10 interesting facts about guitars

Well, it's 1:30am on a Wednesday night and I can't sleep for love or money, so, to keep my mind off my navel and the gig lined up for Saturday (which is stirring up tremendous excitement within me), I am going to type out a few tidbits of info to do with guitars and their history. I hope you enjoy reading them.


1. The guitars origins are to be found in central Asia and India.
2. The oldest known representation of a guitar being played is a Hittite carving that is almost 3 and a half thousand years old.
3. It is believed that the word 'guitar' has it's origin in Persian. Tar means string in Persian.
4. The Lute, an instrument that no doubt influenced the conception of the modern guitar, was played by the Norse hero Gunther in the Legend of Siegfried. He played it with his toes while dying in a snake-pit.
5. Nigel Tufnel of the band Spinal Tap repeated Gunthers trick in the Movie, "This Is Spinal Tap".
6. Although the guitar is generally strung with six strings, guitars can be bought with as many as 11 strings. 12 string guitars are strung in 6 pairs of octaves. There are also different types of guitars that can have a multitude  of strings tuned to notes as drone strings as with certain slide guitar models, or strings to be plucked without fretting as with Harp guitars.
7. The first electric guitar was built in the 30's.
8.  The composer Franz Schubert composed his music on guitar. He couldn't afford a piano.
9. Leo Fender, Inventor of the Stratocaster and Telecaster, wasn't a guitarist. He played Saxophone.
10. The smallest guitar in the world is 10 micrometers long. It was made by researchers at Cornell University, and when the strings are plucked by an atomic force microscope, they resonate, though inaudibly. 10 micrometers is about the same size as a blood cell, so it stands to reason that only a fairy midget could benefit from the thing's existence.


"Oh boy, Sleep! That's where I'm a Viking!"