Acoustic Guitar History

Many of us think of the acoustic guitar as an instrument that originated a few hundred years ago but did you know that when you pick up an acoustic guitar you’re picking up an instrument with 5,000 years of history attached to it?

That's right, acoustic guitars are descendants of stringed instruments that were found in a variety of cultures thousands of years ago. As civilizations merged and the world became smaller, the guitar began taking on a common shape and style.

Since then, there has been a linear evolution of several hundreds of years of instruments that can be directly compared to today’s acoustic guitars.

The Medieval Period

During the Medieval Period, there were several different forms of guitars. These guitars had between three and five strings and were much smaller than the guitars of today. The popular guitars of this period were commonly separated into two groups.

The first, the Guitarra Latina was developed from Spain, while the Guitarra Morisca was brought to Spain by the Moorish culture.

The Renaissance Period and Beyond

While in the Middle Ages, the guitar instruments were not terribly popular, being overshadowed by other contemporary instruments, but in the Renaissance period the guitar began to take on a life of its own. In 1779 the first six string guitar was created in Italy. It was created in Naples by Gaetano Vinaccia.

Following that, the man known as the “Father of Modern Guitar” made his permanent mark how the guitar would be it would be played and designed. Antonio de Torres Jurado made many key changes that in essence is what we know today as the modern classical guitar.

The body was made larger and wider to help make sound travel farther and that allowed it to be louder. The construction was also sturdier and more technical in nature.

The Acoustic Guitar

The instrument that Antonio de Torres created and made popular was the "classical" guitar. The acoustic guitar is usually mistaken as being the same as the classical guitar. This is not true as there are many key differences in the design of these two separate guitars.

The most important of which is that the acoustic guitar has steel strings, while the classical guitar is strung with nylon strings. The body was also made larger and sturdier still. The acoustic guitar was better to use in larger areas as it was louder than the classical guitar.

Contradictory to what many may believe, the acoustic guitar was actually developed in America by European immigrants. The last major development of the acoustic guitar is the electrical-acoustic guitar. These acoustic guitars can be plugged into an amplifier for louder volume or can be left unplugged as well.

So next time you pick up an acoustic guitar, keep in mind that you are holding quite a bit of history in your hands.