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Ever since I was just a tyke I knew I'd be a rock and roll star. I never made it rock star status, but I did become a session player in Music City and you can be assured, some of the best rockin' guitar masters, the best there's ever been. All due respect to Charlie Daniels and 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia' that made it mark in 1979 and was originally written by Vasser Clements. that tells the story of Johnny and the Devil and we're taking about guitars and how it's possible they metamorphed into today's electric guitar.

When you have an image of a guitar in your head, do you see a company logo on the guitar? I do it's the Gibson guitar and numero uno (wish I owned it) was made way back in 1936 and was named the ES-150. Still you hear about it and, there are groups who'll lay good money down and say,... 'that was pure heaven.

One thing is certain; the guitar in its many shapes and forms, either acoustic or the electric guitar is a far cry from the first one, and its past is a twisted journey to reconstruct. History records (though not definitive) that purports that the Spanish guitar comes from the Romans and traces its lineage to 400 AD. It wouldn't have looked much like today's version, called a Tanbur which is lute like stringed instrument from Asia Minor and Syria, usually having three strings; however it's likely our modern electric guitar may have orginated with the Cithara. The cithara, having anywhere from three to twelve strings, was constructed with a wooden soundboard, boxy shaped body (resonator) and that my friends doesn't sound too distant from our acoustic or electric guitar of today.

What's likely is that some talented person of the distant past took the best from each, combining his own talents into the musical instrumentwhat would become the guitar|. Of course the world was different then and the way changes happened, travelled at a snail's pace and probably would have taken decades to cross from one area of the world to another. Today they would be called street musicians, long ago they hailed to the name of traveling troubadours.

The ancestor of the guitar, however it may have looked continued to change and refine itself and in 1200 AD had evolved into a guitar with rounded back and wide fingerboard (probably Moorish) and another which is the distant relation of the modern day acoustic guitar (probably Spanish or Latin).

The guitar was always home at celebrations, however it was overshadowed for many years by the vihuela and lute, which would become too complicated to play and tune, and those travelling musicians of yesteryear looked to the four and five string guitar, which claimed its rightful place in the history books. The fifth string giving the guitar its rock solid (excuse the reference) reputation, versatility and long life.

Looking back into history, we can see the twists and turns, and certainly no one back then (hey Edison wasn't even born yet) could envision the eclectic instrument it has evolved into. Yet those music lovers of long ago designed something of beauty, integrity and a bit of magic, since (basically) the design of today's guitar very much resembles those made one hundred and fifty years ago.