History Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides".[1] The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas.[2] A 3,300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of a chordophone.[3] The term guitar is descended from the Latin word cithara but the modern guitar itself is generally not believed to have descended from the Roman instrument. A guitarra latina (left) and a guitarra morisca (right), Spain, 13th century At least two instruments called "guitars" were in use in Spain by 1200: the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) and the so-called guitarra moresca (Moorish guitar). Types Acoustic guitars Renaissance and Baroque guitars
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