guitar

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guitar summary

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Arts & Culture

guitar

musical instrument

Also known as: guitar, acoustic

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Feb 16, 2024 • Article History

Venetian guitar

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Category: Arts & Culture

Key People:: Bruce Springsteen; Hector Berlioz; Neil Young; Prince; José Feliciano

Related Topics:: bass; slide guitar; classical guitar; bragha; machada

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guitar, plucked stringed musical instrument that probably originated in Spain early in the 16th century, deriving from the guitarra latina, a late-medieval instrument with a waisted body and four strings. The early guitar was narrower and deeper than the modern guitar, with a less pronounced waist. It was closely related to the vihuela, the guitar-shaped instrument played in Spain in place of the lute. The guitar originally had four courses of strings, three double, the top course single, that ran from a violin-like pegbox to a tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or belly; the bridge thus sustained the direct ...(100 of 749 words)

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