Ever since I was young I wanted to be a musician. I never made it to the pinnacle, but I did become a local legend in Nashville and you can be assured, the greatest rockin' guitar masters, the best there's ever been. Sounds like I'm quoting from the Charlie Daniel's song 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia' which hit the charts in 1979 and was originally written by Vasser Clements. That features the devil and his fiddle and we're going to a talk a bit about guitars and how it's possible they changed into today's electric guitar.

When you have an image of a guitar in your head, do you have a brand name in mind? For me it's the Gibson guitar and the very first one (wish I owned it) appeared in 1936 and was called the ES-150. Still you hear about it and, there are people who'll lay good money down and say,... 'That's the best sound you'll ever get from a guitar.

Without a doubt; the guitar in all its incarnations, whether acoustic or the electric guitar has seen a lot of evolution through the ages, and its past is a twisted journey to follow. There is evidence (though not iron clad) that purports that the guitar from Spain is descended from the Romans and dates to 400 AD. It wouldn't have looked much like today's version, being called a Tanbur a lute like instrument from the Middle East, usually having three strings; however it seems more likely our modern electric guitar may have sprung from the Cithara. The cithara, which has from three to twelve strings, was constructed with a wooden soundboard, box shaped body (resonator) and that doesn't sound too far from our electric guitar of today.

What probably happened is that some talented person of long ago took the best from each, weaving his own ideas into the musical instrumentwhat would become the guitar|. Of course the world was different then and the way ideas, concepts and crafts were communicated, travelled slowly and probably would have taken generations to cross from one region to another. Today they would be called street musicians, long ago they hailed to the name troubadours.

The ancestor of the guitar, whatever its form continued to adapt to the times and refine itself and in 1200 AD gradually became the instrument with rounded back and wide fingerboard (probably Moorish) and another which is the distant relation of the modern day acoustic guitar (probably Spanish or Latin).

The guitar never left the scene of a good celebration, however it was overshadowed for many years by the vihuela and lute, which eventually became too complicated to play and tune, and those musical minds of long ago looked to the four and five string guitar, which again garnered its rightful place in history. The fifth string giving the guitar its rock solid (excuse the joke) reputation, versatility and longevity.

Turning our gaze backwards into the long ago past, we can realize the many twists and turns, and certainly no one back then (hey electricity hadn't even been invented) could see the current instrument it has evolved into. Yet those master craftsmen built something of beauty, integrity and a bit of magic, since the design of the modern guitar very much resembles those made one hundred and fifty years ago.