A brief history of the classical guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is a guest post by Christopher Davis, author of The Classical Guitar Blog

Our instrument has a long history. Dating all the way back to 1400s when an instrument called the Vihuela flourished in Spain. Vihuela featured six courses of strings - a course being a pair of strings tuned to the same pitch in this case. Much like today's guitars, the tuning was fourths and one third. In today's terms, Vihuela tuning would be E A D F# B E.



Interestingly, vihuela was really a family of instruments: they came in all sizes. There are only three original Vihuelas in existence today, and each is slightly different in scale length and pitch. Some would even be considered bass-like. There was also a four course guitar that flourished in France during the Renaissance.

The Baroque guitar (around 1600-1800) flourished in many European countries. These guitars are as much works of art as they are instruments. They featured extensive ornamentation and inlays.





And elaborate rosettes that filled the sound hole.



Around 1800 guitar builders gradually added a sixth course, and went to single strings. Check out this instrument, a six course guitar built around 1800.



And this one built just a few years later.



Like guitarists today, guitarists in the later 1800s explored guitars with more than six strings. Composer/Guitarist Johann Kaspar Mertz played on a ten-string instrument similar to the modern harp guitar.



Napoleon Coste also added more strings and wrote music for this seven string guitar.

The ten-string guitar is still alive today thanks to the work of Narciso Yepes.



Classical, nylon-strung guitars today, however, are mostly pretty tame. And they're all descendents of the grand-daddy of the modern guitar, Antonio Torres. Torres built guitars in Spain during the late 19th century, and his instruments are the first that we consider modern. The bodies on his instruments were slightly bigger, and the braces on the underside of the top were arranged in a fan.



While electric guitars may feature gorgeous wood on the top, the back and sides of a classical guitar are often the most beautiful. Below is my guitar, built in 2009 by Michael Thames.




Most professional level classical guitars - called "concert guitars" - are custom shop jobs. They are built specifically for one person, and you choose a guitar builder based on the features you want. Some builders specialize is construction methods that are a bit unorthodox or strange. Check out the inside of this "lattice braced" guitar.



The tops on these guitars are extremely thin (you could puncture it with your finger), and that black stuff inside is carbon fiber. Another popular construction method today is a "double top". These guitars have a thin top, then a layer of honey-comb style material called Nomex, then another thin top is glued on the other side. Here builder John H. Dick shows off the inside of his guitar tops (towards the end).



There's a lot out there in the world of classical and nylon-strung guitars, and it's well worth exploring.



Christopher Davis

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll

guitarz.blogspot.com:

By our guest blogger, Alexis Bonari

In the world of country, where acoustic instruments have ruled for decades, electric guitar, mandolin and banjo are inching their way into this predominantly unplugged arena that frowns upon change. Since the seventies, bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers have ridden the line between country and rock, creating their own type of sound that caught on like wildfire by using electric instruments. This sound influenced country's rebels like Waylon Jennings and Jessi Coulter, angering many country fans while creating a brand new breed of music and followers.

Ticking Off the Old Timers

Some of the country music elders have been outraged by artists like Shania Twain for her use of electric guitar, overproduction and a sound that wasn't considered "country” thanks to her (at the time) husband, Mutt Lange, who produced albums for groups such as Def Leppard and AC/DC. Mutt and Shania fused her country sound with electric instruments and a belly-baring rockin' look that exploded up the charts and sold out stadiums around the world. Reigniting country brought millions of new fans into a world that had become stagnant and paved the way for newcomers who wanted to incorporate electric instruments into their music but were too afraid to be shot down.

Metal Catches On

Just as electric guitar has made its mark on country, eighties metal hair bands were also influenced by country's acoustic sound and the effect that a simple acoustic guitar and a microphone had on their audience. Poison's "Every Rose has its Thorn” and dozens of other metal bands had their signature acoustic song that made them millions and brought tears to their fans.

Breaking Down Walls

Other top bands in their own right like ZZ Top and Heart, have just recently been embraced by country's hottest rising stars, expanding country's acoustic sound into a whole new arena of electric instruments. Taylor Swift who was featured on CMT's Crossroads with Def Leppard is a great example of why country rock is hotter than ever thanks to a little electricity!

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online degree programs. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Photo: The American country singer/guitarist Taylor Swift, with her Taylor acoustic guitar made of Acacia koa wood, at the Maverick Saloon & Grill in Santa Maria, California, June 16, 2006 by Dwight McCann / www.DwightMcCann.com.

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Rare Heartfield EX-2 electric guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hey folks, Its Ben from All About Guitars

Built in 1989 in Japan (Fuji-Gen Gakki), possibly a prototype because it differs from print advertising of the time as well as the catalog photo in terms of switch placement, scaled down strat-style body with 22 fret set-in maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.

Alder body with spectacular two piece bookmatched gray flamed maple top.

Original electronics included three single coil pickups with 3 way strat-like switching and two mini-switches with volume, tone, and midrange boost knobs.
Bridge is a Gotoh licensed Floyd Rose clone.

Tuners were also non-locking Gotohs (guitar has a locking nut).

The neck has large jumbo frets and is a pleasure to play.

Hardshell case with crushed velvet that matches the color of the guitar.

This guitar is for sell on ebay Heartfield EX-2

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

KTone Lucite headless bass

My name is Scott Gentzen and I'm another guest blogger here at the Guitar Blog. I was drawn to this blog by its pictures of fabulous vintage oddball European guitars with much knob and switch goodness. I also have a thing for horrible design, modern designs with interesting new ideas, and mangled beat up vintage guitars. I haven't been as productive as the other guys yet, but will do what I can.

Speaking of which, here's my first entry....

KTone lucite fretless bass

This thing apparently is new and unplayed, but definitely has that 80s vibe with the small body and no head. The clear lucite body is a bonus. No holes in it though. I'm not a bass player but if it was a guitar I don't know if I'd even be able to play this...with the small body and no headstock but it looks way cool.

self playing robot band

Hey its Ben from All About Guitars again
The Trons is New Zealand's band made of four robots who play guitars, drums and keyboard to convincing effect.
Ham is the frontman (vocals, rhythm guitar), Wiggy is the lead guitarist, Swamp is the drummer & Fifi is the keyboard player.

1982 G&L SC-2

The following is an article written by Glynn from the Generally Electric guitar blog, and concerns an unassuming-looking but highly desirable guitar from the genius that was Leo Fender:

G&L was founded by George Fullerton and a certain Leo Fender in the late 1970s following the deterioration of Fender’s relationship with Musicman, and the SC-2 was one of G&L’s earliest production guitars.

They’re perhaps best known as Bob Mothersbaugh of Devo’s guitar of choice but, for me, inspiration came from early Helmet and Band Of Susans records. The latter even used SC-1s, customised with pick-guards, in their album photography and on posters, apparently catching the attention of Leo Fender himself. Nevertheless they remain a relatively obscure guitar.

Being of rather Spartan design, the SC models are often thought of as “student” or "economy" guitars, though I’ve heard a conflicting story along the lines that G&L's intention was to produce a reasonably priced, high quality US built instrument to compete with inexpensive instruments from the Far East. Whatever the motivations, the SC’s utilitarian appearance is perhaps an acquired taste and, possibly as a result of this, it was never a terribly popular guitar. In fact, by 1984 the body shape had been completely re-designed, supposedly at the behest of a G&L sales team who were struggling to convince buyers with the original design.

Nonetheless, there's nothing budget about the construction, specification or tone of these guitars. Body, neck and fingerboard are all of high quality maple, while the hardware and Magnetic Field Design pickups are the same as those used on G&L's more expensive guitars. In fact the only area where any obvious financial savings have been made in the guitar's construction, other than the function over form design, is the use of fairly cheap looking plastic tone and volume controls which, if the owner found them particularly offensive, could be replaced for pocket change. Really, the SCs remain an outstanding example of how to make a no-frills affordable guitar, and it's a shame that, these days, manufacturers concentrate their efforts on making their entry level instruments ape the slick appearance of their pricier models, rather than focusing on build and component quality.

Ultimately, only around 600 SC-2s were made, and the registry at G&L owners’ site Guitars by Leo records only 100 or so, many of which have been modified to varying degrees, and often to their detriment. Mine, a lucky eBay find, was no exception, but too good an opportunity to miss all the same.

On first opening the case the smell of paint was overpowering. It had been treated to a rather uneven spray-can paint job and the fretboard, including the fret wire itself, had been varnished with a brush. Worse yet, there was a tellingly humbucker shaped indentation between the two original pickups and, more tellingly still, the control plate had two additional holes drilled into it.

With the SC-2’s rare-bird status in mind, I decided to set about restoring my SC-2 to its original condition, or as close to it as possible. This began with the painstaking task of gently removing the excess varnish from the fret wire with a razor blade and cleaning the tarnished hardware with Brasso. I then managed to source a replacement control plate from a 1983 SC-3 body I found on eBay.

Having never refinished a guitar before, and concerned about what I’d find under the existing paint, I decided to let a professional finish the job. In the end, I settled on David Ridgeway of Ridgeway Guitars who, over the course of a couple of months, made me very grateful I didn’t try to do the work myself.

Having stripped the spray paint, David discovered an unevenly gouged hole between the pickups which had been filled with soft putty. Having removed the putty, he re-routed the hole and then filled it with a properly sized block of maple. After sanding and priming, the guitar was finally finished in blue.

Oddly, as this work was being done, G&L re-issued the SC-2 in updated form. Well, actually G&L say that it’s “not a re-issue” and is, in fact, an “evolution”, but I think their efforts to evolve the design have robbed it of all the charm that made the original truly special. If you want one, my advice is to keep your eye on eBay in the US and buy the real deal.

Handmade Pickguards By me!

[Ben writes...]
pickguards made of wood for all kind of guitars:

My Third Electric Guitar Project

[Ben writes...]

My Third Electric Guitar Project
I rebuilt 90's "Maison" made in Korea electric guitar.
This one is for my little brother that just learning to play on guitar.

Guitar Body: Sandvich.
Guitar Neck: Maple.
Bridge: Vintage style.
Guitar Tuning Machines: Plain.
Pickups: H-S-H Maison.

Pictures of the guitar:






for more visit: All About Guitars & Guitars 110

My second electric guitar project

[Ben writes...]

This guitar was a 70's "Harmony" made in U.S.A "strat" style electric guitar
Almost A year I had work on this one!
Body: Alder.
Neck: Maple.
Bridge: Gotoh.
Tuners: Gotoh.
Pickups: Seymour Duncan Jazz, SSL1 - Middle/Neck.




The idea for this shape came to me from the funk rock band "The Offspring" Sign:



For videos and more pics: http://guitars.110mb.com/index.php?p=1_11_Second-Guitar-Project

My first electric guitar project

Hey there, I'm Ben from All About Guitars and Im gonna keep this blog rocking!
First I'll introduce u to my website: Guitars 110 .

lets begin...
my first electric guitar project:
I started from an unknown 70's japanese "strat" style guitar, named "Stiefel".
And here are the features:
Guitar Body: Many pieces of different woods.
Guitar Neck: Maple.
Fretboard: Rosewood Scalloped.
Pickups: Fender Made In Mexico.
and here are the pictures of the guitar:




After a week, I'd made a pickguard from wood:




sound check: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=71RPJR7Y

My Guitar (by Gary)

I only have one electric guitar and this is it, an early '90s ESP Telecaster. The pups are all supposed to be Seymour Duncans, though I haven't disassembled it to find out. It doesn't matter though, because it sounds and feels great. There's loads of versatility from the 5 way switch and coil tap on the bridge pup (an SD Jeff Beck) (7 combinations, I think) It also feels great - well worn and well used. I've had this for less than a year - I bought it after i was loaned it when my Koreacaster broke for the second time.

Casio Synth Guitars

Casio synth guitar

Ah yes, the constant quest for the sound of tomorrow - the synth guitar. There have been many advances since these Casio's were produced - though I know Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead (Best Band In The World) used a Casio MG510 for a while. I've never played a synth guitar, but of course with midi pickups and everything it is much easier these days to get a realistic and responsive system - Garcia and Phil Lesh of the Dead also used them - I remember seeing The Dead at Wembley and Garcia's trumpet playing was stunning. This one is here, with the added advantage that you can type in the numbers "07734", turn it upside down and say "hello"!


This is the one that Bob Weir played for a while - the MG510

Groovy Guitar

I suppose if you're going to plough the lonely furrow of guitar playing, you might as well plough it with a guitar that's been, you know, ploughed. Apparently the grooves provide increased resonance.

Info from Blueberry: All Blueberry guitars are handmade and hard carved on the Island of Bali. Bali is home to the most gifted woodcarving artists in the world, whose traditions go back for thousands of years. Once our guitars are completed, they are sent to Montreal where tuners are added and final setup, inspections and adjustments are made. Prior to this project there had never been a guitar produced on Bali Island. It took twenty months from the conceptualization of Blueberry guitars in August 2005 until our Master Luthier agreed that our guitars were perfect and had his approval to be sold. Here

Tin Telecasters

(Not really!) I know that GL has posted about Trussart guitars before, and he left me this Ganja Telecaster to watch while he's away. I'm not sure if you need to be high to play it or if playing it will get you high, but it is a very nice guitar.

My friend Bad Bob Bates of local beat combo The Bandits has many nice guitars (he builds some himself) one of which is this Trussart Steelcaster.


The Bandits mainly play in pubs and Bob is a little worried about taking his expensive guitar out and about. We're sharing the bill at a charity gig later this month and he is seriously considering bringing the Trussart out to play. I hope he does!

Here's Bob's collection.

More Metal Mayhem?

More guitars from the Talbo comments - here's a new archtop aluminium guitar from Normandy Guitars - I think they look really cool, and as they are semi-acoustic they don't weigh much more than, say, a Les Paul. There's some videos here.

Talbo Time

In the comments to the Talbo post below, BigRedX pointed us to his own Talbo twins.

He says: "Both bought from Japan; the Talbo Jr (with a built-in amp and speaker) in 2002 from a small music shop in Osaka on my last trip out there and the bass earlier this year from Ishibashi on the web"

Nice score Red, thanks for sharing!