Nov 11 2008
Modern Day Guitar, What Are It’s Roots
Ever since I was a small boy I knew I’d be famous. I didn’t make it to the pinnacle, instead I became a local legend in Nashville and let me tell you, some of the most awesome rockin’ guitar players, the best there’s ever been. That sounds like the song from The Charlie Daniel’s Band ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ which he recorded in 1979 orginally penned by the legend Vasser Clements. That features the devil and his fiddle and we’re going to a talk a bit about guitars and how it’s possible they changed into today’s electric guitar.
When you think of guitars, do you have a brand name in mind? I do it’s the Gibson guitar and numero uno (maybe I’ll check eBay to see if it’s available) was designed in 1936 and was designated the ES-150. Still you hear about it and, there are groups who will tell you,… ‘That’s the best sound you’ll ever get from a guitar.
One thing is certain; the guitar in all its incarnations, either acoustic or the electric guitar is a far cry from the first one, and its ancestry is a difficult. There is evidence (though not definitive) that says the guitar from Spain comes from the Romans and traces its lineage to 400 AD. It wouldn’t have looked much like today’s version, called a Tanbur which is lute like musical instrument from Asia Minor and Syria, most often having three strings; but it seems likely our modern electric guitar may have orginated with the Cithara. The cithara, possessing from three to twelve strings, was carefully designed with a wooden soundboard, box shaped body (resonator) and that doesn’t sound too distant from the electric guitar of today.
What’s likely is some talented music lover of long ago took elements from both, combining his own talents into the musical instrumentwhat would become the guitar|. Without a doubt the world was different then and the way ideas, concepts and crafts were communicated, travelled at a snail’s pace and may have taken decades to cross from one area of the world to another. And while today they might be called street musicians, long ago they hailed to the name of traveling troubadours.
The instrument, however it may have looked continued to adapt to the times and refine itself and in 1200 AD had evolved into a guitar with curved back and broad fingerboard (probably Moorish) and a different version which is probably the distant relation of today’s acoustic guitar (probably Spanish or Latin).
While the guitar was always home at celebrations, however it played second fiddle (sorry, couldn’t resist) for for countless years by the vihuela and lute, which would become too complicated for everyday performing, and those travelling musicians of long ago looked to the four and five string guitar, which again garnered its rightful place in history. The fifth string giving the guitar its rock solid (excuse the pun) reputation, versatility and longevity.
Looking back into time, we can see the twists and turns, and certainly no one back then (hey Edison wasn’t even born yet) could envision the current instrument it has evolved into. Yet those music lovers of long ago constructed something of beauty, integrity and a bit of magic, since the design of today’s guitar very much resembles those made one hundred and fifty years ago.
- Ron Rogers
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