History of the Acoustic Guitar:
While acoustic guitar have been around for almost 1,000 years, the modern acoustic guitar, also referred to as the flat top guitar, has only been around since the 1840′s by many luthiers. The most famous of these steel string luthiers was C.F. Martin. At this time the strings were made from gut and the volume and tone was somewhat lack luster as compared to today’s guitar.
It wasn’t until the advent of the steel strings that the acoustic guitar really blossomed. The addition of the higher tension steel strings gave the instrument much greater volume and much different tone.
C.F. Martin Introduced The Steel String Acoustic Guitar
Because the steel string excerpted over twice the tension as that of gut strings, C.F. Martin was forced to design heavier bracing. This evolved into what is now known as the ‘X-bracing’ and is still in use today. This X-bracing replaced the much more fragile fan bracing that was the traditional bracing for classical guitar tops.
Most of these design changes took place in the early 20th century by the C.F Martin Company. The basic size of the first steel string guitar began with the 00 size, which roughly approximated the classical guitar shapes of the day.
Introduction Of The Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar:
Then in 1931 Martin introduced what they call the Dreadnought size guitar. The first models were called the D-1 and D-2. This shape was a startling departure from the smaller parlor shaped guitar of the day and generated many other significant design changes.
