Innovation and the Development of the Modern Six-String Guitar

Author(s): Darryl Martin

Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 51 (Jul., 1998), pp. 86-109
Published by: Galpin Society
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DARRYL MARTIN

Innovation

of
Development

Six-string

and
the

the
Modern

Guitar

INTRODUCTION
over 100 years ago, Orville Gibson - a violin, mandolin and
ALITTLE
in Kalamazoo, Michigan - made a development to the
maker
guitar
six string guitar which is seen by many writers as defining the difference
between the guitar used in serious 'art' music on the one hand, and 'folk'
music on the other. This adaptation was the use of steel strings on an
instrument specifically designed to take the extra tension in place of the
otherwise universal gut.
This was not the first occasion that steel strings had been used on
members of the guitar and lute family. In the late sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries the bandora and orpharion were both wire strung,
and frequently played music composed for the gut-strung lute. Metal
strings were also used on the cittern and other members of that family the Neapolitan mandolin, and the chitarra battente. A similar approach
to that of Gibson can be found in several battentes which have been
converted from gut-strung baroque guitars.
It was not Gibson's intention to design an instrument suitable for folk
or light music. Gibson designed his guitar to be a member of the group
of instruments playing together as mandolin orchestras, needing the steel
strings to help blend the sound, and to provide greater volume. This
paper will discuss how the European makers of gut (and later nylon)
strung instruments, and the American makers have independently
progressed the design of their instruments throughout the latenineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present day where the two
traditions are regaining closer ties.

THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY

EUROPEAN GUITAR

The modern guitar with six single strings developed in the last quarter of
the eighteenth century, replacing the five-course (pairs of strings)
baroque guitar. In the early part of the nineteenth century the instrument
was being made throughout Europe, with established schools in London,
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Paris, Vienna, and also in Italy, Germany and Spain. The guitar had a
great popularity, reflected in the publication of a great deal of music
for the instrument. The major virtuosi of the instrument had
widespread reputations and often travelled to perform in the major
cities of Europe. A number of these performers have left tutors, giving
modern scholars information about their playing techniques, and due
to the difficult nature of guitar playing technique, it is these
performers who have also left the majority of the guitar music of the
period.
The instruments of the time are generally smaller than the classical
guitar of today; the string length generally measuring about 630 mm,1
though standard pitch2 examples can be found with string lengths
ranging from 605-10 mm3 to 650 mm.4 The body shapes tended to
follow relatively similar proportions, but the end of the eighteenth and
beginning of the nineteenth centuries saw the first major innovation
since the standardisation of six single strings, with the introduction of
'fan barring' under the lower half of the soundboard and the bridge.
This barring arrangement first originated in Spain, in the last two
decades of the eighteenth century, and appears in instruments of
makers such as Pages and Benedid, both working in Cadiz. In about
1819 Louis Panormo began to use a similar barring arrangement in his
guitars built in London [see Fig. 1]. Panormo's label makes reference to
this barring, referring to the instruments as 'The only guitars built in
the Spanish style'. Some of the credit for the use of this innovation in
his instruments may belong to the celebrated Catalan born virtuoso
Fernando Sor. Panormo also used a raised fingerboard, rather than the
flush fingerboard found commonly on other instruments of the
period.
Elsewhere in Europe, the guitar retained the lateral cross barring
that had been developed centuries before and used in the lute and
baroque guitar. In this barring three or four bars are placed at right
angles to the soundboard grain, often with the bar above the bridge set
at an angle. This gives a larger vibrating area to the bass side [see
Fig. 2].
1 For example the standardinstrumentsfrom the Lacote
(Paris)and Panormo
(London)workshops.
2 This is not to
imply that there was a constant pitch standardthroughout
Europethat all guitarswere tuned to, but ratherrefersto instrumentswhich were
not built as specifichigh pitch instrumentssuch as Terzguitars,which aretuned a
minor thirdhigh (to be playedin duetswith standardmodels).
3 The 'Legnani'model instrumentsbuilt by Stauferin Vienna (see the Galpin
Society Made for Music Exhibition Catalogue (London, 1986), and 1822
(EUCHMI, No.770).
4 Guitarsby GennaroFabricatore,Naples, 1818 (see the GalpinSociety Made
for MusicExhibitionCatalogue,No.29), and 1822 (EUCHMI, No.770).
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kzzD-

a:

FIG. I

FIG.2

EUCHMI No. 2014

Panormo,

Lac3te,EUCHMI No. 2521

Note: All illustrationsare drawnfrom the top of the soundboard,the soundboard

drawnas if it were transparent,the bassstringsare thereforeto the left-handside.

In both of these types of designs the width acrossthe lower bout is

approximately12",5 it was not until shortly after 1850 that the next
major step originated,with the guitar as designed by Antonio Torres,
which forms the basis, with little alteration,for most of the classical
guitarsbeing made to this day.6Torresused a 650 mm stringlength, and
largerbody dimensions,the width acrossthe lower bout being close to
14" [see Fig. 3]. The body was also made deeper. The fan barring
covered all of the lower area of the soundboard,rather than being
concentrated near the centre line as occurs in the instruments of
Panormo. In addition to these large concert guitars,which have been
used almost without exception, and little variation, for all concert
classicalguitarsbuilt to the middle of the twentieth century,Torresalso
built smallerguitars,typicalof the earlierinstrumentsof the centurywith
5The lower bout measurement is commonly used as a reference when
discussingthe size of a guitaras a simple comparativedevice when referringto
differentmodels. Generallythe maxim 'biggeris best' (within reason)appliesin
the opinion of both makersand players.Since Americanguitarmakersinvariably
quote lower bout measurementsin inches, especiallyin publicity,I shall follow
the sameconvention.
6 See Jose Romanillos: Antonio de Torres.GuitarMaker- His Life & Work
1987), Part1, Chapter4.
(Shaftesbury,
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string lengths of approximately 605 mm, and friction pegs rather than
modern style guitar geared tuners.7

FIG.3. Torres
THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN GUITAR
In the 1830s, ChristianFriedrichMartin,who had workedas a foreman
in the Viennese workshop of Johan Georg Staufer, left Europe for
America.Much of Staufer'sreputationtodayis due to his famedworker;
as well as one of his inventions,the arpeggione8- a bowed guitar- an
instrument most notable for a famous sonata by Schubert, nowadays
commonly played on the viola. Many featureswhich can be found on
the guitarsof today- the floatingfingerboardabovethe soundboard,9the
bolt-on adjustableneck,10 and the six-on-a-side tuners11- were all
developedand used on Staufer'sinstruments,most notablyon the Luigi
7 The use of friction pegs ratherthan tuners also occurs on some of Torres'
larger guitars as well, suggesting their use was strictly according to financial
considerations.For full details about the instrumentsbuilt by Torres,and his
The second part
design and working methods,see Romanillos:Antoniode Torres.
of thisbook dealswith all aspectsof the instrumentsmadeby Torres.
8 A survivingarpeggioneis now in the MusikinstrumentenMuseum,Berlin.
9 Foundin almostall archtopguitarsbuilt this century.
" This very invention was used on the (in)famous 'tilt-neck' Fender
Stratocasterguitarsin the 1970s.
11 Foundin the instrumentsof PaulBigsby,andparticularly
those of the Fender
Company.
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Legnani model.12 Legnani was a famous guitar virtuoso of the early

nineteenth century, and this model is an early example of 'Celebrity
advertising'.13 Another pupil of Staufer - Johann Schertzer - has left
surviving 10 string guitars, with 4 sub-bass strings going from the bridge
to a headstock (attached between a column from the guitar body and the
standard peghead). This design possibly formed the concept basis of the
Gibson company's much-promoted Harp Guitar in the first quarter of
the twentieth century.
Martin worked for Staufer, probably during the early 1820s, leaving in
1825 to return to his home town of Markneukirchen by 1826, when he
was named in a legal dispute with members of the violin-makers guild.14
As an eventual result of this dispute Martin, and a number of other guitar
makers from the town, moved to the United States. Martin arrived in
1833, setting up a shop in New York City.
Martin's earliest instruments were essentially identical to the
instruments he had been building in Staufer's workshop, and featuring
many of the innovations first developed by Staufer - the bolt-on
adjustable neck, floating fingerboard, and six-on-a-side tuners are all
found on early Martin instruments.15sMany of his earliest American
made guitars have a distinctive decoration, using inlayed semi-circles of
mother-of-pearl and abalone around the soundhole and edge of the
soundboard. On his most elaborate examples he used ivory for the
bridge, fingerboard and head.16
12See the Galpin Society Madefor MusicExhibition Catalogue,No.31, for a
photographof a Legnanimodel Stauferguitar.
13 It is not, however, the
only example of it. Fernando Sor, the Catalan
guitaristliving in Parishassigneda numberof guitarsby Rene Lac6te- examples
now survive in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical
Instruments,Cat. No.2521; and in privateownership(exhibitedat the London
EarlyMusic InstrumentMakersExhibition, 1991). Sor also lent his name to the
instruments of Louis Panormo of London. However, in neither case is the
instrumentknown, then or now, as a 'Sormodel'.
14This, and further informationabout the early life of C. E Martin comes
from George Gruhn and Walter Carter; AcousticGuitarsand Other Fretted
- a Photographic
Instruments
History(SanFrancisco,1993); and WalterCarter;The
MartinBook(London,1995).
15The constructionmethods were probablyessentiallythe same as well. This
seems to have been overlooked by modern researcherswho are tracing
constructionevidence in earlynineteenth-centuryguitars.The Martincompany
is still in family ownership and has sufferedno major upheavalsor workshop
disasters.Therefore,much evidence concerningoriginalconstructionmethodsprobablyvery similarto those used by the companytoday- is still available.
16The finest collection of surviving Staufer-Martinguitars belongs to the
American collector Scott Chinery. A number of these instrumentshave been
photographedand publishedin VintageGuitarGallery,January1995 (includinga
featureon the collector),andJuly1995.
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In 1839 Martin moved from New York City to Nazareth,

Pennsylvania,and from 1840 to at least 1851 formed a partnershipwith
John Coupa.17Martinstartedto changehis designsand began to develop
the instrumentsthat can be consideredas the distinctiveAmericanguitar.
The width of the upperbout was reduced,the six-on-a-side tunersgave
way to three-each-sidetuners, and the interior barringchanged, as the
makerstartedto develop what is now known as X-barring, which has
become the standardfor all steel-strungflattop acousticguitarstoday.An
exampleof the developingX-barredguitarfrom this period can be seen
at the EdinburghUniversityCollectionof HistoricMusicalInstruments.18
[see Fig. 4] The lower bouts of this instrumentmeasure12" across.By
1852 Martin had standardisedhis instrumentsinto model numbers,the
larger the body the lower the number,19and soon after he had
standardisedhis decoration(this time in reverse,the higher the number,
the more elaboratedecoration). The above-mentionedguitar, though
built beforeMartinhad standardised
the body sizes, correspondsto a size
2, the second largest of the 1852 models (the largest being size 1 at
123/4").20 In 1854 size 0 was introduced,at 13'2". The next increasein
body size occurredin 1877 when size 00 was introduced,with a lower
bout 14%"wide.
By this time the gut-strung'parlor'guitarof Americawas more-or-less
the samesize as the gut-strung'classical'guitarthatTorreshad developed
in Europe. The more radical of Johan Staufer'sideas - The floating
17 Coupa was a guitarteacherin New Yorkwho acted as Martin'sagent and
salesroom. The actual construction of the guitars was entirely the work of
Martin.
"1This instrument (Catalogue No.768) is illustratedin Volume 1 of the
EUCHMI catalogue,p.46 (with incorrect attribution).The featuresmentioned
in the text suggest the instrumentwas built in 1845-50. This guitar is more
elaboratethan most Martinguitarsof the period, particularlythe decorativeinlay
aroundthe soundhole, and it retainsthe six-on-a-side tuners, suggestingit may
havebeen a specialorder.There is no labelinsidethe instrument,but thatshould
not be seen as suspicious- althoughMartinusuallyfixed the label on the inside
of the back of the guitar,instrumentsthat retainoriginal casessometimesshow
the label on the caseratherthanthe guitaritself.
19This seems surprisingat first,since most people would expect a biggerbody
to havea highernumber.Almost certainlythis is a throwbackto Martin'stime in
Europe when wire (and possiblyalso gut?) was numberedin that fashion- the
thickerthe wire the lower the gauge number.
2() The
EdinburghUniversityCollection alsopossessesa guitarof this size (with
model 28 decoration), Catalogue No.291, illustratedin Volume 1 of the
EUCHMI Catalogue, page 46. Though the instrument is labelled 'C. E
MARTIN & CO. / NEW YORK', the instrument was built in Nazareth
sometime between 1870 and 1898 - Martin instrumentswere distributedfrom
New York until 1898, when the change to Nazarethwas also reflectedon the
instrumentlabels.

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II

FIG.4. C.

I I

E Martin, EUCHMI No. 768

fingerboard,bolt-on adjustableneck, and six-on-a-side tuners had all

been droppedby Martinas standardappointments(althoughsome were
still availableand used on special ordersas late as 1898). Exterior-wise,
the late instrumentsof Torresand Martinwere similar.On the interior,
the fan-barringof Torreswas very differentto the X-barringof Martin,
and it would not be for another50 yearsthatX-barringwould come into
its own on steel-strung instruments. Writing from the historical
perspectiveoffered at the end of the twentieth century,it is fair to say
that, although very popular in their time, the gut-strung X-barred
instruments are not as successfulas fan-barredguitars. C. E (Chris)
Martin IV, the great-great-great-great
grandsonof ChristianFriedrich,
and the presenthead of C. E Martin& Co., tried to introducea line of
modern classicalguitarswith X-barring, only to find they were very
poor sounding.21
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The Martincompanywas not alone in makingguitarsin nineteenthcentury America, nor for that matter were they even the biggest
company.That distinction belongs to Lyon and Healy, manufacturing
guitars under the Washburn label. In 1889 they boasted 25,000
instrumentsbuilt since they commenced manufacturinga quarterof a
century earlier,and claimedto be making 100,000 guitarsa year by the
21

See WalterCarter,TheMartinBook,p.16.

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turn of the century, a figure probably greatly exaggerated, but even

taking exaggeration into account they were producing much more than
all other makers.22 The Martin company were making perhaps 200
guitars a year. The major difference between the companies was that
Martin were making quality guitars, whilst Lyon and Healy were
producing mostly budget mail-order instruments. Other makers at the
end of the nineteenth century included Bauer, Bohmann, Waldo, the
Larson Brothers, and Orville Gibson.
Although I have given credit to Gibson for developing the steel-strung
guitar, it is important to consider the claim of the Larson Brothers. Carl
and August Larson were born in Sweden and moved to Chicago in the
1880s. By the mid 1890s they were building guitars for various
companies, some under the Champion name, others for a teacher named
Robert Maurer, who in 1900 sold his factory to Carl Larson and two
partners (who were soon replaced by August in that year). From the
outset, the Larsons built flat top guitars designed for steel strings, and
might have actually built guitars using steel strings as standard prior to
Gibson. Certainly Gibson set up in business before the Larsons, and there
is no firm information about Gibson's instrument making activities
before his earliest surviving instrument - a ten string (five course)
mandolin-guitar (tuned to the five highest strings of a guitar) - in 1894.
Gibson certainly deserves the credit for innovation - although the guitars
of the Larson Brothers were specifically designed for steel strings with the
construction designed accordingly, Gibson took the guitar in a new
direction, based on the violin and mandolin.
Orville Gibson was born in Chateaugay, New York State in 1856,23
the son of English immigrants. In his early adulthood he left New York,
moving west to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was first listed in the
City Directory in 1881. His profession was that of a clerk, firstly at a shoe
store, and later at a restaurant. It was probably during the 1880s that
Gibson began to make musical instruments. He certainly made
instruments as an amateur before launching his full-time business in
1896, the year he was listed in the city directory as a 'manufacturer of
musical instruments', having his shop (and residence) in the centre of the
town. His amateur activities were intended as a serious pursuit - Gibson
no doubt considered himself to be an instrument maker long before he
was able to give up his other employment.24 His first surviving
instrument was the 10 string mandolin-guitar mentioned above, and that
instrument has all the characteristics found in his later instruments. The
following year - still before being listed as a full time instrument maker 22See Gruhnand Carter:AcousticGuitars,
pp.29-30.
All of the biographicalinformationaboutGibsoncomes fromWalterCarter:
GibsonGuitars- 100 Yearsof anAmerican
Icon(LosAngeles, 1994).
24This situationis not uncommon, even
today.
23

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Gibson filed his patent for a mandolin, the patent being issued on 1
February 1898.25 The patent contains what is perhaps the most farreaching innovation of the twentieth century acoustic guitar - the top
and bottom of the instrument are carved rather than flat (as found on the
soundboards of other mandolins and guitars), or made up of many ribs (as
on the Neapolitan style mandolin - the only type available before
Gibson). The patent was for more than that - Gibson specified that the
neck and rims (sides) are carved out of a single piece of wood, rather than
bent to shape, and the neck was made hollow under the fingerboard to
increase the air cavity.26It was Gibson's intention that the body of the
instrument should be free of all stresses, an idea which was probably a
mistaken understanding of violin design. But Gibson clearly believed that
the concept produced a superior tone - despite the much larger amount
of work required, almost all of Orville Gibson's surviving instruments are
built in this manner. Gibson made a variety of instruments - there is a
surviving zither, a lyre-mandolin,27 guitars,28mandocellos, and two types
of mandolin which he referred to as Style A and Style E These two
mandolin styles form the standarddesigns still used today.
Orville Gibson's instruments have characteristics which make them
easy to identify. The first is the carved top - a distinctive shape which
does not follow the general contours as found in violins, but rather is a
convex curve to within about /2-1" of the sides before becoming
concave to the edge. The carved backs are flat over most of their area, the
curve starting within 1-12" of the sides. The sides are, of course, carved
rather than bent - as indicated in the patent - and flow smoothly into the
neck rather than having the more usual joint found in other guitars. The
wood used for the back and sides is usually American walnut. The
decoration often features an inlaid star and crescent (reputedly done by a
Turkish man living in Kalamazoo), and the better models have a blackstained soundboard with inlay around the oval soundhole, an edge
banding of alternate pieces of ebony and mother of pearl, and an inlaid
scratchplate motif between the soundhole and the bridge, often in the
25 U.S. Patent598245.

26For a full discussionon the technical detailsof Orville Gibson'spaper,see

- The Guitarand MandolinDesignsof
Darryl Martin: TensionFree Instruments
OrvilleGibson.Paperread at the Colloquium on HistoricalMusical Instrument
Acousticsand Technology,Edinburgh,August 1997.
27The label inside the earlyGibson companyinstrumentsshows a photograph
of Orville Gibson'shead surroundedby a lyre mandolin.In 1976 an originallyremandolinwas takento the Gibson companyfor restorationwork, and inside this
instrumentwas the label mentioned above, showing that Gibson made at least
two of these instruments.See CarterGibson,p.30.
28The earliestdated guitarknown to me is 1898 (collection of Scott Chinery,
see VintageGuitarGallery,January1995, for a photo (andsome discussion)of this
instrument.
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shape of a butterfly. However the most distinctive feature is the sheer size
of the instruments. The string length is standardised at approximately
243/4" (629 mm), and the width across the lower bout is 16-17". A
similar feature is found is his mandolins, where the string length of
Gibson's instruments is 15" (381 mm), rather than the more usual 13".
The body was accordingly larger, the width across the widest point might
measure 11", rather than a typical Neapolitan style mandolin's 73/4".
On 10 October 1902, five Kalamazoo businessmen bought out Orville
Gibson and formed what was then known as the 'Gibson MandolinGuitar Manufacturing Co., Limited'. This company has, through the
century, become renowned as one of the best makers of all the types of
fretted instruments they have built. Orville was initially paid to act as a
consultant, showing others how to make the instruments, but soon found
the job not to his liking. At the beginning, the instruments were
essentially identical to those of Orville Gibson the luthier, and built in
the same manner. The Company introduced its first catalogue in 1903
emphasising all of the virtues of Orville's carved bodies. There were five
initial product lines -mandolins, mandolas, mandocellos, guitars and harp
guitars. The Gibson Company slowly started to change some of Orville's
construction methods, particularly on the mandolin product line where
the F style mandolin had lost a body point by 1910.29 The string length
was also reduced to the present-day standard of 13%7"(The Gibson
Company claimed to take a standard 13" scale as found on a violin and
added %7"for the width of the frets). The other changes found their way
onto guitars as well - the sides were bent in the normal fashion rather
than being carved, the air cavity under the fingerboard was removed, the
curve over the soundboard began to follow the general shape of a violin,
29The F style mandolinis the
industrystandardfor high qualitydesignstoday.
It is very distinctive- the modern instrumenthaving two points on the lower
(treble)side, one forming a sharpupper bout, the other close to the bottom of
the instrument.On the bassside the upperbout is in the form of an open scroll
towardsthe direction of the fingerboard.The pre-1910 mandolin had an extra
body pointjust below the scrollon the bassside, opposite the uppertreblepoint.
The two upper points and scroll (though going awayfrom the fingerboard)are
found on an instrumentknown as a Guitarpa- essentiallya harp guitar with
super-treblestringsat a higherpitch on the trebleside. A Guitarpawas shown at
the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, London, 1851, (see Peter and Ann
in the 1851 Exhibition(Welwyn,1986), plate
Mactaggart(eds):MusicalInstruments
14 for an illustration),and it hasbeen suggestedthatit was this instrumentwhich
formed the basisof Orville Gibson'soriginaldesign.This authorwill pursuethis
suggestion in a future article. The Martin company made four harp guitars
between 1902 and 1911 which follow the Guitarpaconcept quite closely, in
havingthe harpstringspassingovera second neck, giving an initialappearanceof
a double neck guitar.See Carter:Martin,pp.36-37 for an illustrationand details.
The Guitarpaitselfprobablyoriginatedas a developmentof the harp-luteor dital
harp,as madeby EdwardLightin London earlyin the eighteenthcentury.
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and the essentiallyflat back was replacedby a curved one, similarin

contourto thatof the soundboard.The inlaidscratchplate
was replacedby
an elevatedone (forwhich the GibsonCompanyalsoheld a Patent).Some
guitarbody sizesalsoincreased,with the appearancein the 1904 catalogue
of the 'specialauditorium'model, being 18" acrossthe lower bout. The
Style U Harp guitarswere even wider at 183/4".30That the guitarwas still
being thought of as a memberof the mandolinfamilycan be seen in the
designof the Company'sStyle O guitarwhich featuresa Style F type scroll
on the bass upper bout and correspondingcutawayending in a sharp
point, allowingaccessto the higherfrets,on the trebleside.
The Gibson Company was alone in the field of carved top guitars.
The Martin Company were continuing to make their flat top
guitars, having introduced a larger body size - 000, a 15" wide
special-order instrument first appearing in 1902. All of the Martin
guitars retained gut stringing. The Larson Brothers, manufacturing
under a variety of brand names - none of them their own - were
continuing with their steel-strung instruments, including harp
guitars built along very different lines to the Gibson type. The
Larson design featured a long 'extention horn' on the bass side - the
back and sides of the same pieces of rosewood, and the soundboard
of spruce with an additional soundhole. This horn extended from
the bass upper bout and curved towardsthe peghead where it had its
own peghead (holding six sub-bass strings) attached to the side of
the headstock. Lyon and Healy continued making their instruments
until production ceased on guitars (though continued on pianos and
harps) in 1928.
The major reason for the ever increasingbody sizes on these early
guitarswas an attempt to get increasedvolume. Volume appearsto be
an over-riding concern of guitar makers,resultingin a great many of
the innovationsin both the steel and gut/nylon strung instruments.In
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the guitar had to
compete with other instruments- the 5 string banjo was very popular
in the nineteenth century,and the mandolinrose to the fore aroundthe
turn of the century. Perhapsthe most extreme example of body size
occurs years later, with a Larson Brothers 'Prairie State' guitar,
nicknamed (by dealerGeorge Gruhn) the 'Big Boy' which has a width
of 21" acrossthe lower bout and is 6%"deep.31Despite the large sound
30As shown and describedin the Company'sCatalogue'H' of 1912. The harp
guitarwas highly regarded,and was displayedover the centre pages. See Carter:
Gibson,p.55.
31 Gruhn at one time owned a guitarof this model and kept it as his personal
instrument. The instrument was recently sold to Scott Chinery. They are
illustratedin Gruhn and Carter:AcousticGuitars,p.272, and in VintageGuitar
Gallery,January1995, p.12.

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the model had little impact, due to the difficulties involved in playing
the instrument.
The guitar had another competitor in the years around and following
the Great War, with the development of a new type of banjo, with four
strings tuned in fifths like a mandolin. The Gibson company paid little
attention to this trend, and in the early 1920s came up with a number
of guitar innovations which are taken for granted today. The first, and
most important, was the development of the adjustable truss rod,
invented by Gibson employee Thaddeus Joseph (Ted) McHugh, the
patent filed on 5 April 1921 and granted on 27 February 1923.32 The
adjustable truss rod is a circular metal rod inserted into a curved slot in
the guitar (or other fretted instrument) neck, securely fastened at one
end, with a thread and nut at the other. By tightening this nut, the rod
has more pressure on it, counteracting the tension of the strings. A
second innovation, filed for and patented slightly earlier, was the
height-adjustable compensated bridge. The adjustment rod and bridge
are both standard on archtop and electric guitars today. The height
adjustment has a self explanatory purpose, but the string length
compensation takes into account the physics of the string, where a
thicker string needs to be slightly longer than a thinner string for the
fretting to have true intonation.
The next innovation was a new model of guitar, designed as part of
a new family of instruments, comprising mandolin, mandola,
mandocello and guitar, and known as the Style 5 family.33 These
instruments, which are visually different, are associated with one
man, Gibson's acoustic engineer Lloyd Loar, and were made between
1922 and 1924. The mandolin and mandola retain the general body
shape of the two-point instruments built from 1910, but feature
a longer neck with 14 frets clear of the body, a raised fingerboard,
and f holes, rather than the earlier oval holes. The mandocello has
the same body shape as the guitar, both 16" wide at the lower bout,
and featuring a raised fingerboard, f holes, a tailpiece to hold the

32PatentNumber 1446758.
33Each type of instrumentwas given its own initial,in manycasesbasedon the
earlierdesignationsused by the Gibson Company.The mandolinwas built in the
fancy scroll version as the F5, the mandola was referredto as the H5, the
mandocello the K5, and the guitar the L5. Gibson were also making Master
Model (Style 5) banjos, for example the TB5 (tenor banjo) and RB5 (regular
banjo with 5 strings).The banjos could not be tuned during constructionand
thereforearenot signedby Loar.There is also at leastone A5 model, a mandolin
using the symmetricalA body shape but subjectedto the same acousticaltests,
which was signedby Loarandhassurvived.
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strings,34 and 14 clear frets on the neck.35 The biggest contribution

occurs in the construction where all of the major parts - the
soundboard, back, two soundbars, fholes and air chamber were 'tuned'
- adjusted so that each element was tuned, literally, to a specific note on
an equal-tempered scale based on a' = 440 Hz (our modern pitch).36
This process was carried out by trial and error, but was scrupulously
followed. Each instrument, when completed, was tested and had a label,
signed by Loar, inserted into the instrument to confirm it having passed
the acoustic tests. There were about 350 Loar-signed instruments,
approximately 250 of them mandolins, and these instruments are
considered by collectors today to be the ultimate designed instrument
family. Lloyd Loar left Gibson at the end of 1924 over a disagreement
concerning another innovation of his - electric instruments. The Style
5 instruments were ahead of their time, but the electric instruments
even more so. The general concepts of Loar's design would not be used
particularly until the 1980s, and though the Gibson company showed
the instruments to their teacher-agents they met with little success and
were not considered financially viable to manufacture. In fact, the Style
5 instruments themselves were not particularly viable. Although no one
would question their quality, they were built at a time when the tenor
banjo was at the height of it's popularity, and with start up costs taken
into account the models put Gibson into an extremely bad financial
position.
Elsewhere in America saw the development of another new innovative
type of guitar. Marketed under the name National, the 'resonator guitar'
dispensed with the idea of a vibrating wooden soundboard, and instead
used something similar to a loudspeaker concept, the guitar's bridge
being mounted on an aluminium cone which vibrated. The resulting
instrument had a much louder volume than the standard guitar, as well as
a noticeably different tone. The earlier guitars were built with square
necks, to be placed face up on the player's knees and played with a steel
bar sliding across the strings in imitation of Hawaiian music, by then very

4The tailpiece is an innovation that comes from the mandolins, which in turn
has a history that can be traced back to violin family instruments and early steelstrung fretted instruments such as the cittern and chittara battente. The main
advantage is that the tailpiece supports the strings from the end of the guitar
rather than the bridge which would have the risk of being torn off by the tension
of the strings. The earlier scroll body style O guitar also has a tailpiece, as do
earlier harp guitars. The earliest instruments by the Gibson company, and those
by Orville Gibson himself, had a bridge that was glued to the soundboard, with
the strings anchored through the bridge by small tapered pins.
35The scroll body Style O guitars had a cutaway on the treble side, and 15 clear
frets to the body join, but the standard Gibson guitars had only 12 frets clear.
36 See Carter: Gibson, pp.82-84.
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popularin the United States.37The roundneckspanish-styleguitarswere

introduceda yearlater.The idea of the resonatorguitarcame fromJohn
Dopyera, who applied for a patent on 9 April 1927.38 The new
production instrumentswere built with the bridge resting on three
aluminium cones, now known as the tri-cone system. Wood was
dispensedwith altogether,the sides,back and neck being made of nickel
plated 'German silver', often heavily engraved. Following a business
upheaval,a new instrumentwith a wooden body and the bridge resting
on a single cone was developed,underthe brandname Dobro.
In 1929 the WallStreetCrashprovidedthe catalystto plunge America
into the depression,forcing Gibson to startmakingwooden toys to get
enough turnoverto avoidbankruptcy,and Martinmade (althoughnever
sold) rosewoodjewellery. However, despite the financialconstraintson
consumers,the 1930s probablystandas the most innovativeperiod in the
historyof the guitar,at leastin regardto the introductionof new models
which havehad a lastingeffect on the guitar.
The first, and probably most far reaching, innovation was the
developmentof the electric guitar.This was originallyanotherattempt
to make a louder,more successfulHawaiianinstrument.The principleof
the guitarpickup is fairly simple - a magnet (or group of magnets)is
surroundedby a very thin copper wire, wound aroundit many times,39
through which the vibrationsof the stringsare turned into an electric
current which then is sent to an amplifier.The earliestcommercially
made electric (Hawaiian)guitaris referredto as the 'Fryingpan', due to
its shape, and was introducedby the RickenbackerCompany in 1931.
The first Electric Spanishguitars(as most Americancompaniestend to
referto guitarsplayedin the normalor 'Spanish'style) came soon after.40
The use of a pickup eliminatedthe need for an acoustic chamber- to
avoidfeedbacka solid body guitaris more desirable.

37A numberof Hawaiianguitarswere built by differentmanufacturers.

Many
designs were developments of the standard guitar, however, others were
specificallyfor this playing technique, having a body that extended the whole
length of the instrumentin an attemptto increasethe volume. Ukeleles were also
very popular at this time. The manufactureof Hawaiianinstrumentswas the
initial reasonthe Martin Company startedputting steel stringson their guitars.
This processwas completedat Martinby 1930 when all instruments- Hawaiian
and Spanish- had steel stringsas standard.
38See Gruhn and Carter:AcousticGuitars,pp.225-229 for a history of the
resonatorguitar and the various family feuds and Companies associatedwith
these instruments.
39A typical Fender Stratocasterpickup of 1954-55 has about 8350 turns of
wire. See AndreDuchossoir,TheFenderStratocaster
(Milwaukee,1989).
40 An early example of a Rickenbacker electric guitar can be seen at the
HornimanMuseum,London, CatalogueNo.M52-1992.
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Guitarists are by nature very conservative in approach, and the

introduction of a successful electric pickup did not mean that acoustic
guitars would lose popularity. The typical use of the archtop guitar (for
example the Lloyd Loar L5 guitar) was in jazz combos and orchestras,
and was usually confined to a rhythm role due to the volume limitations.
Despite the depression, Gibson introduced their largest, fanciest, and
most expensive archtop model, the Super 400, in 1934.41 This model was
18" wide across the lower bout, a full 2 inches wider than the Loar
model L5, which in turn was advanced to 17" wide. The top of the
instrument was braced in a X pattern, unlike the earlier parallel barring
on the L5 [see Figs. 5 and 6].

FIG. 5. Gibson,Super400

FIG.6. Gibson,L5

Elsewhere Martin, having lagged behind in the design of new

instruments for many years, and having just switched from gut to steel
stringing, started to develop new models. The first was the OM
(Orchestra Model), introduced in 1929, featuring a 14 fret neck and a
modified 000 body (it retained the same width but was shorter in length).
The second new model was the 'D', 15%" wide at the lower bout, with a
waist nearly as wide as the upper bout. The D in the model designation
stood for Dreadnought, named after the British battleship built in 1906.
The X-barring inside the instrument was by this time fully established
[see Fig. 7]. Despite the introduction of the 14 fret neck on the OM and
other models, the D instruments were initially built with a 12 fret neck.
41 For a full history of the Super 400, and the relatedversions of the L5 see
Thomas A. Van Hoose: The GibsonSuper 400, Art of the Fine Guitar(San
Francisco,1991).

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17777

FIG. 7. Martin& Co, D Model

The firstD models were made in 1931, and by 1933 they were popular
enough to be orderedby Gene Autry,a popularfilm singing star,who
askedfor his instrumentto be decoratedin the Company'smost expensive
style. This instrumentis the firstD45, and is probablythe most valuable
guitarever made.42Only 91 pre-warD45s exist - the first2, and a later
specialorderwith a 12 fret neck, the remainderwith the standard14 fret
neck. It is thismodel which hasturnedaroundthe fortuneson the Martin
company,andis the industrysteel-strungflattop standardtoday.
Gibson was awareof the improvementin the fortunesof the Martin
company, and introduced two models to compete. The first was the
SuperJumbo 200. This instrumentwas, like the D45, built with the
Westerncowboy type playerin mind. The SJ200had a noticeablywider
body than the D45, measuring16'8" (later17") acrossthe lower bout.
The firstinstrumentwas built in 1934 for singingcowboy Ray Corrigan,
a western film actor who has genuine ties to the real 'wild west',
befriending William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody in Milwaukee, and then
working in the real-estate business with Wyatt Earp.43Most other
big-name singing cowboys purchasedsimilar instrumentssoon after.
42This was not the most valuableguitarwhen new, but would almostcertainly
fetch a record price for a guitar were it to ever come onto the market, even
without the ownership connection. Pre-war D45 guitars are commonly
consideredthe most valuablecommon productionvintageguitars.
43See VintageGuitarGallery,April 1995 for more detailsabout this guitarand
the life of Ray Corrigan.The articleis writtenby the collectorHank Risan, who
now owns this guitar.
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Gibson also introduced the Advanced Jumbo, a 16" wide Dreadnoughtshaped guitar aimed to compete directly against the Martin instruments.
The X-barring of the Martin guitars was also featured on these
instruments.
Gibson also introduced the hybrid jazz electric guitar with the ES150
model, first produced in 1937. The model featured a fairly standard
archtop jazz guitar (with spruce soundboard, as on all the acoustic
archtops) with a built-in electric pickup. A year later a fancier 17" wide
model, the ES250, was introduced. The pickup used a single bar magnet
and is referred to this day as the 'Charlie Christian pickup', after the
musician who popularised it. The move was a major step forward for the
guitar (and guitarists), as for the first time the instrument could be used as
a single melodic line solo instrument in the jazz bands, competing with
trumpets and saxophones. At the end of the decade archtop guitars were
being regularly built with a cutaway on the treble side at the upper bout
to allow easy access to the upper frets. Nearly all archtop and electric
guitars make use of that innovation today.
Until the beginning of the 1930s Europe had little involvement in any
great innovations on the guitar. The classical instrument as developed by
Torres was being refined in Spain and elsewhere by makers such as
Manual Ramirez, Santos Hernandez, Miguel Simplico, Hermann Hauser
and Robert Bouchet.44 Both Hauser in Germany, and Bouchet in France
used a barring arrangement in some of their instruments following a
Torres design with several of the fan struts passing through an aperture in
the upper harmonic bar, Bouchet with such success it is often considered
his own invention.45 [See Fig. 8.] The next innovative step in Europe
occurred when the Paris based Selmer company, under the direction of
the Italian guitarist and instrument maker Mario Maccafferi, introduced
their range of instruments in 1932.46 The first period lasted less than two
years before Maccaferri left, and saw the introduction of four standard
guitar models - a normal Spanish style classical guitar; a 'Concert' model
classical guitar featuring a D-shaped soundhole and treble upper bout
cutaway; and steel string guitars - the 'Jazz'model, built identically to the
'Concert' gut-strung model, and an 'Orchestra' model. The steel-strung
guitars have floating bridges,47 and strings attached to the tailpieces as
found in the American-made jazz archtop guitars. One particular
44See Romanillos: Antonio de Torres,Part 1, Chapter 4 for details.

November 1986. This issueof the magazinefeatured

45See GuitarInternational,
an obituaryof Bouchet and detailsof his work.
46For a good outline history of these guitars,and the history of the company
see Vintage Guitar Gallery, April 1994.

47A 'floatingbridge'is one in which the base of the bridge is not glued to the
soundboard,but is shapedto fit and held againstit by the pressureof the strings,
similarto that of a violin.

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FIG.8. Bouchet

innovationwas the use of an internalresonatorto increasethe volume.

The instrumentswere all built with flat tops (though appeararcheddue
to the curved soundboardbarring)and were initiallybuilt with 12 fret
necks. The fame of these instrumentscan be attributedto the gypsyjazz
guitaristDjango Reinhardt,who used a 'Jazz'model from 1933 until his
death in 1953. Many jazz guitaristsused these instruments on the
strengthon Reinhardt'sperformances.AfterMaccaferrileft the company
a number of changes were made to the instruments,particularlythe
abandonmentof the internalresonator,the increasefrom 12 to 14 clear
fretson the neck, and the increasein stringlength from 640 mm to 670
mm. This is the longest stringlength of any standardtwentieth-century
guitar.48
The period from the late 1930s saw the rise of severalindependent
American luthiers making totally hand-craftedarchtop guitars. The
Strombergs- father Charles,and son Elmer - startedmaking archtop
guitarsin the early1930s, as did the New YorkmakerJohn D'Angelico.49
Both of these workshops commenced by building instruments that
basically copied Gibson designs but later evolved their own models.
Although much of their design was evolved from the work of previous
48 Occasionallyother makershave-used the same length, for exampleRichard
Schneider,working to the designs of Dr. Michael Kasha (see Tom and Mary
to Rock(New YorkandLondon, 1977),
Anne Evans:Guitars:FromtheRenaissance
and was even slightly exceeded (672 mm) in a nineteenth-centuryguitar by
p.117.
Miguel Moya,see Romanillos:Antoniode Torres,
49For a historyofJohn D'Angelico and a discussionof his instrumentssee Paul
William Schmidt:Acquired
guitarmakers
of theAngels:Thelivesandworksof master
JohnD'Angelicoand amesL. D'Aquisto(MetuchenN.J. andLondon, 1991).

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archtop builders, these makers were able to make instruments as customordered by players. The Strombergs developed a standard model which
was larger than the Gibson Super 400 - the Stromberg 'Master 400'
measures 19" across the lower bout, their smaller 'Deluxe' measuring
17%". D'Angelico retained the 18" and 17" models to match Gibson,
but also made a number of custom instruments a full 19" wide. These
instruments were often amplified (as were the Gibson L5 and Super 400)
by floating pickups attached to the end of the fingerboard so that the
vibrations of the soundboard were not impeded.
The second World War interrupted most guitar making, but about this
time the major innovation of the classical guitar world occurred when
Albert Augustine developed and perfected the nylon classical guitar
string. Of all the innovations mentioned, this is probably the most
successful. It was soon adopted by nearly all classical guitar players and 50
years after the invention is used almost without exception todays5. The
advantages of nylon are that the strings have a higher breaking strain (can
be tuned higher before they break), whereas gut was nearing its limits at
modern pitch, the strings tend to be truer,51they are non-hygroscopic,
thus retaining their tuning better, and were cheaper and readily
available.52
Perhaps the post war years up to 1963 mark the greatest number of
innovative changes to the guitar, almost all of which have survived and in
many cases define the guitar today. The earlier period of development
concerned the American popular instrument. Shortly after the war saw
the development of the first electric solidbody spanish guitar built in
5"I do not know of any classicalguitaristwho playswith gut stringsnowadays,
with the exception of period instrumentperformerseither playing copies, or
originalnineteenth-centuryinstruments,or earlytwentieth-centuryguitars.This
is perhapsunfortunatebecausegut producesa differentsound which most people
tend to preferto nylon, and this is an example of playerssufferinga loss of tone
qualityfor convenience and ease. It would, of course, be 'unauthentic'to play
modern pieces on a gut strung instrument,but it would be interestingto hear
early twentieth-centurymusic played on a gut strung guitar. So successfulhas
been the developmentof nylon stringsthat many lutenistsuse nylon ratherthan
gut on lutes, vihuelasandbaroqueguitars.
51 Truenessof a string is easily checked by playinga harmonic at the twelfth
fret and then playinga frettednote at the same fret. The pitch of a string that is
'true' will be identical.Defects in the stringwould cause differenceswhich have
obvious implicationsfor the tuning of the guitarwhen played,particularlyat the
higher frets. It must be said that nylon is by no means perfect and in the late1970s and into the 1980s many guitaristswere regularlycomplainingpublicly
aboutthe poor qualityof nylon strings.
52The variousdifficultiesof AndresSegoviain obtaininggut stringsduringthe
wararewell reported.
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This was not the

majorcommercialproduction- the FenderTelecaster.53
earliestsolidbodyspanishguitarbuilt, for PaulBigsby,basedin California
(aswas Fender)built an instrumentin 194654,which had probablybeen
seen by Fender.Rickenbackerhad been makingsolidbodyguitarsin the
1930s (see above), and other individual luthiers also made solidbody
instruments, most noticeably Les Paul, the guitar performer.ssThe
Telecasterwas developedin 1949 (as shown by the prototype)56and was
firstsold to the public in 1950. Slightlybefore that (in 1949) the Gibson
companyintroducedtwo new models, visuallylooking like the archtop
instrumentsbut with a pressed laminated maple top rather than the
carvedsprucesoundboardson the L5 and Super400. These guitars(the
ES175 and E5 Switchmaster)had pickups as standard,and should be
considered the first semi-acoustic electric guitars. In 1952 Gibson
introducedthe 'LesPaulModel', theirfirstsolidbody,built with a carved
maple top glued to a mahoganybase. In 1954 Fender introducedthe
Stratocaster,the first electric guitar with three pickups and a tremolo
arm. The Telecaster,Stratocasterand Les Paul models are the three
standarddesignsthat are copied or form the basisof designfor almostall
solidbody electric guitars built today. In 1957 Gibson introduced
'humbucking' pickups, invented by employee Seth Lover.s7 These
pickups (essentiallytwo pickups close together that cancel out any
buzzing and other backgroundnoise) produce a differentsound to the
hitherto used single coil pickups, the sound being usuallydescribedas
'fatter'or 'warmer'.In 1958 Gibson introducednew models, essentially
as a meansof changingtheir staidimage. The models were the FlyingV
and the Explorer,both radicallyshaped, and initially unpopular.They
also introducedthe ES335, a double cutawaysemi-solid electric guitar,
built with the neck extending through the body so the pickups and
bridge rest on solid wood to eliminatefeedback,with hollow wings and
53The instrument was originally built as the Broadcaster,but the Gretsch
company forced a change as they were alreadymanufacturingdrumsunder the
name Broadkaster.The earliest Fender guitars of the model had the name
Broadcasteron the headstock,and there area numberof instrumentswhich have
the decal cut off (leaving only the Fender decal). These instrumentsare now
(unofficially)known amongstcollectors as 'No-casters'.See A. R. Duchossoir:
The Fender Telecaster(Milwaukee, 1991).

54A Bigsby guitar, now in the Country Music Hall of Fame, was built for
country guitaristMerle Travis.In fact the instrumentwas not a total solidbody,
but certainlyappearsto be.
55This guitarwas known as 'The Log'. Paul tried to interest Gibson in the
instrument but had little success. The 'Les Paul' model guitar owes little, if
anything, to the guitarist'searlierinstrument,and was named after him as the
endorser.
56 See A. R. Duchossoir: The Fender Telecaster,
p.9.

57See Tony Bacon and Paul Day: The GibsonLes Paul Book(London, 1993),
p.21.

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fholes to give a traditionalappearance.Les Paul was alteredso that the

previous goldtop was replacedby a sunburstfinish, often using highly
figured maple, and double neck guitars were introduced as special
order items, usuallywith a standardsix as well as a twelve string neck,
or a six and an octave neck. These guitars are perhaps the most
remarkableof all the designs, featuring a carved spruce soundboard
without f holes. The Les Paul model was modified in 1961 by the
removalof the carvedmaple top layer,and alteringthe design so that it
had two cutaways.
The final major innovation in the classicalguitar world took place,
probablyin 1962, with experimentationusing WesternRed Cedar for
soundboardsas an alternativeto spruce."8This innovationcan be seen as
comparableto the changes in the American instrumentswhere the
differentmodels are played side-by-side. Many modern classicalguitar
makers offer both spruce and cedar soundboardsin their instruments
nowadays.The differenceis certainlynoticeable,but hardto quantify.It
appearsgenerally accepted that cedar is louder, but there is a tonal
difference,the spruce producinga 'purer'sound. However, despite the
differences, neither is considered inferior and the choice is one of
personal preference, and top professionalperformers can be found
playingeither instrument.This parallelsthe preferenceof electric guitar
playerswho playa Gibsonor a Fender- eachproducesits own sound and
the playerschoose accordingto personaltaste
The 1960s saw the rise of a new type of acousticguitaramplification.
Rather than using a magneticpickup that worked from the vibrationof
the strings, companiessuch as Ovation starteddevelopingpickups that
worked on the vibrationsof the soundboard,the best examplesbeing the
pickupsplacedunderthe bridge saddle.The Ovation companymoved in
a new direction by introducingguitarswith plastic backs and in-built
volume and tone controlson what was essentiallyan acousticguitar.This
designwas successful,partiallydue to the rise of 'folk' music as a popular
idiom, particularlyvisible in the popularityof performerssuch as Bob
Dylan and the Byrds.The Gibsoncompanytook this a step furtherin the
1980s with the introduction of what are best described as solidbody
acousticguitars,notablythe Chet Atkins model - a 12 fret nylon strung
guitarwhich took the playabilityfeaturesof a classicalguitar(neck width,
stringspacing,bridge height etc) and had a hybridbody, havinga spruce
top and a thin solidbody single-cutawayshape. This model made its
debut in 1982 and was followed by a steel strung 14 fret version soon
5 There is some debate about the exact date this took place, and was the
subject of an exchange of views in the ClassicalGuitarletters section between
R. E. Brune and John Huber. Neither have seen an instrumentwith a cedar
soundboarddatedbefore 1963, and the foremanin the Ramirezworkshopat the
time saysthat 'seriousexperimentation'startedin 1962.

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after.59Although the folk era had lost much of its popularity by the late
1970s, it has found some form of resurgence in the 1990s with the
introduction of various 'unplugged' performances - where electric bands
use acoustic instruments. The most recent electric/acoustic innovation
from America is the 'double-tone' instrument, combining an electric
guitar configuration and a piezo bridge pickup system to allow
performers to change from an electric to acoustic sound at the press of a
switch.
During this time the classical guitar began to be developed in new
ways. A number of makers began to offer guitars with a 660 mm string
length as standard, to give an increased tension. Other later developments
with the classical guitar have resulted in a number of 'high-tech'
innovations. Many guitar makers are now building instruments well away
from the traditional Torres type of construction. The American physicist
Michael Kasha has developed a new barring system having a series of
soundbars surrounding the bridge and altering in length from bass to
treble. Other makers have refined or adopted his design. Manuel
Contreres of Madrid has developed a number of new designs, the most
radical being the Carlevaro model which takes its design principles from
the piano and has no waist on the bass side. His other designs include the
'double top' -the guitar having a second soundboard near the bottom of
the instrument; and another instrument having a device for keeping the
back and sides of the instrument away from the player'sbody to stop the
guitar vibrations from being dampened.60 The American makers John
Gilbert and Thomas Humphrey have (independently) developed new
designs, the Humphrey 'Millennium' model has the strings approaching
the soundboard at an angle similar to a harp and has been patented. The
Australian maker Greg Smallman - whose instruments are used by John
Williams - has introduced what is probably the most radical design yet,
with the soundboard barring similar to an egg crate made of crisscrossing carbon fibre and the wood soundboard itself almost only a
veneer.61 As yet none of these innovations has become widely adopted.
At the same time, classical guitar performers are being asked to play in
noisier and larger buildings. It is now common to attend guitar recitals
where some form of amplification is used. Microphones in front of the
guitar have been used for many years and slowly classical guitars with
9"See Carter:Gibson,p.271.

6(1For informationabout the

variousnew models of instrumentsproducedby

Contrerassee Guitar International,
December 1987, and Guitar International,
March 1990. For specific information on the Carlevaromodel see Guitar
International,
February1989.
( See GuitarInternational,
August 1988. John Hall, anotherAustralianmaker
who works on the same principleswas interviewedin GuitarInternational,
June
1989.

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in-built pickups are becoming more common. Both Ovation and

Takamine offer classical guitars with in-built pickups, and various other
pickup systems are available for use on standardclassical guitars.

CONCLUSION

- THE FUTURE

As electric players use acoustic sounding instruments, and classical players

are increasingly having to amplify their instruments, it is perhaps time to
consider the future of the guitar. Traditionally, the great divide between
classical and popular music has resulted in little contact between the two
worlds - Segovia is known to have hated the electric guitar, and few rock
guitarists would play Bach or Sor. Most younger guitarists have grown up
in the electric-guitar era so this divide is becoming less evident. A
number of classical composers are writing music for electric instruments,
not counting various 'fusion' composers who have been writing pieces
specifically for electric instruments which would be considered 'classical'
if a nylon-strung guitar was used. As yet there are no classical guitarists of
note playing the Gibson 'Chet Atkins' model nylon-string guitar, but it
seems reasonable that it will happen. The guitars of builders such as Greg
Smallman are as different in sound to Torres as they are to the Atkins
model so the tonal distinction has been blurred. Augustin Barrios, the
guitarist and composer from Paraguay used steel strings on his classical
guitar and his compositions are performed regularly on the classical
concert platform today. It seems that the classical guitar can no longer
really be said to refer to an instrument, but to a style of music. This is
back full circle to the situation of 100 years ago when the European
classical guitar and American parlor guitar started to go their own ways.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tony Bacon and Paul Day: The GibsonLes PaulBook.(London:BalafonBooks,
1993).
Walter Carter: Gibson Guitars : 100 Years of an American Icon. (Los Angeles:

GeneralPublishingGroup,Inc, 1994).
WalterCarter:TheMartinBook.(London:BalafonBooks, 1995).
Roy Courtnall:MakingMasterGuitars.(London:Robert Hale Limited, 1993).
A.R.Duchossior: The FenderStratocaster.
(Milwaukee:Hal LeonardPublishing
1989).
Corporation,
A.R.Duchossior: The Fender Telecaster.
(Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing
Corporation,1991).
Tom and Mary Anne Evans: Guitars - From the Renaissanceto Rock, (New York

and London:PaddingtonPressLtd, 1977).

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-a
George Gruhn and WalterCarter:AcousticGuitarsandotherFrettedInstruments
Photographic
History.(SanFrancisco:GPI Books, 1993).
George Gruhn and Walter Carter:ElectricGuitarsand Basses- a Photographic
History.(SanFransisco:GPI Books, 1994).
GuitarMaker- His Life& Work,(Shaftesbury,
Jose Romanillos:Antoniode Torres.
ElementBooks Ltd, 1987)
Paul William Schmidt.Acquiredof theAngels: The livesand worksof master
guitar
makersohnD'Angelicoand amesL. D'Aquisto.(Metuchen,N.J. andLondon:The
ScarecrowPress,Inc., 1991).
Thomas A. Van Hoose: The GibsonSuper400 - Art of the Fine Guitar.(San
Francisco:GPI Books, 1991).
The following catalogueswere consulted:The GalpinSociety:Madefor Music.(The GalpinSociety, 1986).
Peter and Ann Mactaggart(eds.): MusicalInstruments
in the 1851 Exhibition.
(Welwyn:Mac & Me, Ltd., 1986).
Arnold Myers (ed.): HistoricMusicalInstrumentsin the EdinburghUniversity
Collection.
(Edinburgh,EUCHMI, Volume 1, 1990).
The following magazineswere also consulted:ClassicalGuitar
GuitarInternational
VintageGuitarGallery

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