| 18th Century History |
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Articles and Products of History Stringed Instruments and GuitarsThe first guitars were made out of animal shells and large gourds. Turtle shell were boiled and cleaned and then the open side was covered with stretched leather. A piece of wood was the attached to the top of the shell to create the fret. Strings were made from the stretched intestines of a cow or pig. The strings were attached to the top of the Fret and the bottom of the shell. The guitar could then be strummed or plucked to produce notes.
There have been variations of the guitar through out history, one example is the banjo another is the lute. Most of the earliest guitars only had three double sets of strings a one single string. It is thought that Spain was where the guitar really started to be refined. Over the next century another set of strings were added so there was a total of ten strings on the guitar. As you can imagine this cased a lot of problems with keeping the guitar in tune. Balancing the adjustment of each of the strings was extremely difficult undertaking. In order to standardize and make the tuning easier the following century the guitar was changed forever. Instead of ten strings the new guitar had only six strings. This six-string design spaced the strings farther apart so it was easier to play. Additionally tuning single strings was much easier then tuning a pair of strings at the same time. As the nineteenth century came to an end modern production techniques improved greatly. This allowed for the mass production of guitars, which in turn increased their popularity. Today the guitar and music industry earns revenues in excess of a billion per year. There is no doubt the guitar in its many variations such as electric and six- string will continue to impress both players and fans alike. Further Reading
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