Who Invented the Guitar?

No one really knows who invented the guitar. A guitar is a string musical instrument, with a rounded body, a neck, and usually six strings, which are plucked or strummed. Many think it evolved from the lute, but it is more like the lute’s cousin.

To know who invented the guitar, you must go back to ancient civilizations. Bowl harps and tanburs are the earliest known stringed instruments.

• Bowl harps were made of a tortoise shell, a bent stick, and string made of gut or silk.
• Tanburs are depicted in Egyptian stone carvings from 4000 years ago. The tanbur had a straight neck, allowing more notes to be played.

Evidence of similar instruments was also found in early Mesopotamian and Persian cultures. Some survived to modern day without many changes. These include the setar (Iranian), tamburitsa (Balkan), panchtar (Afghan), saz (Turkish), and bouzouki (Greek).

A tanbur was found in an Egyptian tomb from 3500 years ago. The Roman cithara was invented around 40 A.D. The oud was invented by the Moors based on the cithara and they brought it to Spain. Europeans added frets and it was called a lute.

In the 13th century, there were two kinds of instruments that were very much like our modern day guitars.  These were the Latin guitar and the Moorish guitar, and they had four strings.    

Baroque Period (1600-1750) 

Guitars of the Baroque period were smaller than modern day guitars. They had four courses, or double strings, and did not have an open sound hole. The lute was considered a superior instrument to the guitar. Since it had more strings, you could play more notes on it so therefore, you could perform more complex compositions.  A fifth course was added to the guitar later in this period.

Classical Period (1750-1815)

By this time, guitars had single strings instead of double, and there were six of them. The first guitars made with six single strings were built in Italy. Soon, they were being copied in all parts of Europe. During this period, there were many guitar performances and the guitar became quite popular.

Who Invented the Guitar?

Many historians believe that in 1779, Italian Gaetano Vinaccia invented the guitar.  However, there was one major improvement yet to come along. At this time in history, the guitar was small and not very loud. 

Antonio Torres Jurado (1817-1892) wanted to improve the sound of the guitar and increase its volume. He thought that most of the volume came from the top of the guitar. He made the guitar bigger and supported the top with a fan brace. That was the beginning of the modern guitar.

The Electric Guitar

When you wonder who invented the guitar, you might also wonder who invented the electric guitar. Adolph Rickenbacker, in 1931, created one of the first companies to make musical instruments. He made the Rickenbacker Electro Instruments. These were the first electric guitars. 

George Beauchamp was significant in their development. He wanted to make the guitar louder and, with the help of John Dopyera, found a way to attach a resonator to the bridge of the guitar. Beauchamp and Rickenbacker also manufactured a guitar with a metal body. So, Rickenbacker, Beauchamp, and Dopyera all had a hand in the invention of the electric guitar, but most people give the credit to Rickenbacker. It was patented in 1936.

Interesting Facts

Spanish guitars, also called "Classical" guitars, were invented in Seville in the 1850’s. Segovia was the first guitarist to perform in a concert hall.

In the 1940s, Albert Augustine’s company began making the first nylon strings for the classical guitar. These replaced strings made of silk or animal gut, were more durable, and produced more volume.

The guitar may have evolved from the Greek “kithara,” even though it resembles a harp more than a guitar. The word “guitar” is also very similar to the Spanish word “quitarra.”