History of the Guitar This instrument has been around in the music world for thousands of years. Scholars debate on the specifics of when exactly the first guitar was introduced in the world, and also what ancient instrument the guitar most clearly drew its roots from. Some scholars suggest that the ancient lute, or even potentially the Greek kithara could have been the instrument that the guitar evolved from. Although, Dr. Michael Kasha conducted some research in the 1960's that seemed to disprove this hypothesis. He concluded that the lute led to a separate line of instruments, having similarities to the guitar, but not being the direct ancestor. http://www.mateus-lutes.com/renaissance.html Many sources indicate that the guitar first received notable recognition in the Mediterranean area (places like Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Spain, etc.) during the Renaissance time period. During this time, these countries introduced the guitar to many different regions of the world while exploring and conquering different parts of the earth. This is when the guitar truly started to rapidly increase in popularity among different cultures. The guitar also has gone through several different alterations throughout its lifetime to have made it to where is truly is today. Very early guitars started with only 4 strings and had a much different body than what we see today with the 6-string guitar. After hundreds of years of development, the 6-string guitar finally emerged. Around 1832, Antonio Torres, a Spanish guitar maker, increased the size of guitar, and increased the amount of strings to 6. These alterations radically improved both the sound quality and loudness that could now be produced from the guitar. http://www.guitarinsite.nl/Geschiedenis_eng.php