History of the guitar

A short history of the guitar

From gut-strung ancestors to solid-body electrics.

The first plucked strings

Long-necked lutes appear in Mesopotamian and Egyptian carvings — a resonating body, a neck, and strings stopped by the fingers. Every guitar since is a variation on that idea.

The oud reaches Europe

Moorish rule in Spain brings the oud, a fretless, pear-bodied lute, into Europe. Alongside it the gittern and citole develop, small fretted instruments carved from a single block of wood. The word guitar traces back through the Spanish guitarra and Arabic qitara to the Greek kithara.

The vihuela and the four-course guitar

Spain favours the vihuela, a flat-backed, six-course instrument played at court, while ordinary players use a smaller four-course guitar. Luis de Milán publishes some of the earliest printed music for it in 1536. Elsewhere in Europe the lute dominates the same repertoire.

Five courses and the baroque guitar

A fifth course is added and the guitar spreads across Europe as a chord-strumming instrument for song accompaniment — the rasgueado style still heard in flamenco. Gaspar Sanz codifies much of the technique in 1674.

Six single strings

The courses give way to six single strings tuned E A D G B E, the tuning still used today. Fixed metal frets replace tied gut, and machine heads begin to replace wooden pegs. Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani write the first great classical repertoire.

Torres sets the standard

Antonio de Torres Jurado enlarges the body, thins the top and perfects fan bracing, proving the top does the work by building a guitar with papier-mâché sides that still sounded good. His proportions are still the classical guitar today. Around the same time C. F. Martin, working in Pennsylvania, develops X-bracing — the innovation that will let a guitar survive steel strings.

Louder, at any cost

Guitars are drowned out in dance bands, so makers chase volume. Steel strings arrive on Martin flat-tops; Orville Gibson’s carved archtops give way to Lloyd Loar’s f-hole L-5; the Dopyera brothers build resonators with spun metal cones. Martin’s dreadnought, named after a battleship, becomes the shape everyone pictures.

Rickenbacker’s cast-aluminium Frying Pan is the first commercially made electric guitar. Gibson’s ES-150 puts a pickup on an archtop and Charlie Christian shows a guitar can take a solo line like a horn. Les Paul experiments with a solid plank he calls The Log, reasoning that a body that does not vibrate will not feed back.

The solid body arrives

Leo Fender puts the first mass-produced solid-body into shops — the Broadcaster, renamed the Telecaster. Gibson answers with the Les Paul in 1952. Fender follows with the Precision Bass in 1951, which changes rhythm sections everywhere, and the Stratocaster in 1954, with three pickups, contoured body and a vibrato arm.

The guitar takes over

Amplifiers get louder and dirtier, and players start treating distortion, feedback and volume as musical rather than as faults. The Marshall stack, the fuzz box and the wah pedal all arrive within a few years. Jimi Hendrix, playing a right-handed Stratocaster restrung left-handed, rewrites what the instrument can do.

Extremes and imports

Locking vibrato systems make deep dive-bombs possible, high-gain amps and tapping push technique further, and Japanese and later Korean factories start building instruments good enough to worry the American names. Boutique makers appear in response, and the vintage market is born.

Digital and back again

Modelling amps and software recreate classic tones in a laptop, while much of the playing world swings back to simplicity — low-gain tones, small combos and acoustics. Home recording puts a studio on the desk of anyone who wants one.

Everything at once

CNC machining and better factories mean a modestly priced guitar plays better than most professional instruments did fifty years ago. Sustainable timbers replace threatened ones, modelling sits alongside valves rather than replacing them, and more people are learning at home than at any point in the instrument’s history.

History of the Guitar | GuitarGenie
The Instrument
The Music
Everything Else
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Strings & Tuning

Fit a new set, get it in tune, and pick the right gauge next time.

One string at a time
Change strings roughly every three months of regular playing, or sooner if they sound dull or look corroded. Working one string at a time keeps the neck under even tension.
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A string winder with a built-in cutter and bridge-pin puller turns this into a three-minute job. It is the cheapest tool worth owning.
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Using a clip-on tuner
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Tuning the guitar to itself
No tuner and nothing to tune to? The guitar can tune itself. It will not be at concert pitch, but it will be in tune with itself, which is all you need to play alone.
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String gauges
Lighter gauges are easier to bend and fret; heavier gauges give more volume and sustain.
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Changing gauge changes the tension on the neck, so a big jump either way usually needs the truss rod and intonation resetting. Moving one step is normally fine; moving two or more is worth a setup.

Strumming & Rhythm

Patterns to play, and a metronome to keep you honest.

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Beginners: start slowly. Once the pattern feels comfortable and you are not thinking about it, nudge the metronome up a few beats at a time.
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Making it feel right
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Fingerpicking

Playing bass, chords and melody at the same time — with your hand rather than a pick.

Setting the hand up
Fingerpicking is less about speed than about the hand staying still. Get the position right and the patterns come quickly.
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The finger names
Fingerstyle music labels the picking hand with four letters, from the Spanish. You will see them written above the notes.
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Patterns to work through
In order of difficulty. Learn each one until your hand does it without you watching, then move on. Slowly and evenly beats fast and ragged, every time.
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Styles worth knowing
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Nails, flesh, or picks
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Welcome to GuitarGenie

A handy reference for guitar nuts of all levels — totally free to use and it works offline when installed.  Use the search bar above, or jump straight in below...

The Instrument
The Music
Everything Else

Guitar Anatomy

Every part of the instrument named, so the rest of this app makes sense.

Labelled diagram of an acoustic guitar
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Labelled diagram of an electric guitar
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Mirrored for a left-handed guitar. Every part sits in the same place — just on the other side.
Bass guitars share the same parts, usually with four thicker strings and a longer neck.

Chords, Notes & Scales

The shapes, the fretboard behind them, and the scales they come from.

Reading a chord diagram
Left-handed mode is on, so these diagrams are mirrored: the thickest string is on the right.
The six vertical lines are the strings as you look down at the guitar in playing position. The thick line across the top is the nut, and the horizontal lines below it are the frets.
A dot means press that string at that fret. An o above a string means play it open, and an × means do not play it at all.
The line under each diagram tells you where the shape sits — open position, or which fret a barre shape starts on.
Using a capo
A capo clamps across the neck and shortens every string at once, so a shape you already know comes out in a higher key. Play a G shape with the capo on the 2nd fret and you are playing an A.
Capo at
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Read down the left for the fret, across the top for the shape you are playing, and the cell is the chord that actually sounds.
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Barre chords
One finger pressing several strings at once. It feels impossible for a fortnight and then it does not — almost always technique rather than strength.
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When a string will not ring
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Filter the library
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Showing only chords that belong to the key of {{ selectedKeyInfo.major }} — relative minor {{ selectedKeyInfo.minor }}.
No shapes of that type sit inside this key. Try another chord type, or clear the key filter.
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Every note on the first twelve frets. The open string is on the left, and at the 12th fret the names start over an octave higher.
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Notes:
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Practice this scale
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Five shapes, moved up the neck, cover every major chord there is. Learn where the root sits in each one and the whole fretboard opens up.
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How to use it
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Worth knowing
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Circle of Fifths

Which keys and chords sit naturally together, and why songs move the way they do.

Popular chord progressions
Pick a key and these are the same four or five progressions written out with its chords. Play them round and round — most songs you know are hiding in here.
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Tap any key on the wheel. Majors sit on the outside, their relative minors just inside. Neighbours on the wheel share almost all their notes, which is why moving between them sounds natural.
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The key of {{ selectedKeyInfo.major }}
Relative minor: {{ selectedKeyInfo.minor }}. These seven chords are the ones built from this key — almost any song in {{ selectedKeyInfo.major }} uses them.
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Practice

Finger exercises for every level, and how to hold the guitar so nothing aches.

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Sitting
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Standing
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Stop if anything hurts — aching muscles are normal, sharp or joint pain is not. Short breaks beat pushing through.

Buying & Selling

How to judge a guitar before you hand over money — and how to get a fair price when it is time to move one on.

Your first guitar
Buy the cheapest guitar that plays well, not the cheapest guitar. A badly set up instrument fights you on every note and is the most common reason people give up in the first month.
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Second-hand checklist
Take ten minutes with the guitar in your hands before you talk money. Work down the list in order — anything in the first three is expensive to put right.
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Walk away from a twisted neck, a lifting bridge, or a truss rod that will not turn. Everything else — frets, nut, electronics, a bad setup — is fixable, and worth haggling over rather than avoiding.
Getting a fair price
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Where to sell
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Fresh strings, a clean fretboard and honest photographs of every mark will earn you more than any amount of description. Buyers pay for confidence.

10,000-hour mastery calculator

The "10,000 hours" idea isn't a scientific guarantee — but it's a fun way to see the road ahead.

Hours you've already practiced
How much do you practice?
Hours logged
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Hours to go
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Per week
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Years to mastery at your pace
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that's around {{ calc.etaYear }}
Want a target instead?
I want to get there in this many years
Needed / week
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Needed / day
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Types of guitars

Nine shapes cover most of what you'll run into.

Acoustic — Dreadnought
Acoustic — Dreadnought
Large-bodied steel-string with a big, punchy low end. The most common acoustic shape.
Acoustic — Concert / Parlor
Acoustic — Concert / Parlor
Smaller-bodied, comfortable seated, with a more focused midrange.
Classical (nylon-string)
Classical (nylon-string)
Wide neck and nylon strings, played fingerstyle — the foundation of classical and flamenco.
Electric — Solid body
Electric — Solid body
Bright, versatile tone from magnetic pickups. Stratocaster and Telecaster-style shapes are the archetype.
Electric — Single-cut
Electric — Single-cut
Warmer, thicker tone, often with humbucker pickups. Les Paul-style shape.
Bass guitar
Bass Guitar
Thicker strings tuned an octave below a guitar, carrying the low end of a band.
12-string guitar
12-string guitar
Six courses of paired strings for a fuller, chorused sound, common in folk and jangle-pop.
Archtop / hollow-body
Archtop / Hollow-body
A hollow, arched body with a warm, woody tone — the classic choice for jazz.
Resonator
Resonator
A metal cone inside the body amplifies the sound acoustically, giving a bright, metallic tone favored in blues and bluegrass.

A short history of the guitar

From gut-strung ancestors to solid-body electrics.

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Setup & Care

A guitar is wood, wire, and glue — small habits keep it sounding right for decades.

After every play
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Every few weeks
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Storage & humidity
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Buy a hygrometer
A hygrometer measures the humidity of the air. A small digital one costs about the price of a set of strings, and it is the cheapest insurance a wooden guitar can have — it tells you about a problem weeks before the guitar does.
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Solid-wood acoustics are the ones that really care. Laminate bodies and solid-body electrics are far more tolerant, though necks and fretboards move on any guitar.
What a setup does
A setup is a handful of small adjustments that decide how a guitar feels under your hands. Most instruments leave the factory adjusted for shipping, not for playing, and a good setup is the single biggest improvement you can make to a cheap guitar.
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Intonation
Intonation is whether the guitar stays in tune with itself as you move up the neck. Open chords sound fine, then something up at the 7th or 9th fret rings sour — that is intonation, not your tuning.
Checking it
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On an electric each saddle moves individually, so intonation is adjustable at home with a screwdriver and a tuner. On an acoustic the saddle is a single piece and correcting it means shaping or replacing it — that one is a job for a tech.
When to see a tech
Plenty of maintenance is yours to do. These are the jobs worth paying someone for — a full setup costs less than you would think, and it transforms a guitar.
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Tonewoods

The wood shapes the sound as much as the shape does.

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Blank tab sheets

Print-ready manuscript paper for writing out your own tabs and chord charts.

Bass players can use the same six-line paper and ignore the top two lines; 12-string tabs can note the doubled string in brackets next to the fret number.

Amps

The amp shapes your tone as much as the guitar does.

Choosing an Amp
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Using an Amp
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Starting points by style
Rough dial positions to start from — every amp responds differently, so treat these as a jumping-off point and tweak to taste.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Clean / Country
Low gain, bright EQ with treble up slightly, a touch of spring reverb, and a compressor if you want punchy, even picking.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Blues
Push the amp into light, natural overdrive rather than a pedal, mid-forward EQ, and a moderate amount of reverb.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Rock / Lead
Medium-high gain with a mid boost so solos cut through the mix, plus a delay for sustain on longer notes.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Metal
High gain, tight low end (roll bass back slightly to avoid mud), a noise gate, and mids scooped or boosted depending on the sub-genre.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Acoustic-electric
Keep EQ close to flat for a natural tone, add only light chorus or reverb, and go easy on compression.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Jazz
Very low gain or fully clean, warm and rolled-off treble, and a hollow-body guitar into a flat-response amp for a round, mellow tone.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Classical
Nylon-string guitars rarely need an amp, but if amplified via a pickup, keep it flat and clean with just a touch of reverb to preserve the natural tone.
GAIN
BASS
MID
TREBLE
Bluegrass
Bright, clean, and dynamic with minimal effects, so fast flatpicking and interplay with other acoustic instruments stay crisp and articulate.
Do's and don'ts
Do
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Don't
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Feedback, and how to stop it
That rising squeal or low howl is the amp's own sound getting back into your pickups and going round again. It is a loop, so you break it by changing one part of the loop.
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What makes a good lead
Your cable is part of your signal chain, not an accessory. A bad one hisses, crackles and quietly takes the top end off your tone.
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Accessories

The small things that make a real difference — and the ones you can skip.

Plectrums
A pick is the cheapest thing that will change your sound. Buy a mixed pack, keep the ones you reach for, and lose the rest down the back of the sofa like everybody else.
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Worth buying early
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Leads and cables
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Nice to have
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Spend on the guitar and a setup before you spend on accessories. A well set up instrument with one plectrum beats a badly set up one surrounded by gadgets.

Pedals

Small boxes, big changes to your sound.

Choosing pedals
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Using pedals
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Glossary

Quick definitions for the terms you'll run into.

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Frequently asked questions

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Legal

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Contact

Questions, ideas or feedback? We'd like to hear from you...

Get in touch:
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