Everywhere you go you either know someone who plays an acoustic, or you’ve heard one being played on stage. "The first incontrovertible evidence of five-course instruments can be found in Miguel Fuenllana's Orphenica Lyre of 1554, which contains music for a vihuela de cinco ordenes. It took inventor Beauchamp and his partner Rickenbacker over five years to perfect their patent. This instrument appears to have had a strong influence in the design and tuning of the early five-course guitars that first appeared in Spain in the middle of the sixteenth century. While the precise lineage of the instrument is still unclear, historians believe that the guitar is the descendant of the Greek kithara, gittern, lyre, European and Middle Eastern lutes, and the Spanish vihuela. Beauchamp was awarded the first patent for a guitar with an electric pickup. When this question is asked oftentimes, it is asked with reference to the classical guitar. The vihuela? when was the classical guitar invented and where was the classical guitar invented? The thinner the top, the more easy it is to vibrate, which helps to project the sound of the instrument better. The poem The Book of Good Love [circa 1330] describes two early instruments, guitarra morisca and guitarra latina. Antonio was a Spanish guitarist and luthier who today is known as one of the most important guitar makers in history. No answer is completely wrong, and no answer is completely right. The oldest Lute? The modern classical guitar was designed by Antonio de Torres Jurado in the mid 1800s [2]. So, if your definition for “guitar” can fit this instrument, then the answer to your question “when was the guitar invented?” should be the early 1500s. They are a lot bigger than the Lute, resembling the guitar more in terms of size. Contemporary classical guitars follow the Smallman design which replaces the fan braces with a much lighter balsa brace attached to the back of the sound board with carbon fiber. George Beauchamp invented the first electric guitar and in the year 1932, the electric lap steel guitar was marketed by Beauchamp’s Ro-pat company. [6] These five-course guitarras replaced the four-course Renaissance instruments, particularly in Spain. Modern acoustics only recently appeared in history when compared to the very first string instruments millennia ago. In other words, it was impossible to hear an acoustic guitar over the strong, bold tones of brass, orchestral, and woodwind instruments [4]. What was his great achievement? A Comprehensive History, Invention of the Electric Guitar (Summary). Out of all the instruments we’ve talked about today, this is one that you can look at and within a glance, call it a guitar. The first electric guitar was invented by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker, his business partner. During the early seventeenth century the guitar was an instrument of the people of Spain, but was widely played by the Italian aristocracy." You just couldn’t play an acoustic guitar in a band! They were people, just like us. Los Angeles, California. Now if your definition of the guitar also encompasses guitar-like instruments like the “lute”, then it is very difficult to trace the year of the invention. It was guitar maker Antonio de Torres, born in Spain in 1817, who made a larger version of the guitar, which also produced a louder tone. Antonio was able to take the modern European guitars of the time and recreate/reform them into that "classical guitar look" we know so well today. The final reference we are going to point to is Fernando Sor. The other early 19th century guitars? The electric guitar was invented in 1937 when George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker were awarded the patent for the first guitar with an electric pickup. C.F Martin opened his U.S shop in the U.S in 1833 in which he made “guitars”. Also, the guitar top needed to be stiff and responsive so Torres placed thin braces on the underside of the top. They have completely different looks and the sounds even make them farther apart from each other. Acoustic guitars had a big limitation: They were too quiet when played on stage alongside woodwind and brass instruments. Sure, there were cultural differences. Copyright © 2020 MightyExpert. Who invented the guitar? Later, it was in Italy that a sixth course became commonplace and this was an easily done by replacing or reworking the nut and bridge to plug in another tuning peg hole for the sixth string. In the 1850’s, Antonio Torres Jurado in Seville invented the first Classical guitars or Spanish guitars. This leads to greater volume and longer sustain. You have six single strings, the same tuning system, metallic frets,  and so on. The vihuela became popular in Spain and Italy and remained common until the late 16th century.