Guitars one of the oldest instruments and have been played since the 15th century. The CST looks back at the history of the guitar and some iconic songs everyone should know: from ¨Smells Like Teen Spirit¨ and ¨Thunderstuck¨ way back to Pink Floyd and The Beatles. 

The first ever guitar was made in Spain way back in the 15th century.  Made from wood they put four strings like a bass but two  strings have the same tune and the other two strings have a different tune. If we look at the first guitar, it will resemble the ukulele. But the guitar didn’t really begin to grow popular until the late 15th century and then everyone has either favored it or played one. The Belchior Diaz Vihuela is considered the oldest guitar in the world going back to 1581. But as everyone knows the guitars were all acoustic because there was no electric stuff in the 15th century.

The first 6th string guitar was made in the year 1779. Almost 200 years later an Italian male, Gaetano Vinaccia, was working on something and then created the first ever six string guitar. Gaetano Vinaccia was a stringed instrument maker who was born in 1759 and died in 1831. Ever since that everyone ditched the four string and got the 6th string acoustic. There is one problem with it. It was way too fat and wide so that when you played it, it felt so uncomfortable. It looked like an hourglass. But it was better to play and  then came standard tuning which is EADGBE. People at that point were playing it a lot to make folk songs.

After 58 years,  Antonio de Torres Jurado, a Spanish guitarist was thinking of how he could make the guitar better than it originally was. In 1817, he made it the first modern acoustic guitar. This is the new shape because it people still make it and have the same design more than 200 years later. Kurt Cobain, Greenday, Blink 182. All have acoustic guitars and the shape has changed the guitar forever. If you own an acoustic guitar then you have the modern shape. Any song that has an acoustic guitar is a modern model. 

Flash forward 115 years into the further from 1817. Adolph Rickenbacker was an electrical engineer who immigrated from Switzerland in the year 1891 after his parents death.  Who knew when he immigrated he would make one of the best inventions in the world. When he first made it, many of jazz bands would buy it because jazz was the most popular song genre during the 30s. But if Adolph didn’t make the electric guitar then ¨Thunderstruck,¨ ¨Smells Like Teen Spirit,¨ ¨All The Small Things¨ would not have ever happened. 

The guitar has undergone some great changes from its original matter. But we can all thank them for changing music history forever and realize how great music came from the 15th century to present day.