Acoustic Guitar History
ACOUSTIC GUITAR HISTORY The true origin of the acoustic guitar remains one of music's great mysteries, and is still the subject of dispute among music historians. Many people believe that acoustic guitar history dates back to the Renaissance period, we can reasonably guess from artefacts unearthed in the Middle East that related stringed instruments existed four thousand years ago. The story is made more complex in that although many of these instruments bear a superficial resemblance to the guitar, we can only guess to the way in which they were used.
Although they bore a clear visual resemblance to their modern counterparts, the first acoustic guitars exhibited very different hardware. Apart from the use of courses rather than individual strings, the most dramatic difference was that the fingerboards did not have metal frets; they were made from peices of gut tied around the neck. The specific number of frets depended on the nature and complexity of the music. This made the musician's job considerably more difficult. Before performing, not only would each pair of strings have to be tuned, but they would have to ensure that the frets were positioned for correct intonation.
The middle of the 19th century saw the birth of what we know as the classical guitar. In Spain, the revolutionary work of Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817 - 1892) was crucial in turning the guitar into a serious and credible instrument. It was Torres who experimented with the existing construction and dimensions, and created the template for an instrument which exists to this day. The first prominant player to use his new design was Francisco de Tarrega (1852 - 1909) - the man in whose hands the guitar was first treated as a serious musical proposition to rival the established orchestral instruments. Without the work of these two men, the evolution of the classical guitar would have been very different.
The guitar is without question the instrument at the heart of most of the popular music of the 20th century - from folk and country and western to rock and pop. The roots of the guitar in popular music can largely be traced to the way in which the guitar developed in the United States. While a classical revolution was taking place in Spain, ACOUSTIC GUITAR HISTORY was also being forged in America, where two distinct styles were developed by two of the most significant figures in guitar history: C.F. Martin's "flat-top" guitar designs, and Orville Gibson's "arch-top" models.
The majority of acoustic guitars are made solely from many different types of wood, but one manufacturer has been changing the way how acoustic guitars are being made for the last 50 years. Ovation guitars, founded in the early 1960's by an aerospace engineer Charles Kaman, have revolutionized the world of the steel string acoustic by replacing the back and sides of the traditional guitar with a one-piece fiberglass rounded bowl. With no corners or struts, the soundwaves were no longer trapped in the corners of the soundbox allowing more of the natural sound to be heard. Following the first experiments, Ovation went on to experiment with a variety of synthetic materials, as well as combinations of fiberglass and wood. In 1966, four years after the production of the Balladeer, Ovation launched an electro-acoustic version of the Balladeer. The sound of the guitar being "electrified", created a more natural acoustic sound than could ever be have ever been achieved by fitting a pickup across the soundhole of a regular acoustic instrument. Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor, and Takamine make some the finest acoustic guitars on the market. Today's Acoustic Guitars are enjoying a rebirth in popularity with new players thanks in large part to "Unplugged" shows of top rock, pop and country artists.
Acoustic Guitar Magazine
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