Guitar rocks Springfield Museums through April 21

Jan. 24, 2013


"GUITAR: The Instrument that Rocked the World" exhibit at the Springfield Museums features a 43-foot long playable guitar, the largest in the world. Reminder Publications submitted photo

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD — What did the first European settlers bring to North America that was unique: guns, farm tools and guitars, according to HP Newquist, the executive director and founder of the National Guitar Museum.

The hidden history of the world's most popular musical instrument will be in exhibit at the Springfield Museums through April 21.

"GUITAR: The Instrument that Rocked the World," a traveling exhibition of the National Guitar Museum, is seen in two of the museums. The George Walter Vincent Smith Museum features part of the display that details the history of the guitar, while the Science Museum is where many other exhibits will be found, including the world's largest playable electric guitar at 43 feet long.

Newquist said even though more guitars are sold worldwide than all other musical instruments combined, there was no museum dedicated to the instrument. He explained that rather than first build a museum, he decided to put much of the collection on the road at various museums and anticipates a permanent home for the collection to be selected in about five years.

He noted this was the first time the exhibition was split, but he liked the arrangement of having the classic and rare guitarists in an art museum and the displays about the science behind the sound at the Science Museum.

Walking though the gallery, Newquist, a documentary filmmaker and the former editor of Guitar Magazine, certainly showed his own knowledge and passion for the instrument. The evolution of the guitar is traced back to 3000 B.C. when the oldest stringed instruments appeared. The tambor was one of them and was initially made from a dried gourd, he said.

Most of the stringed instruments that led to the guitar came from North Africa and the Middle East, he added.

Newquist said an important jump to the modern guitar is when the lute was modified into the vihuela in the 1400s. The rounded back of the lute made it difficult to hold and play, but the vihuela had the basic shape of a modern guitar, which made it easier to hold.

There was another story that claimed the luthiers who designed the new instrument were inspired by the curves of a woman's body, but Newquist said with a smile, while that story is appealing, it's probably just a legend.

The oldest guitar in the collection is a six-string instrument made in 1806 and it represents the next evolutionary question for the guitar: how to make it louder. The answer was to increase the face of the instrument.

American manufacturing of guitars started with C.F. Martin, an Austrian immigrant who brought his talents to this country, Newquist said. Another American company, Gibson, was also instrumental in building the popularity of the guitar with its L-1 Flat Top, an instrument with a lower price point that was adopted by blues musicians.

The quest for guitarists to be heard above the other instruments in big bands led to the development of the first electric guitar by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker in 1930. The guitar, known as a "frying pan," was a lap guitar.

It was the Fender Telecaster, developed in 1948, which changed the musical world, Newquist said.

"It allowed the guitar to be the loudest instrument in the band," he said.

Leo Fender's other contribution to the musical world was his development of the bass guitar. Newquist said that bass players came to Fender looking for an innovation that would also elevate the volume potential for their instruments.

There are more than 60 instruments in the exhibit and the displays at the Science Museum help explain how and why guitars work as well as highlight noted players from Django Reinhardt to Jimi Hendrix.

There is even an air guitar in the exhibition.

There is a special exhibition fee of $3 for all visitors ages 3 and older to view "GUITAR" in addition to the regular museum admission. General admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and college students, $8 for children ages 3 through 17 and free for children younger than 3 and museum members. This fee provides admission to all four Springfield Museums. Springfield residents receive free general admission with proof of address. The complex is located at 21 Edwards St.

For hours and additional information, call 263-6800 or go to www.springfieldmuseums.org.

Comments From Our Readers: