Baroque guitar

Baroque guitar
Baroque guitar built by Matteo Sellas,
c. 1630–50
String instrument
Classification String instrument (plucked)
Hornbostel–Sachs classification321.322
(Composite chordophone)
Developed17th century
AttackFast
Related instruments
Musicians

The Baroque guitar (c. 1600–1750) is a string instrument with five courses of gut strings and moveable gut frets. The first (highest pitched) course sometimes used only a single string.[1]

  1. ^ Harvey Turnbull, The Guitar (From The Renaissance to the Present Day) (3rd impression 1978), London: Batsford (ISBN 0 7134 3251 9), p. 15: "Early lutes, vihuelas and guitars share one important feature that would have been of practical concern to the player; the frets, unlike the fixed metal frets on the modern guitar, were made of gut and tied round the neck" (Chapter 1 - The Development of the Instrument).