The guitar has a very long and detailed history. The early details are quite sketchy, though. Many people believe that the guitar originated in Spain but its existence can't be dated back past the 15th century. The earliest instrument was designed as a four-course stringed instrument. It used 4 sets of strings tuned at different melodic intervals. Each set of strings consisted of 2 strings tuned at the same or at different notes. The ukelele and other modern stringed instruments were derived from these older types of guitars.

During the Renaissance, the guitar was not as respected as it is today. It had a fierce competitor in popularity, the lute. The guitar was not taken seriously in this time period. Eventually, after a few people had started composing with the guitar, the idea picked up and more people started publishing guitar music.

In the Baroque period, a 5th course was added to the guitar. This now meant that there were 5 pairs of strings to use. This lead to new melodic and rythmic ideas with a broader range than its predecessor. The 5th course was tuned in one of three ways:

1. Low "A"
2. Low "A" with the second string in the course tuned to a higher octave (A)
3. Both strings tuned "A" to a higher octave than modern guitar tunings

To play Baroque style music, a guitarist must replace strings frequently to play different pieces, or they must own more than one instrument. At the close of the Baroque period, the courses were removed and replaced with a single string. Also, instead of 5 strings they added a 6th while still keeping the strings single.

The classical period was when the guitar gained its full modern day popularity. There were many composers and live performers that gained much social acceptance for the guitar. Many of the classical composers also took up guitar as a second instrument. Stradivarius and Paganinni are two examples of classical-era guitar players. Near the close of the 19th century, the guitar was losing popularity but it was quickly revived by Francisco Tarrega. Francisco also started the tradition of playing the classical guitar with long fingernails that must be grown by the player.

Also during this era, luthiers, or guitar makers, experimented with new ideas to help improve the guitar. Antonio de Torres expiremented with the size and shape of guitars and did anything he could to help improve the natural sound of the guitar. He also discovered that the top of the guitar is mostly responsible for most of the volume produced. He did this by making a guitar with a spruce top and a paper mache back and surprisingly, it worked. He is considered the father of the modern guitar because of his work and experimenting.

Modern guitars have changed from their ancestors. Nylon strings were one of the biggest modern achievements. Originally, entrails, or intestines, were used for strings. In 1946 that was changed when nylon strings were first used. They lasted long and gave a louder, clearer sound and sustain. Electric guitars are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, achievements of modern music. Before this invention, all guitars were acoustic and relied and a sound hole to project the sound out of the guitar. These could not get any louder than they already are so problems were found obviously. With the electric guitar, it is plugged in and pickups relay the sound to an amplifier. This amplifier does actually what its supposed to, it amplifies the sound to a user defined volume. This means that you could now play your guitar very loud or very quietly at your discernment. Electric guitars are also set up differently. Modern guitars have a lower action, or the height of the strings over the fretboard. Another advancement would be the use of guitar effects. Guitar effects are produced from rack mounts or pedals with a microchip in them that the sound passes through before reaching the amplifier in the chain. This makes the sound change to whatever paremeters the pedal or effect rack is programmed to do. There are many types of effects and racks that have a wide range of cost and efficiency. Many other things have been created such as active pickups, which are pickups that are live and run on a 9 volt battery placed underneath the pickup, and synth pads and pickups that use MIDI patches to add unique sounds to your guitar. Steel strings are also being used now. Another modern advancement would be the use of piezo pickups. They are pickups that can readily simulate an acoustic guitar's natural sound. There are many more modern advancements from the guitar. Shown above is only a small selection of what this wonderful instrument can have and do.