“A Guitar A Day”

Installment #3 – the Classical Guitar

The Classical Period - Approx. 1750-1820

And then there were six. Six single strings to be exact. This guitar looks like a modern guitar with a smaller body. Look, the mustache bridge is still there. I know we’ve seen plenty of mustache bridges, but this is the last generation for these guys - bummer. The neck is quite substantial in girth and size while the body remains small in comparison. It tends to be a top-heavy guitar for that reason. It took me a few rehearsals to get used to the weight distribution. Lawrence K Brown built this guitar. It’s a ladder barred guitar (ladder bracing is a specific design for bracing the inside of the guitar) after Rene Lacote, pre-1850. It has bird’s eye maple for sides and back, a black stained maple neck, raised ebony fingerboard, a spruce top, ebony and holly binding, and an ebony mustache pin bridge. This guitar would have been played in the Classical and Romantic eras. I have noted the Romantic era as beginning approx. 1820 but the next generation of guitars did not surface until the mid 1800’s. This guitar is an example of a European classical/romantic era guitar. Tomorrow I will show you an example of a 19^th century American Guitar that straddled the romantic and modern eras.

Of course, the six single string guitars didn’t come out of thin air. Evidence indicates that guitarists had long since been experimenting with the number of strings on their guitars as well as the number of strings per pitch. The fact is that there were four different guitars in existence during the 18^th century. They included the five-course, the six-course, the five-string, and the six-string guitar. Six single string guitars became universal in the 19^th century spreading all throughout Europe and the American continent. The sixth string was added in Italy and France towards the end of the 18^th century and Spain around 1800. Please be sure to read more about this subject in a book titled “A Concise History of the Classical Guitar” by Graham Wade. You’ll find this information on page 65. 

While having six single strings was becoming standard, guitar construction and performance techniques were lagging behind. There are two significant names attached to the revolution of guitar construction and performance practices; Antonio de Torres, and Francisco Tarrega. Their stories are coming up later this week! Stay tuned for day four when I reveal the Romantic Era parlor guitar!

Check out pictures of the front and back of a Lacote Guitar and a beautiful sound sample as well! Notice the design of the bridge on this guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgPq_PM7SHA

Here is also a link to the Thomas Heck article that I referred to with information on the evidence of the earliest six-string guitar.

http://www3.uakron.edu/gfaa/stalking.html

Here’s a performance by Alex Timmerman on a guitar from the 1830’s. His guitar is much fancier than mine! He has additional frets on top of his guitar. Also, notice the modern tuning machines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-xkHcpbNZk