Evolution of the guitar

I love music, many genres, many instruments. I am not a great musician but do enjoy playing, singing, and have produced a few songs along the way. The only instrument I can play is the guitar. So a natural choice when responding to the 'Music through history" QT. Kithara ~2000 BCE – 400 CE An ancient Greek stringed instrument related to the lyre. It featured a wooden soundboard, two hollow arms, and a crossbar. It is often considered the earliest conceptual ancestor of the modern guitar. Vihuela 15th – 16th Century A Spanish Renaissance instrument with a figure-eight body shape and a flat back, closely resembling the modern guitar. It typically used six double courses of gut strings and was a favourite of the royal courts. Baroque Guitar ~1600 – 1750 A smaller, narrower-bodied instrument usually featuring five sets of double strings. These were often highly ornate, with intricate ivory or wood inlays and a "wedding cake" decorative rose inside the sound hole. Romantic Guitar Late 18th – Early 19th Century The era that saw the transition from double courses to six single strings. These instruments were smaller than modern ones but introduced features like metal frets, fixed bridges, and standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning. Modern Classical Guitar Mid-19th Century Standardised by luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado around 1850. He increased the body size and introduced "fan bracing" to improve volume and tone, creating the template for all modern nylon-string guitars. Solid-Body Electric Guitar 1930s – 1950s Pioneered by innovators like George Beauchamp (the "Frying Pan") and later refined into iconic mass-produced models like the Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul. These replaced the hollow soundbox with magnetic pickups.