While the precise lineage of the instrument is still unclear, historians believe that the guitar is the descendant of the Greek kithara, gittern, lyre, European and Middle Eastern lutes, and the Spanish vihuela.
[3] Juan Bermudo in 1555 published Declaración de Instrumentos Musicales, a treatise containing a section on plucked string instruments.
One of the first major methods published for five-course guitar is Joan Carles Amat's Guitarra Española y Vandola en Dos Maneras de Guitarra, Castellana y Cathalana de Cinco Ordenes,[4] published in 1596.
The guitarra set the modern standard tuning – A, D, G, B, E – for the top five strings that continues to this day.
The balsa brace has a honeycomb pattern and allows the (now much thinner) sound board to support more vibrational modes.