Ever since I was young I wanted to be a rock and roll star. I never made it rock star status, instead I became a local legend in Nashville and you can bet, some of the best rockin' guitar pickers, the best there's ever been. All due respect to Charlie Daniels and 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia' that made it mark 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 metamorphed into today's electric guitar.

When you have an image of a guitar in your head, do you have a brand name in mind? There's only one for me, it's the Gibson guitar and numero uno (maybe I'll check eBay to see if it's available) was designed in 1936 and was designated the ES-150. To this day, there are people who'll swear,... 'it's still the best sound.

One thing is certain; the guitar in its many shapes and forms, whether acoustic or the electric guitar has changed a lot through the years, and its history is a twisted journey to reconstruct. There is evidence (though not iron clad) that tells us the Spanish guitar comes from the Romans and dates to 400 AD. It would be vastly different from today's version, called a Tanbur a lute like instrument from the Middle East, most often having three strings; however it's likely our present day electric guitar may have sprung from the Cithara. The cithara, which has from three to twelve strings, was constructed with a wooden soundboard, boxy shaped body (resonator) and that doesn't sound too removed from our acoustic or electric guitar of today.

What's likely is that some talented craftsman of long ago took elements from both, weaving his own thoughts into the musical instrumentwhat would become the guitar|. Obviously those were very different times and the way ideas, concepts and crafts were communicated, moved slowly and may have taken years to cross from one area of the world to another. In modern times, they would be called street musicians, centuries ago they hailed to the name troubadours.

What would become the guitar, whatever its form continued to adapt to the times and refine itself and in 1200 AD had become the instrument with a curved back and wide fingerboard (probably Moorish) and a different version which is probably the distant cousin of current day acoustic guitar (probably Spanish or Latin).

The guitar was always home at celebrations, however it was overshadowed for nearly a generation by the vihuela and lute, which would become 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 reference) reputation, versatility and longevity.

Turning our vision backwards into history, we can realize the many twists and turns, and certainly no one back then (hey Edison wasn't even born yet) could see the modern day instrument it has changed into. Yet those music lovers of long ago constructed something of beauty, integrity and a bit of magic, since (basically) the design of today's guitar very much resembles those made one hundred and fifty years ago.