Classical guitar making John Schneider The basis of most "modern" classical guitar designs was developed by Spanish luthier Antonio Torres Jurado in the mid-19th century. Earlier guitars were often smaller bodied (though there are exceptions: Scherzer, Guadagnini, etc.). Torres created a Spanish design, with light materials supported by fan bracing. Torres' fan bracing was influential for modern classical guitars: it consists of wooden strips glued inside the body to provide support and particular deep resonance that is saturated in fundamental. (However, a type of fan bracing was already used before, in some guitars by the Spanish builder Joseph Páges, and after him Louis
Classical guitar strings the main alternative to nylon strings. The three treble guitar strings are made from sheep or cow intestine, referred to as plain gut, while the three bass strings are made of a silk thread core wound with gut. Since the development of nylon guitar strings by Albert Augustine Ltd., the three treble strings are a single nylon filament, while the three bass strings are made of a core of fine nylon threadlike filaments wound with silver-plated bronze or copper wire. Up until the Second World War animal gut and silk were the materials from which guitar strings were manufactured. Albert