Guitars | Can’t Sleep? Learn About A Musical Classic

The guitar has traveled a long path from its ancient ancestors to become one of the most widely played instruments in the world. This episode explores the history of the guitar, how its design evolved over centuries, the differences between acoustic and electric guitars, and why six strings became the standard. Along the way, you’ll hear about luthiers, famous innovations, classical traditions, and the surprisingly global journey of an instrument found in nearly every genre of music.

It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, Where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host Benjamin Boster, And today's episode is about guitars. The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has 6 or 12 strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, While simultaneously pressing selected strings against the frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, Or amplified by an electric pickup and an amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone, Meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, A guitar was constructed from wood, With its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the 19th century in the United States, But nylon and steel strings became mainstream only following World War II. The guitar's ancestor included the Gittern, The Vihuela, The four-course Renaissance guitar, And the five-course Baroque guitar, All of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument. There are three main types of modern guitar. The classical guitar, Spanish guitar. The steel string acoustic guitar, Or electric guitar. And the Hawaiian guitar, Played across the player's lap. Traditional acoustic guitars include the flat-top guitar, Typically with a large sound hole, Or the arch-top guitar, Which is sometimes called a jazz guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the string's vibration, Amplified by the hollow body of the guitar, Which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical Spanish guitar is often played as a solo instrument, Using a comprehensive finger-style technique, Where each string is plucked individually by the player's fingers, As opposed to being strummed. The term fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, Blues, Bluegrass, And country guitar playing in the United States. Electric guitars, First patented in 1937, Use a pickup and amplifier that made the instrument loud enough to be heard. But also enabled manufacturing guitars with a solid block of wood, Without needing a resonant chamber. A wide array of electronic effects units became possible, Including reverb and distortion or overdrive. Solid body guitars began to dominate the guitar market during the 1960s and 1970s. They are less prone to unwanted acoustic feedback. As with acoustic guitars, There are a number of types of electric guitars, Including hollow body guitars, Archtop guitars used in jazz guitar, Blues, And rockabilly, And solid body guitars, Which are widely used in rock music. The loud amplified sound and sonic power of the electric guitar played through a guitar amp have played a key role in the development of blues and rock music, Both as an accompaniment instrument, Playing riffs and chords, And performing guitar solos. And in many rock sub-genres, Notably heavy metal music and punk rock. The electric guitar has had a major influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a wide variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, Bluegrass, Country, Flamenco, Folk, Jazz, Jota, Ska, Mariachi, Metal, Punk, Funk, Reggae, Rock, Grunge, Soul, Acoustic music, Disco, New wave, New age, Adult contemporary music, And pop. Occasionally used as a sample in hip-hop, Dubstep, Or trap music. The modern word guitar and its antecedents have been applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times, Sometimes causing confusion. The English word guitar, The German guitar, And the French guitare were all adopted from the Spanish guitara, Which comes from the Andalusian Arabic quithara and the Latin quithara. Which in turn came from the ancient Greek Kithara, Which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Kithara appears in the Bible four times. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 7, Revelations chapter 5 verse 8, Revelations chapter 14 verse 2, And Revelations chapter 15 verse 2. It is usually translated into English as harp. The origins of the modern guitar are not known. Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, A guitar was defined as being an instrument having a long, Fretted neck, Flat wooden soundboard, Ribs, And a flat back, Most often with incurved sides. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe beginning in the 12th century and later in the Americas. A 3, 300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of a chordophone, And clay plaques from Babylonia show people playing a lute-like instrument, Which is similar to the guitar. Several scholars cite varying influences as antecedents to the modern guitar. Although the development of the earliest guitars lost to the history of medieval Spain, Two instruments are commonly claimed as influential predecessors. The four-string Oud and its precursor, The European Lute. The former was brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century. It has often been assumed that the guitar is a development of the lute, Or of the ancient Greek kithara. However, Many scholars consider the lute an offshoot or separate line of development, Which did not influence the evolution of the guitar in any significant way. At least two instruments called guitars were used in Spain by 1200. The Guitarra Latina, Latin guitar, And the so-called Guitarra Morisca, Moorish guitar. The guitar Moriska had a rounded back, A wide fingerboard, And several sound holes. The Guitarra Latina had a single sound hole and a narrow neck. By the 14th century, The qualifiers moresca or morisca in Latina had been dropped, And these two chordophones were simply referred to as guitars. The Spanish vijuela, Called in Italian the viola da mano, A guitar-like instrument of the 15th and 16th centuries, Is widely considered to have been the single most important influence in the development of the Baroque guitar. It adds six courses, Usually lute-like tuning and force, And a guitar-like body. Although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist. It was also larger than the contemporary four-course guitars. By the 16th century, The vihuela's construction had more in common with the modern guitar, With its curved one-piece ribs, Than with the vials, And more like a larger version of the contemporary four-course guitars. The vihuela enjoyed only a relatively short period of popularity in Spain and Italy, During an era dominated elsewhere in Europe by the lute. The last surviving published music for the instrument appeared in 1576. Meanwhile, The five-course Baroque guitar, Which was documented in Spain from the middle of the 16th century, Enjoyed popularity, Especially in Spain, Italy, And France, From the late 16th century to the mid-18th century. In Portugal, The word viola referred to the guitar, As guitarra meant the Portuguese guitar, A variety of citron. There were many different plucked instruments that were being invented and used in Europe during the Middle Ages. By the 16th century, Most of the forms of guitar had fallen off to never be seen again. However, Midway through the 16th century, The five-course guitar was established. It was not a straightforward process. There were two types of five-course guitars, Differing in the location of the major third and in the interval pattern. The fifth chords can be inferred because the instrument was known to play more than the 16 notes possible with four. The guitar's strings were tuned in unison. So, In other words, It was tuned by placing a finger on the second fret of the thinnest string and tuning the guitar bottom to top. The strings were a whole octave apart from one another, Which is a reason for the different method of tuning. Because it was so different, There was major controversy as to who created the 5-chorus guitar. A literary source, Lope de Vegas Dorotea, Gives the credit to the poet and musician, Vicente Espinel. This claim was also repeated by Nicolas Doizzi de Velasco in 1640. However, This claim has been contested by others who state that Espinal's birth year, 1550, Make it impossible for him to be responsible for the tradition. He believed that the tuning was the reason the instrument became known as the Spanish guitar in Italy. Even later in the same century, Gaspar Sanz wrote that other nations, Such as Italy or France, Added to the Spanish guitar. All of these nations even imitated the five-chorus guitar by recreating their own. Finally, Circa 1850, The form and structure of the modern guitar were developed by different Spanish makers, Such as Manuel de Soto y Solares, And perhaps the most important of all guitar makers, Antonio Torres Ruedado, Who increased the size of the guitar body, Altered its proportions, And invented the breakthrough fan brace pattern. Bracing, The internal pattern of wood reinforcements used to secure the guitar's top and back and prevent the instrument from collapsing under tension, Is an important factor in how the guitar sounds. Torres's design greatly improved the volume, Tone, And projection of the instrument, And it has remained essentially unchanged since. Guitars are often divided into two broad categories, Acoustic and electric guitars. Within each category there are further subcategories that are nearly endless in quantity and are always evolving. For example, An electric guitar can be purchased in a 6-string model, The most common model, Or in 7- or 12-string formats. An instrument's overall design, Internal construction and components, Wood type or species, Hardwood and electronic appointments, All add to the abundant nature of subcategories and its unique tonal and functional property. Acoustic guitars form several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group. Classical and flamenco guitars, Steel string guitars, Which include the flat-topped or folk guitar, 12-string guitars, And the arch-topped guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers, Such as the acoustic bass guitar, Which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar. Renaissance and Baroque guitars are the ancestors of the modern classical and flamenco guitar. They are substantially smaller, More delicate in construction, And generate less volume. The strings are paired in courses, As in a modern 12-string guitar, But they only have 4 or 5 courses of strings, Rather than 6 single strings normally used now. They were more often used as rhythm instruments in ensembles than as solo instruments, And can often be seen in that role in early music performances. Renaissance and Baroque guitars are easily distinguished, Because the Renaissance guitar is very plain, And the Baroque guitar is very ornate, With ivory or wood inlays all over the neck and body, And a paper cut-out inverted wedding cake inside the hole. Classical guitars, Also known as Spanish guitars, Are typically strung with nylon strings, Plucked with the fingers, Played in a seated position, And are used to play a diversity of musical styles, Including classical music. The classical guitar's wide, Flat neck allows a musician to play scales, Arpeggios, And certain chord forms more easily, And with less adjacent string interference than on other styles of guitar. Flamenco guitars are very similar in construction, But they are associated with a more percussive tone. In Portugal, The instrument is iconically associated with Fado music, Where it is traditionally strung with 12 strings. The guitar is called viola or violão in Brazil, Where it is often used with an extra 7th string by choro musicians to provide extra bass support. In Mexico, The popular mariachi band includes a range of guitars, From the small requinto to the guitarrón, A guitar larger than a cello, Which is tuned in the bass register. In Colombia, The traditional quartet includes a range of instruments too, From the small bandola, To the slightly larger tiple, To the full-sized classical guitar. The requinto also appears in other Latin American countries as a complementary member of the guitar family, With its smaller size and scale permitting more projection for the playing of single-lined melodies. Modern dimensions of the classical instrument were established by the Spaniard Antonio de Torres Jurado. Flat-top guitars with steel strings are similar to the classical guitar. However, The flat-top body size is usually significantly larger than a classical guitar and has a narrower reinforced neck and stronger structural design. The robust X-bracing typical of flat-top guitars was developed in the 1840s by German-American luthiers, Of whom Christian Friedrich C. F. Martin is the best known. Originally used on gut string instruments, The strength of the system allowed the later guitars to withstand the additional tension of steel strings. Steel strings produce a brighter tone and a louder sound. The acoustic guitar is used in many kinds of music including folk, Country, Bluegrass, Pop, Jazz, And blues. Many variations are possible from the roughly classical sized OO and Parlor, To the large Dreadnought, The most commonly available type, And Jumbo. Ovation makes a modern variation with a rounded backside assembly molded from artificial materials. The archtop guitars are steel string instruments in which the top and often the back of the instrument are carved from a solid billet into a curved rather than flat shape. This violin-like construction is usually credited to the American Orville Gibson. Lloyd Lohr of the Gibson Mandolin Guitar MFG Company introduced the violin-inspired F-shape hole design, Now usually associated with archtop guitars, After designing a style of mandolin of the same type. The typical archtop guitar has a large, Deep, Hollow body whose form is much like that of a mandolin or a violin family instrument. Nowadays, Most archtops are equipped with magnetic pickups, And they are therefore both acoustic and electric. F-hole archtop guitars were immediately adopted upon their release, Both by jazz and country musicians, And have remained particularly popular in jazz music, Usually the flat-wound strings. All three principal types of resonator guitars were invented by the Slovak-American John Dopera, 1893 to 1988, For the National and Dobro, Dopera brothers' companies. Similar to the flat-top guitar in appearance, But with a body that may be made of brass, Nickel-silver, Or steel, As well as wood, The sound of the resonator guitar is produced by one or more aluminum resonator cones mounted in the middle of the top. The physical principle of the guitar is therefore similar to the loudspeaker. The original purpose of the resonator was to produce a very loud sound. This purpose has been largely superseded by electrical amplification, But the resonator guitar is still played because of its distinctive tone. Resonator guitars may have either one or three resonator cones. The method of transmitting sound resonance to the cone is either a biscuit bridge, Made of a small piece of hardwood at the vertex of the cone, Or a spider bridge, Made of metal and mounted around the rib of the inverted cone. Three-cone resonators always use a specialized metal bridge. A type of resonator guitar with a neck with a square cross section, Called square neck or Hawaiian, Is usually played face up on the lap of the seated player, And often with a metal or glass slide. The round neck resonator guitars are normally played in the same fashion as other guitars, Although slides are also often used, Especially in blues. A steel guitar is any guitar played while moving a polished steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a steel and is in the source of the name steel guitar. The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it does not use frets. Known for its portamento capabilities, Gliding smoothly over every pitch between nodes, The instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato, Emulating the human singing voice. Typically the strings are plucked, Not strummed, By the fingers of the dominant hand, While the steel tone bar is pressed slightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand. The instrument is played while sitting, Placed horizontally across the player's knees or otherwise supported. The horizontal playing style is called Hawaiian style. The 12-string guitar usually has steel strings and is widely used in folk music, Blues, And rock and roll. Rather than having only six strings, The 12-string guitar has six courses made up of two strings each, Like a mandolin or lute. The highest two choruses are tuned in unison, While the others are tuned in octaves. The 12-string guitar is also made in electric forms. The chime-like sound of the 12-string electric guitar was the basis of jingle pop. Electric guitars can have solid, Semi-hollow or hollow bodies. Solid bodies produce little sound without amplification. In contrast to a standard acoustic guitar, Electric guitars instead rely on electromagnetic pickups, And sometimes piezoelectric pickups that convert the vibration of the steel strings into signals which are fed to an amplifier through a patch cable or radio transmitter. The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices, Or the natural distortion of valves, Or the preamp in the amplifier. There are two main types of magnetic pickups, Single and double coil, Each of which can be passive or active. The electric guitar is used extensively in jazz, Blues, R&B, And rock and roll. The first successful magnetic pickup for a guitar was invented by George Beauchamp and incorporated into the 1931 Rope Hat Inn, Later Rickenbacker, Freinpan, Lapsteel. Other manufacturers, Notably Gibson, Soon began to install pickups in archtop models. After World War II, The completely solid-body electric was popularized by Gibson, In collaboration with Les Paul, And independently by Leo Fender of Fender Music. The lower fretboard action, The height of the strings from the fingerboard, Lighter, Thinner strings, And its electrical amplification lend the electric guitar to techniques less frequently used on acoustic guitars. These include tapping, Extensive use of legato through pull-offs and hammer-ons, Pinch harmonics, Volume swells, And use of a tremolo arm or effects pedals. Some electric guitar models feature piezoelectric pickups, Which function as transducers to provide a sound closer to that of an acoustic guitar with the flip of a switch or knob, Rather than switching guitars. Those that combine piezoelectric pickups and magnetic pickups are sometimes known as hybrid guitars. Hybrids of acoustic and electric guitars are also common. There are also more exotic varieties such as guitars with two, Three, Or rarely four necks, All manner of alternate string arrangements, Fretless fingerboards, 5. 1 surround guitar, And such. Solid Body 7-string guitars were popularized in the 1980s and 1990s. Other artists go a step further by using an 8-string guitar with two extra low strings. Although the most common 7-string has a low B string, Roger McQuinn uses an octave G string, Paired with the regular G string as on a 12-string guitar, Allowing him to incorporate chiming 12-string elements in standard 6-string playing. In 1982, Uli John Ross developed the Sky Guitar with a vastly extended number of frets, Which was the first guitar to venture into the upper registers of the violin. Roth's seven-string and mighty-wing guitar features a wide octave range. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, But with a longer neck and scale length, And four to six strings. The four-string bass, By far the most common, Is usually tuned the same as the double bass, Which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest pitch strings of a guitar, E, A, D, And G. The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, As it is noted in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds, As is the double bass, To avoid excessive ledger lines being required below the staff. Like the electric guitar, The bass guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances.