Music is a vital part of our culture, and no instrument has shaped the growth of music through modern history as much as the guitar. But what’s the history of the guitar, how did it develop to become the electric guitar and become the iconic symbol of musical genres such as jazz, blues, and rock and roll?

Although much of the early history of the guitar is unclear, stringed instruments have been a component of society for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of the existence of the guitar dates back to the Mesopotamian and Babylonian Empires.

Medieval Spain is where guitar history first began taking shape, but it wasn’t until the 20th Century that it really grew into its own instrument. By the 1790s, Spanish guitars with six courses of strings began resembling a modern guitar. This is where guitar history really gets going, and the innovations start to advance. By the beginning of the 19th century, guitars resembled the instruments of today.

Today, the flat top guitar continues to be the most attractive form of the acoustic guitar. Christian Frederick Martin, a German-born American luthier created a guitar body which was able to handle the extra stress generated by modern steel strings. The tight steel strings produced a different style of playing that made use of a pick. This radically changed the type of music that could be made on steel-stringed instruments, and the precise and defined melodies of the classical guitar were substituted by brighter, chord-driven music.

Regardless of the developments to the steel stringed guitar, musicians found that guitar was simply too quiet for multiple forms of music. Due to this, by the jazz period, the guitar was assigned to a second-tier instrument, and brass instruments and the saxophone took on a notable role in bands. The guitar became a rhythm instrument and was destined to disappear as a solo instrument until Adolph Rickenbacker, a musician who in 1932, finally developed the electric guitar.

The electric guitar developed further with the help of names like Les Paul who is credited as the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, Leo Fender who built the first commercial solid-body electric guitar with a single electromagnet and Gibson who developed a guitar that could be played either as a steel-stringed acoustic or could be plugged into an amplifier and be played as an electric guitar.

By 1955, the electric guitar had flourished, and developments like the use of cranked amplifiers, power chords, effect pedals, and so on, would take over modern music and lead to the rise of countless genres of popular music.

Guitars have since held their influence as the most famous instrument of popular music in general. Though determined modifications continue to improve the shape, sound, and importance of the guitar, it seems certain that the essence of the instrument with such a rich history will remain to play a key part in the music of tomorrow.

If you’re looking to buy a guitar in Malta, then visit Olimpus in Mosta. Click here to check out our online store to view our stunning range of electric, acoustic, and bass guitars.

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