the lute of Har-Mose at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, which once belonged to an ancient Egyptian court singer with the same name. This instrument (pictured) had three strings and a plectrum that was suspended from the beck by a cord. It had a beautifully designed soundbox that was made of polished cedarwood, as well as a rawhide “soundboard.”
It is believed by some that the modern guitar evolved directly from either this type of lute or the ancient Greek kithara. However, Dr. Michael Kasha did extensive research in the 1960s that proved that these theories dit not paint the full picture. He was able to confirm that the lute had common ancestors with the guitar, but that they later evolved separately.
However, the guitar was influenced by the lute, as the early guitars looked very similar to the fretted lute. As for the Greek kithara, it is noteworthy that the Greek word “kithara” and the Spanish word “Guitarra” are very similar. However, a kithara is a square-framed lap harp and is not overly similar to the early guitar.
Another guitar-like instrument, which is also still alive and well today, is the tanbur family. A tanbur is a long-necked string instrument that has a small pear- or egg-shaped body. This instrument will have either an arched or round back, and often has a soundboard made of wood or hide, and a long straight neck. Tomb paintings and stone carvings show the tanbur and harps being played together more than 3,500 – 4,500 years ago.
The modern guitar is both related to – and different from – all of these ancient instruments. All of them has strings and a neck, but a guitar is distinguished by a flat wooden soundboard, a long, fretted neck, with ribs and a flat back, which some of these instruments lack.
Guitar Etymology – Origins of the Name
The guitar may have originally gotten its name from the ancient Sanskrit word “tar,” which means string. Many of the stringed folk instruments that are used in Central Asia have names that contain “tar” and a prefix that shows the number of strings in the instrument.
Therefore, because the early guitar had four strings, it came from the Sanskrit word “chatur.” When the four-stringed Persian “chartar” came to Spain, it evolved and became known as the Guitarra or Chitarra.
The Origins Of The Modern Guitar
However, the guitar as we know it was probably first played in Spain by the early 16th century. It derived from the Guitarra Latina, a medieval musical instrument that had a waisted body and four strings.
This guitar, however, was more narrow and had a deeper body than the modern guitar, as well as a less obvious waist.
The guitarra latina had four courses of strings, including three double strings, with the top one being a single string. These strings ran along from a pegbox that was similar to one found on a violin all the way to a tension bridge that was glued onto the soundboard. The bridge helped to keep the strings pulled tight. On the belly of these original guitars, you would find a circular soundhole, which was often designed with a beautiful caved, ornate wooden rose. During the 16th century, this guitar would be tuned to C–F–A–D, which was similar to the lute and vihuela, which was a guitar-shaped instrument played in Spain.
Between the 16th and the 19th century, the guitar was improved upon greatly. By the turn of the 17th century, it gained another course of strings, making it five in total. Before the 19th century, a sixth course was added. In the 1800s, the double courses were switched out for single strings which were tuned to E-A-D-G-B-E, which is the same modern tuning we use to this day.
That violin-inspired pegbox was replaced for a flat head that utilized rear tuning pegs, which were then upgraded to tuning pegs. Other changes included the fretboard which was switched from a flat board to a slightly raised board.
Who Invented The Modern Guitar?
It is believed that the guitar maker Antonio Torres designed the form of the modern guitar in around the 1850s. Torres made it slightly bigger and changed the proportions, making it more of a fan top. He also utilized bracing, which helps to enforce the internal pattern of the wood, and helps to prevent the guitar from collapsing under the tension of the strings.
His modern design significantly improved the tone, volume, and projection of the instrument. The design of modern acoustic guitars has remained very similar ever since.
Around the same time that Torres designed his guitar in Spain, German immigrants in the United States were making guitars with X-braced tops. It is thought that this unique style of the brace was first designed by Christian Fedrick Martin, who built the first guitar that was used in the US in 1830. X-bracing is popularly used in steel-string guitars. Steel-string guitars became more popular around the 1900s because there were able to produce a louder sound, but the tension from the strings was too much for the fan-braced guitars created by Torress. The X-brace was able to handle the strain much more effectively.
At the end of the 19th century, Orville Gibson became to design archtop guitars that featured an oval soundhole. He merged together the steel-string guitar with a cello-like body. Therefore, the bridge would exert no torque on the top, and only created pressure straight downward. This new design helped the top of the guitar to vibrate more freely and was much louder. In the 1920s, Lloyd Loar joined forces with Gibson and invented the archtop jazz guitar that has f-holes, cell-type tailpiece, and a floating bridge.
When Was The Electric Guitar Invented?
The need for the electric guitar began to emerge in the 1880s. As more bands started to perform in large concert halls, the classical guitar was much too quiet to contribute in any meaningful way. Instead, the bands in the early 20th century would get their power and sound from drums and brass, and the acoustic guitar would instead be used to produce melodies that were often too quiet for even the members of the band to hear. It became clear that a more powerful instrument was needed.
While many people might think that Les Paul was the creator of the electric guitar, this is not the case. There were several people that had a hand in the invention of the electric guitar. The electric guitar is not merely an invention, but instead an evolution of several people’s ideas. George Breed was one of the first who was granted a patent for an electric apparatus that helped to transfer vibrations into an electric current. However, this device did not create a very guitar-like sound, but he was one of the first to combine a stringed guitar with electricity.
Lloyd Loar also had a hand in the development of the electric guitar. He was a quality control supervisor at Gibson who experimented with amplification and pickups. Loar designed a prototype for an electric harp guitar, electric bass, and electric viola and even played some of his instruments at a concert. However, Gibson was not receptive to his ideas of electrifying stringed instruments. Loar eventually quit, started his own company, but quickly moved on to building keyboards.
George Beauchamp is the one who is credited with being the inventor and even designed his first electric guitar in his own house. He got his inspiration from the Hawaiian guitar, which was used by Hawaiian musicians as the melody instrument. The musicians were the push that Beauchamp needed to create the electric guitar.
Originally, jazz musicians and others tried to utilize attachments to enhance and amplify the sound of hollow-body wooden guitars. However, all of these attempts were unsuccessful. A Hawaiian-style lap steel guitar was electrified. This type of guitar was played across the knees and horizontally, and was much louder than the wooden acoustic guitars.
George Beauchamp teamed up with Adolph Rickenbacker, an electrical engineer. After some experimentation, they were able to invent an electromagnetic device that picked up the vibrations coming from the strings of the guitar – i.e. a pickup. The device was able to convert these vibrations into an electric signal, allowing them to be amplified and played through speakers.
By 1931, Beauchamp and Rickenbacker began to use pickups that were designed by Harry Watson. These pickups were called the “Frying Pan” due to their shape and were part of the first commercial prototype. By 1932, the Frying Pan became the first commercially produced electric guitar that produced a clear sound.
In 1932, we saw the first public mention of an electrically enhanced guitar. An article printed in a local Kansas newspaper spoke of the electric guitar. A musician Gage Brewer showed up two of the newest electric guitars produced by Beauchamp. The guitars were also used in a series of Halloween concerts. Ever since those times, the electric guitar has come to dominate the music industry and has taken over in popularity.
